THE UNCOUTH UTTERANCES OF SEN. SMART ADEYEMI GEARED AT DOWNING THE FRANTIC EFFORTS TOWARDS REVVING PUBLIC SCHOOLS EDUCATION ACROSS KOGI STATE

THE UNCOUTH UTTERANCES OF SEN. SMART ADEYEMI GEARED AT DOWNING THE FRANTIC EFFORTS TOWARDS REVVING PUBLIC SCHOOLS EDUCATION ACROSS KOGI STATE

By Olasehinde Olakunle Idowu, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Let me start this piece by first congratulating Alh. Yahaya Bello on his well deserved award conferred on him by the Sun Newspapers. The Governor of the Year 2020 award given to Alh. Yahaya Bello is not out of place. He has done a whole lot in turning around Kogi State development wise. I also want to believe his stance and firm approach towards COVID-19 that shook the foundations of the world was part of the reason the Sun newspapers deemed it wise for him to be made the winner of the award. I rejoice with the governor and pray for him to succeed in all that his heart desires.

Sen. Smart Adeyemi is an Okun brother of mine from Iyara in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. So many people sees him as a force to reckon with when it comes to knowledge. In fact, he became a popular man in Nigeria when he first made his way to the Red Chambers as a Senator in 2007. Then, every youth from Kogi State and across the shores of Nigeria had the name of Smart Adeyemi on their lips. He was always quick and bold to talk because of the few English words he was able to learn over the years. Before Smart became a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he was fortunate to have served as the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists from 1999-2007. I am still wondering how he was able to be made the President of this noble professional body. His educational career is worth talking about in this piece as it will surely help in driving home my concern. He earned a Post Graduate in Pubic Relations, Diploma in Law, Advanced Diploma in Mass Communications and a Masters in Public Administration. Smart Adeyemi was born on the 18th of August, 1960 meaning he was two months older than Nigeria's independence. He was part of the generation that was privileged to pass through sound education from public schools. However, Smart Adeyemi has shown in clear terms that he will never for once appreciate the public schools he attended that brought him to this point in life. He has also quickly made us to understand that he will not for any reason join the chariot of the progressive sons and daughters of Kogi State extraction trying to bring back the lost glory of public education.

Pharm. Abdulkareem Asuku is the Chief of Staff to His Excellency, Alh. Yahaya Bello the Governor of Kogi State. This young man in his late thirties did not manage to pass through education. All through his academic pursuit, he was never known to be a failure. From my findings, he graduated with a First Class in Pharmacy from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. Asuku attended Abdul Aziz Attah Memorial College, Okene popularly known as AAAMCO. The sound academic activities that was available to Smart Adeyemi who can conveniently give birth to Asuku was not at the disposal of the Chief of Staff but he was able to bend down turning himself into a bookworm till he saw and conquered a course like Pharmacy. Asuku's brilliance and sterling academic prowess and excellent official performance is evident for all to see. And a person like Smart Adeyemi is simply lagging behind him.

My interaction with a friend of mine close to Asuku made me to understand why he decided to embark on Pharm. Abdulkareem Asuku Youth Empowerment Foundation (PAAYEF). He explained to me that aside from the fact that Asuku enjoyed quiz and debating activities while he was in secondary school, PAAYEF was a sword with many edges ready to cut off poverty and address issues revolving around health. It is a foundation that takes care of education, health and empowerment programmes. He made me to understand that the Chief of Staff is simply concerned about helping people especially the youths. It was the angle of attempting to revive the lost activities of education in public schools embarked upon by PAAYEF that Smart Adeyemi kicked against vehemently that has led me to write this. It is an abomination for me to see a wrong and keep quiet over it even if it is coming from a brother.

Now, what is wrong in organizing public school academic competitions across the state? PAAYEF embarked on a Spelling Bee Competition and also a Debating Competition across all the public schools in Kogi State. The grand finale I was made to understand took place at the Government House and the Governor and many of his appointees were in attendance. I was told that a particular debater probably from the Central part of Kogi State could not marshal his points when he saw the Governor and also the crowd of people in attendance. Howbeit, the boy has finally been exposed to a greater world which is enough to make him study hard and become a greater vessel to the entire society. All the schools that made it to the grand finale went home with prizes and some with scholarships. This was how it was done in the days of yore.

To Smart Adeyemi, an academic exercise of this nature that the Governor who will always remain his benefactor attended with many of his cabinet members remains a taboo to the development of education. Smart Adeyemi fried shame and threw caution to the wind  by seeing the educationally loaded event as one that Pharm. Abdulkareem Asuku is using to curry favour from Alh. Yahaya Bello so that he could be made to replace him by 2024. When I read this outburst from an online medium, I could not believe my eyes. I placed some calls to my brothers from Okun and they answered me saying, "Egbon, is it that you are yet to know who Smart is?" I still did not believe Smart's position on the matter. I waited for him to come up with a rejoinder debunking this comment burning like a harmattan wild fire on social media but I did not see anything of such after 24 hours. This made me to conclude that a character like Smart Adeyemi will never change from a bad person he is known to be all along. The most annoying part of it all is seeing some of my Okun people rallying around Smart Adeyemi to applaud his uncouth statement towards shutting the activities of those trying to fertilize education in Kogi State. We the Okuns are descendants of Oduduwa and we are Yorubas. We are known to be genuine lovers of education because we are adjudged the most learned section in Nigeria. How can our brother stain the white clothing we are wearing with much respect with red oil and still, we are clapping our hands for him as if he has won us a laurel?

If Okun land is vying for the governorship seat come 2024 I want to strongly believe that this is not the way to go about it. The East (Igalas) out of their much greed and desire to be like the late Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe led Kogi State for close to 20 years. They never saw the need for any other part of Kogi State to be governor. We all are aware how God miraculously handed over power to the people of the Central. Gov. Yahaya Bello has not done anything bad to the people of Okun since he became governor. His even developmental strides that cuts across the state is on the lips of everyone. Even the Smart Adeyemi suffering from an incurable diarrhoea and dysentery of the mouth partook from the benevolence of Alh. Yahaya Bello if not, Smart Adeyemi would not have made it through to the Senate for the third time. I am still wondering why some of our Okun politicians are this difficult, bereft of knowledge, lacking wisdom, having hatred for all and for themselves and seeing unity of purpose as a crime.

My dear Okun people, I am asking for the umpteenth time, if we want to be governor of Kogi State in 2024, is this how we are to go about it? Is it not a sign of bad omen that Smart Adeyemi is putting before us? Can he as a Senator point to a single achievement as small as mounting a kiosk into Okun land or even the entire West that he is representing? All the business investments that has ever crossed his mind are located in Ilorin, Kwara State. What has Smart Adeyemi done that is worth talking about? Pharm. Abdulkareem Asuku has played a vital role in redesigning the foundation of education in Kogi State and this will remain evergreen in the hearts of the students and even their parents and it is Kogi State and Nigeria at large that will benefit bountifully from this. How many people from Okun land or Kogi State benefited from the huge architectural design of a cake Smart Adeyemi spent millions of naira on bakers to make available for the daughters wedding? The money he used for baking that mountain like cake is more than enough to embark on the same educational programme organized by PAAYEF but his thoughts travelled in a wrong direction. Our own Smart Adeyemi rather decided to dance naked by watering down a programme that is big enough for him to leave behind his flashy cars and jog from Abuja to attend. I have always seen him as a half baked journalist if not, a professional journalist who knows his onions too well would have perched on this PAAYEF programme to praise the Governor, the organizers and also to promote his own self through it. The same shame he plunged Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Ilorin into when he was working with them in the 80's and 90's as a Photographer is what he has done yet again now. Smart Adeyemi as at then impregnated a Senior Colleague of his named Yemisi and the family of the lady together with the Management of NTA forcefully made him to legalize their ill-fated union. We the Okuns cannot be impregnated by the uncontrollable manhood of Smart Adeyemi. The best bet for us is to rise up in unison against him and chart a better course for our upliftment.

I want to implore the Okun nation and the West in particular that like the tortoise known for walking slowly, we have a long journey to make towards becoming the Governor of Kogi State and we have come far in the journey. Smart Adeyemi who is known to be temperamental, brash, rash, banal and brutish in approaching issues should therefore go back and retrace his satanic utterances that has oozed out of his unbridled tongue as he is not representing the interest of the good people of Okun at all. Why will Smart Adeyemi think that it is an easy task for the Okuns to become a governor from the path he is treading? From his myopic and babyish thoughts he did not wish to know what stopped our own brother Hon. Clarence Olafemi from becoming the Governor of Kogi State when he acted for some months as Governor. Are we not supposed to be rubbing the people of the Central on the back and playing the fool till God decides to answer our prayers? I am so sad to also notice that till now no single appointee of Gov. Yahaya Bello from the West and Okun land in particular have come out to rebuke Smart Adeyemi in public for insulting the governor, all his appointees who attended the event, the Ebira, Igala and Okun nations. This is not how to make the powers that be consider us for the highest seat in the state. Smart Adeyemi is that masquerade in Nigerian parlance that has finally entered the expressway showing the whole world how incompetent he is and also his shallow intellectual depth.

Sen. Smart Adeyemi should quickly realize that leadership is not founded on oratory prowess but on how well a leader is able to touch the lives of the many people around him. Pharm. Abdulkareem Asuku talks with wisdom and same time follow up his words with action as a Chief of Staff to the Governor. Being in the Senate is not all about wearing "agbada" and well designed curved "fila." The wearer of the flowing gown and traditional cap should show the people he is representing that his brain is not indomie noodles but the same knowledgeable and active brain that a person in the mold of Pharm. Abdulkareem Asuku is carrying on his medulla oblongata to affect people positively. I have always heard that when imbeciles are yoked together with great men, they always overreact to impress. Smart Adeyemi should better learn to start taming his tongue. What he has displayed so far makes him a dullard which is the exact opposite of his name. He has also made a person like me to start thinking that Adeyemi may likely stand for "Wereyemi", "Iranuyemi", and " Ofofoyemi." It is left for him to prove me wrong that his name is still Smart and Adeyemi put together. Until then, let all those Okun people thinking Smart has done well from his stupid comment hide their faces in shame and rather counsel him to do the needful by apologizing to Kogi State Government and every other people he needed to apologise to. May God bestow greatness on Okun land in due course. 

Thank you.