By Mayan
It is a known fact that the Kwara State Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is a wakaholic individual who hardly eat nor rest.
In the day, he’s moving from one local government to the other, inspecting ongoing projects across the state and in the night, he will bury his head in documents, ensuring that all details are well in place.
This is a governor that would inspect in Patigi in Kwara North, move to Omuaran in Kwara South and then to ilorin in Kwara Central, all within 48 hours.
But again, Governor AA is not just a wakaholic individual, he’s also an ordinary leader, who doesn’t want to live in a world, different from the led. A perfect representative of the society he’s leading, humble, cultural, traditional and modern.
Let me share a story of an encounter with the governor at a suya spot.
It was late night, around 1am one day, after holding series of meetings with some associates in GRA part of ilorin, we head out of the GRA through flower garden.
As we approached the flower garden junction that leads to the Government House during that wee hours of the night, my friend murmured something like, “is that not Ramoni”?
I was tired and wasn’t interested in any kind of long talks that night, but my friend didn’t allow me be, he tapped me again, as we got to the suya spot before the flower junction, “wo Ramoni” (See Rahman) he said enthusiastically.
Not knowing what he was really talking about, I managed to open my eyes, raised up my head, probably to see the new bill board of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq that is getting this guy so excited.
But when I opened my eyes, what I saw wasn’t a bill board. It was something different.
You read me right, it was
the Kwara State Governor himself, at a suya spot, around 1am, buying suya.
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq was standing alone in front of the suya spot, holding his phone, close to his hear on one hand and pointing to the specific suya he wanted with the other hand.
My friend said we need to reach out to the governor since he was standing alone, but I do not think it was appropriate.
Nonetheless, he didn’t listen to me, he parked and decided to walk to the suya spot as another buyer.
From distance, I saw that he exchanged greetings with the governor, but the man was too busy on call so nothing much could be discussed.
While the governor is being attended to, and my friend waiting besides him to be attended to also, another buyer came to join them at the spot.
This person walked carelessly and almost hit the governor from behind, but rather than react, the governor simply walked a few steps away to give the person way.
I saw from afar, that one of the DSS officials watching from some distance, and saw how the person bumped into the governor roughly from behind almost rushed out to intervene, but they eventually didn’t, after seeing that everything was alright.
The 3rd buyer finally settled at the spot too, but when he looked up properly, he saw that he was standing besides the Kwara State governor, someone he just bumped into roughly moments ago.
All through the encounter, the man was standing in awe without movement.
The governor finished buying his suya, tested a few pieces of the meat and quietly walk into his vehicle and drove away.
As I ruminate over the incident of that night, nothing could further explain Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s personality.
I have seen people say that the governor is acting ordinarily during the day to show off, but how would they describe the governor’s ordinary life style during the night, 1am for that matter, where it very unlikely that anyone would even noticed him.
If not for my friend and the 3rd person who showed up at the suya spot, no one would have seen the governor buying suya, but that’s his natural style.
Meanwhile, I wish I could have approached the governor to share his suya with me, because I saw him put the meat in his mouth.
To cut the long story short, humbleness is a virtue.
Alhaji Abdulrasheed Awobimpe also known as Maya is from Igbaja