Unedited. As it was delivered. Revealing. Deep rooted. Lawyer Kunle Sulyman, first Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in Kwara State opens up on so many issues. His thoughts were brought as we got it. Hot. Sizzling and frank. Enjoy reading the exclusive interview he granted this newspaper. Tell us about your party in Kwara. Back in Kwara, I was fortunate to have been the first chairman of the party at formation in 1999. Today, people are heavily disenchanted about the way that Bukola Saraki is managing the party. His style of leadership is not welcome. This includes the governor if we can call him a governor. I recently read a magazine where he was described as Nigeria’s most powerless governor. It tells you the type of things we are going through in Kwara. It is a shame. The people are tired of all these. The truth and summary is that Kwarans are not happy with Bukola Saraki’s style of leadership. He is a self acclaimed leader. Leadership anywhere in the world naturally emerges. You don’t appoint a leader. You merit leadership by certain things you are doing or have done. People then acknowledge you as such and accept you as their leader. In his own case, he thinks leadership is inherited. His father, Olusola Abubakar Saraki was truly a leader. Immediately his father died, he believes he is stepping into the shoes of his father. He started calling himself leader. I told somebody, you don’t need to call yourself a leader if truly you are a leader. If you are a leader, it will naturally come. Baba Saraki did not call himself the leader. He emerged as a leader. He was chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in Kwara. He went to the Senate and became Senate Leader. All his colleagues call him leader. So, when he comes home, he plays the roles of a leader and thus, it was easy accepting him as the leader. Initially, it wasn’t easy for him. People like late Tunji Oyinloye did not accept him as leader. He will challenge him, Sola, who are you to call yourself leader? You are leader in Senate, you are not leader in Kwara. Somebody like Chief S. B. Awoniyi will not accept that. They have not created Kogi out of Kwara then. He will say, Sola, where are you when I was a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence? When we talk politics of governance, Sola, you have to leave the front seat. That was the situation. Sola Saraki never got annoyed. He will still carry them along. He admits they were older and more exposed than him. But Bukola Saraki came with empty head in terms of ‘poli-thinking’ and politicking. He is empty. He just rodeon his father’s fame. Leadership is far more than that. He hasn’t gotten the qualities of a leader. He is so proud. He will refuse to shake hands with people almost as old as his father. He will sit in a chair and expect everybody to kneel before him. I will want to talk to him and he will expect me to kneel down and talk to him. Because if you don’t kneel down, you cannot talk to him. He has no courtesy. He has no respect. His father as young as I was to him, as soon as he sees you, he will exclaim, “Kunle, mabo mabo,” standing up to shake you, hug you and make you feel like you are doing him a favour. Even if you are against him, the way he will honour you will make the whole grouses against him dissipate. Thisone, he will look at people as if they are not human. This is somebody who is very very empty. I’ve sized him up in discussions. This one cannot be my leader.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:57:44 +0000
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