In the life of every nation, there comes a moment when silence becomes betrayal, when denial paints the lips of leaders crimson with blood, and when propaganda destroys faster than bullets. That moment has arrived in Kwara State.
From a circulating WhatsApp voice note credited to Oba Isiaka Sadiku Lawal Ariwajoye Kariola I, the Onisagbe of Sagbe, the lament of a monarch reveals what many already know but government prefers to bury: villages are burning, citizens are fleeing, and once-thriving communities stand as ghost settlements.
Communities in Ruins, Citizens Abandoned
Ologomon, Ajegunle, Iwo-Agbon, Alabe Idera, Owode, Alasoro, Alamon, Bankole, Sagbe, the names now resemble a register of the dead. Places where children once laughed echo only with widows’ cries. Bandits murdered the Igbaja vigilante leader and the chief hunter of Oke-Oke Oluode. Many others fell in their prime.
Homes lie in ashes, livestock rustled, families kidnapped, and survivors scarred for life. No military presence defends these areas. The overstretched police fight without enough arms or numbers. Kwara South suffers, but Kwara North bleeds too, Edu, Patigi, Baruten, Kaiama, Ifelodun, even Oke-Ero. Armed groups march in, strike at will, and vanish into the night. Lata Nna, Lema, Gamalegi have now joined the growing map of sorrow.
Politics Above People
Politicians only value citizens during elections. They kiss babies in daylight while sharpening daggers at night. After ballots are counted, tears no longer matter, blood no longer counts, and cries drown beneath campaign songs.
The legislature, expected to speak for the people, has gone mute. It surrendered its pride when the government forced through the Freedom of Speech Bill. Journalists face threats, editors endure pressure, and newsrooms live in fear. Instead of reporting citizens’ pain, state-owned media produce staged propaganda reels, mocking truth with carefully scripted lies.
Opposition leaders have also failed. They chant empty promises of tackling insecurity but cannot show proof of capacity. Opportunists exploit tragedy as a ladder to power, twisting facts until truth itself becomes hostage.
Leadership Without Empathy
The governor’s body language reflects indifference. Officials react slowly, speak grandly, and act weakly. One wonders if the delay exists because the flames have not reached Kwara Central. Does geography now determine the value of life?
Even party loyalists feel the truth. Bandits never checked party cards before pulling triggers. Billboards cannot cover graves, and slogans cannot heal trauma. The state compensates fire and flood victims yet abandons families destroyed by bullets and machetes. Unlike natural disasters, the scars of banditry remain forever.
Security is a shared duty, but leadership sets the pace. Vigilantes without state backing only become sacrificial lambs. A shepherd who sleeps leaves the flock for wolves.
To leaders and monarchs: remember, power is borrowed, never owned. Pharaoh’s crown did not save him, nor did riches preserve kings of old. History will not ask how many cars you drove but how many lives you saved.
If progress cannot spread, at least let insecurity not erase what communities built through sweat and sacrifice. Kwara is tired of propaganda disguised as policy and leaders who cry crocodile tears in public while feeding on the people’s pain in private.
Kwara bleeds, and history is watching. Citizens may forgive slowly, but graves never forget.
As Chinua Achebe wrote: “A man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself.” To the leaders of Kwara State, the clock ticks. Will history remember you as saviours or as scavengers?
By Prince Salako Lukman Olamilekan
18-08-2025
