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By: Tajudeen Habeeb
Famous writer Chimamanda Adichie’s 2018 TED Talk, titled the danger of a single story, hit a salient point about how narratives are skewed to serve partisan ends.
Quoting Palestinian legend Mourid Barghouti, Adichie said ‘if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and start with ' secondly '. If you start a story with ‘secondly’, you never get the full story. If you start a story in the middle, you never get the full story. You have to start the story at the beginning. If you start a story with 'arrows of the native Americans, that's not where the story starts. The story starts when people came to their land’.
Adichie captures our ways as humans: how we twist things or stack the deck to suit our bias. But the irony of our ways is that they often stand in the way of larger good and put everyone in trouble — if we know.
The narrative around the proposed pavilion misses the important point of how the story began — and some patterns that make the whole thing looks like a well-rehearsed lines to hang the government and subtly pitch the Governor against the Emir, including through the sacred minbar where, in stark irony, we end the weekly khutbah with the beautiful admonition of chapter 16:90 of the Qur’an.
I first heard of the pavilion on December 25, 2024 at the forecourt of the Emir of Ilorin during the IEDPU National Conference when a representative of Senator Saliu Mustapha said he was donating the project, which he added would begin soon. My first reaction, evident on my Facebook post was a commendation, 500 million naira worth of pavilion, that's huge. Whether it is a donation or not has recorded its own share of the controversy surrounding the project as it later turned out it was no donation after all.
Between December 25, 2024 and February 8, 2025 when the contractor went to the site, established fact as recorded, affirmed that there is no communication established between them and the state’s regulatory authorities. No application. No approval. Nothing.
The forecourt of the Emir’s palace is a public space with many facilities directly connected to the government of Kwara State. It is a place of huge significance, and if any structure is coming there, it is only appropriate and fair that state authorities are in the know.
Not only was the government totally unaware of the project; it was also excluded when the digging began for the foundation laying of the project. This according to information available. The Kwara State Geographic Service directed immediate stop to the work until appropriate permits are secured.
I heard that efforts are ongoing to fix things within the law. It is a process that should be devoid of emotional blackmail, sabre-rattling, or red-herring — for while some people buckle under pressure and blackmail, it toughens some others to face down the blackmailers, especially if they have done nothing wrong in law and public morality.
Suggestions that KWGIS had acted in bad faith are shocking, dangerous, and portray all of us in a bad light in the comity of states. Equally shocking is the suggestion that the contractor did not seek a permit because they feared that they may not get it. Really? Like I responded on a debate surrounding this issue, that thought in itself would have served as an evidence against KWGIS if the contractor had done the needful. However, there have been instances that state regulatory agencies like Kwara State Public Procurement Agency or KWIRS stopped sister agency from proceeding with some projects because the right protocols have not been followed.
Recently, Kwara State Signage and Advertisements Agency placed its seals on several boards of government agencies for removals. Recent demolitions of structures that offend land administration laws affected some officials of the government. Heaven did not fall. There were no selective outrages, too. That is the right thing, except we are ready for the consequences of subverting building codes for our political preferences.
Framing the issue as A versus B defeats the much-touted campaign for due process and our convenient hate for political bigmanism.
Those who suggested that this ought to be resolved politically since the facilitator, Senator Saliu Mustapha, the Turaki N'geri of Ilorin is a member of the ruling APC do not help the issue. The suggestion is awkward within the context of how SM’s men have related with the government and its officials before and after the incident — perhaps without the knowledge of the Senator. They have been mostly hostile, subversive, and unfair. Inclusive of the opposition who took advantage of the situation without an iota of caution from the distinguish senator's camp.
It is unfair to expect a separate treatment other than the one you extend to others. If we set aside the logic of appropriateness and opt for the logic of consequence to explain the issue, the conduct of these operatives leaves much to be desired.
Those who seek soft landing for going against the law have hardly spared any opportunity to put the government under the bus. When they are not running covert disinformation campaign against the government, they are nudging their friends on the other side to scandalise the Governor and his appointees. And receipts dey, to use the words of Gen Z. Painful. Avoidable.
Politicians mostly engage in subterfuge. But the rule for operatives involved in dirty hand operations is to avoid being caught. These individuals have been caught many times — in the media and in the political space. Expecting a slap on the wrist for what comes across as intentional disrespect for due process, undermining lawful authorities, and playing the hawk against the government you claimed emerged from your party seems to be politically unrealistic and morally questionable. May good reason prevail.
This is my input and I hope it will initiate a viable solution to the entire imbroglio.
Peace!
• Tajudeen Habeeb (Tallest) writes from Idigba.
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