By Wale Ojo-Lanre
Oh! God! Where are you? Where is your kind face? My good God!!! Why should it be him this time again? Why should it be him now? To be ‘afflicted’ with this mission! Yes! Why should he be the next person this ‘affliction’ will fall upon? Why should this happen to this pleasant Senator who has just lost his dearest wife whose soul must be at rest in peace? Yes, I mean Senator Teslim Kolawole Folarin.
But how will I break this news about what is at present hitting him hard and falling upon him which he has no choice but to accept his faith? It is Allah’s doing (Amuwa Oluwa). I hope the people will understand that Allah is the one who controls the acts of men. And whatever happens to a man in this world is not without His knowledge. Allah gives and takes. He enthrones and dethrones. He asks a man to be this and that. It is not gullibility. It is not being a bigot. Allah knows about whatever happens to a man in life.
I hope the people of Oyo State in particular and Nigerians with good hearts will this time around stand by and rally support for Senator Teslim Kolawole Folarin, a third timer in the Senate in this circumstance which fate and perhaps destiny is bestowing on him!
Honestly, I do not know how to convey this message or relay the news. But I must let all I know. And it is rather fortunate what fate has again cast on this Senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District in the Senate.
What has he done to beget this? What has the son of Baale of Ojagbo, Ibadan who studied Political Science at the University of Ibadan done to be afflicted with this? But truly why should this thing now fall on this Ibadan Traditional High Chief who is a respected and highly connected Senator with deep experience in administration in the UK and who is well-grounded in the political geography of Nigeria?
Is this not the man who since his incursion into politics as a Senator devoted his life to serving Nigeria as a nation, Oyo State in general and his Oyo Central people earnestly, diligently and faithfully in particular? Is he not the man who, as the Senate Leader in the 7th Senate, facilitated and assisted other Senators from Oyo State to lure inestimable and several developmental projects, empowerment schemes and prosperous networking and funding for Oyo State people? Is it not the Senator who is by being the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content in the 9th Senate has initiated, moved and sponsored many bills aimed at bolstering the local content quantitative percentage in the energy and oil sector? Is it not the same Senator Folarin who is the rolling trolley of the National Energy Security Bill 2022 which, if passed into an Act, will help to banish the challenges constituting irritants in the energy sector? Is he not the same Senator Folarin who has ensured the lubrication of quality relationship between him and eminent and distinguished personalities in Oyo state irrespective of their political bends?
The same Senator Folarin who will pay homage to Senator Adewolu Ladoja, salute the Olubadan of Ibadan, empathizes with the late Governors of Oyo State’s family, Adebayo Alao Akala and Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi and also recognises the young Turks like Hon Shina Peller, Barrister Lowo Obisesan, Hon Akeem Ademola Ige, Abass Aleshinloye, Lam Adeshina’s son and who has great respect to even his co-Senators from Oyo State?
Is it not Senator Folarin who though committed to the servicing of his immediate Senatorial District but has also taken it as a task and statesman’s responsibility of advancing development initiatives and advancing progressive advocacy for Oyo State as a whole?
Is it not the same Senator Folarin who was elected by the people of Oyo Central Senatorial District but who teamed up with Senator Fatai Buhari, representing Oyo North Senatorial District to raise a motion against the illegal act of the officers of the Nigerian Custom who raided shops of rice sellers in Ibadan and Ogbomosho which led to the victims being compensated?
Is it not the same Senator Folarin who, in the last 24/months, facilitated more than five empowerment programmes and schemes where over 10,000 young men and women from his Senatorial district got their emancipation and liberation from the concrete jungle of unemployment? Is it not Senator Folarin who single-handedly made available 545 poles of Solar Street light in Odo Ona to secure and banish darkness out of that rustic village in the Oluyole local government area? Is it not the same Senator Folarin who facilitated 2,000 unemployed youths from 11 Local Government Areas of his Oyo Central Senatorial District access to training by the National Information Development Agency (NITDA)? Is it not Senator Folarin who granted the sum of N60 million to 1,500 small scale business operators, in Oyo Central Senatorial District to boost their trade?
When fire consumed the roofs of Agodi Auto Parts Traders in Ibadan, was he not the first person to comfort the members of this association by donating multi-million naira roofing sheets to cover their shops? Is it not the same Senator Folarin who thought it wise to bless his alma mater – the University of Ibadan, with a first-class ICT Centre at MacArthur, ICT and Communication Centre?
But it is the same Senator Folarin who also planted another world-class Information and Communication Centre at Methodist High School, Ibadan, Oyo State. The same Senator Folarin was the one who wrote a letter to the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA) for the reconstruction of Shasha Market in Ibadan and also donated cash relief to the victims. The same Senator Folarin sponsored the bill calling for the upgrade of the Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo to a University of Education (Special).
Is it not the same Senator Folarin who empowered 500 Rural Farmers with 55 million naira and also distributed farm implements to them?
The same Senator Folarin donated over 100 Sewing Machines to the Supreme Council of Tailors in Afijio while he also facilitated training for over 200 pig farmers in artificial insemination.
Is he not the same Senator Folarin who has recorded uncountable and innumerable projects ranging from road mending, bridges and culverts fixing and provisions of transformers for some communities in Oyo Senatorial District?
No wonder the almighty Allah is ‘afflicting’ him the onerous task of contesting for the Governorship election of Oyo State so that the whole state can feel his developmental strength.
So why not him? If he can do all these and many others as a distinguished Senator won’t he accomplish more as the Governor of the whole Oyo State? Then he should be the next person to carry the cross to become the Governor of the pacesetter State.
I do not pity him that Allah has visited upon him the ‘affliction’ to contest for the Governor of the whole Oyo State so that the state might be great again.
Why not him? It should be him! TKF! The strategist.
*Ojo-Lanre is from Usi Ekiti (08033490986)
