By Ahmed Oluwasanjo
Dear Senator Dino,
Congratulations on your appointment as Chief Bag Carrier to Madam Toyin Saraki. I must confess it’s a well deserved appointment, considering your support for her husband’s emergence as our senate president.
I’m doing you this letter in response to your comic defence on your recent visit to the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with Madam, titled “Stand Up For What You Believe”. Indeed, you stood well in the visit’s picture, bravo! By the way, how best could you have shown the world that you can go to war blindfolded with your oga at the top?
Mind you, I thought you would be smart to let go of it but you have chosen to embark on a defence that further reveals your arrogance and utmost disrespect for your constituents, the same reason for which you were beaten and your clothes torn on the floor of the House of Representatives a few years back. Your arrogance shrouded the merit of your case then and sadly, you have not learnt.
Your claim on how many times you were arrested during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was quite touching. But eminent Nigerians like the late Gani Fawehinmi, Late Beko Ransome-Kuti and Femi Falana and many others were not only severally arrested but were also jailed in the military era for fighting for a better Nigeria; yet, they never made personal news out of it, or sought to benefit from it beyond the public good. Besides, we live in a Nigeria where many are unlawfully arrested and detained, so why feel like an hero for being arrested? Your arrest and BringBackOurGirls group membership brought you out of political oblivion because you were jobless until recently, we all know.
I agree with you that friendship is all about sacrifice, when things are good and when they are bad. The presence of your Madam’s darling (Bukola Saraki) at the EFCC office would have justified this but he was no where to be found, or are you a better friend to Madam than oga at the top? If Saraki could not go on such visit with his for-better-for-worse partner, how was your company more important? Please think.
Sometimes last year it was bruited that you misbehaved when your relationship with your wife went sour. That infamous report depicted you as a Mike Tyson that lacks the mien of a gentle man, and how you mutated to abalogun leyin obirin baffles me.
Let’s look at it from another angle, if an ordinary member of your constituency, like I, was invited for questioning at the EFCC office, would you have been there for him or her or me? If your constituent was announced on the radio to have had an accident, would you have rushed down there to see how you could be of help? If you had done such in the past I am sure it would have gone viral like the pictures of your sleek cars.
Senator Dino, your constituents voted you into the red chamber for serious business, not as handbag carrier to Madam Saraki. Seeing my senator during the visit to EFCC was a big insult to me and other concerned constituents who vehemently campaigned and voted for change; therefore, you need to stop putting up baseless defences, respect our mandate and face what you were voted for. I know you might feel this is just a rant from a hungry constituent, but remember 2019 is not so far ahead of us.
Thank you.
Ahmed Oluwasanjo
Ahmed Oluwasanjo writes from Abuja and can be reached on [email protected]
