Governor Abdulrahman’s Troubling Obsession with Comparison Amidst Misfortune

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has once again shown his obsession with political comparison, even in the face of tragedy. When questioned recently about his administration’s failure to address insecurity, he invoked the long-resolved Offa bank robbery, attempting to draw a moral equivalence with the current, rampant banditry plaguing the state. This tactic reveals a leader more focused on political justification than on effective governance.

The facts surrounding the Offa robbery are clear and settled by the judiciary. The perpetrators were tried, convicted, and sentenced. Furthermore, the lead perpetrator later confessed to being coerced into implicating Dr. Bukola Saraki. The victims’ families have publicly pleaded for an end to the politicization of their tragedy. Despite this, the Governor persists in exploiting this painful event for his own political defense which is reckless.

This pattern shows that the Governor resurrects the Offa tragedy primarily to divert attention from his own administrative failure. He leverages the memory of the deceased as a shield against accountability, while simultaneously failing to provide adequate security for the living citizens of Kwara.

His implied hierarchy of grief suggesting that the lives lost in Offa are more politically significant than those lost elsewhere is both ethically callous and logically flawed. The value of a human life cannot be measured by the location of its loss. This is especially true when considering the widespread suffering in areas like Kwara North, where communities are under constant threat.

The scale of the crisis is staggering. In a single day in Patigi, bandits killed close to 100 people, a devastating loss that underscores the collapse of security. Alarmingly, the Governor’s administration has attempted to underreport these casualty figures, seemingly to minimize the perceived severity of the attack and obscure the magnitude of his government’s failure.

Public accountability is also lacking. It required significant national pressure to compel the Governor to even acknowledge the attack in Oke-Ode. His decision to attend a social event in another state while Kwara was in mourning created a jarring and disrespectful image, further eroding public trust.

The reality is that the state’s security framework has deteriorated significantly. Bandits operate with impunity, as if the state lacks a functional Chief Security Officer. The Governor’s leadership is often marked by his absence from critical situations, with a visible preference for ceremonial photo opportunities over the demanding, hands-on work of crisis management.

This disregard for substantive engagement was equally evident in the recent local government elections, which were conducted with a notable cruelty and contempt. The process constituted a subversion of democratic principles, effectively robbing Offa and Kwara people of their right to genuine representation, followed by a public relations campaign to legitimize the outcome.

The necessary course of action is straightforward. Governor Abdulrahman must cease his deflective rhetoric and focus his efforts exclusively on governing Kwara. The people require concrete security solutions and competent leadership, not a continual cycle of blame-shifting and irrelevant historical comparisons.

A critical study reveals that the Governor has politically capitalized on two distinct “robberies” in Offa. The first was the tragic bank robbery, which his campaign politicized to gain power. The second was the democratic robbery of the local elections, which he used to consolidate his control over the community, disregarding the will of the people.

Ultimately, when you look at the difference between a leader like Dr. Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulrahman, it is like the difference between light and dark. Saraki, for all his faults, was a leader you could see and feel. Governor Abdulrahman is like a shadow—absent, hard to pin down, and leaving everyone in the dark about what to do next, Governor Abdulrahman has failed to provide the decisive leadership that Kwara desperately needs.