When a man begins to rise, the tendency some would feel threatened for petty and unjustifiable reasons becomes rife, politics for instance. In politics the pull him down syndrome has bedeviled our polity. An evil syndrome people do everything inhumanly possible to thwart the chances of another from rising or reaching certain positions. Some for sheer hatred, others for the audacity to dare, for some its selfish interest, where a politician is being debased for no longer meeting the personal needs of some.
Politics in our clime is unreservedly dirty. The moment interest is shown to vie for a public office, beacons of searchlights gather to peep into the archives of history which are be renewed with contemporary vigor, devilish enthusiasm, untold story of your ancestors stealing a goat before Christ would be reeled and laid bare to your dismay. A lilly livered fellow, who does not have a steel heart would eventually loose focus , cow into premature submission with eventuality of a disappointing aspirational fallout.
Rt. Hon, Matthew Kolawole, the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly is man who walked and worked through the vicissitude of life to get to where he is today, was never rocket science that shot him to limelight, it was sheer dint of hard work over decades in obscurity, as such will be very difficult to pull a man who had fortitude to weather the storms of life, one who has gone through the process and stages of paying his due diligence to life.
From a very poor background, Kolawole with dint of hard work and luck rose to where he is today. His father worked as a auxiliary staff of Polar breweries, while mother tilled the ground. The resolve to succeed and elevate the status of his family was his driving force. Coming from a family that cannot sponsor two children at go in school – except the one in school finishes, Hon Kolawola had to become a Newspaper vendor to sponsor himself and break that family jinx . His first sales earned him three (3) kobo , and so he was able to pay his one kobo school fee, buy his lockers and chair. If not for sheer determination, the very first experience he had at the hands of the popular Mr Ajayi – Maths teacher, at Crowther Memorial College, Lokoja would have sent him scampering off back to the streets. To sustain his academics, Matthew Kolawole sold engine oil on the streets of Lokoja to make ends meet.
Little wonder all his investments – unlike that of some others, were deliberately centered in Lokoja the Kogi state capital. To him, it is pay back time for the town he grew up. Today his investments have not only employed kogites, it is contributing to the development of the state. To therefore want to cast aspersions and de-market his personality or possible ambition ahead 2023, using his unflinching support for Governor Yahaya Bello’s presidential ambition is dead on arrival. Kolawole is not desperate and he so believes that it is only God that gives power.
The Matthew Kolawole you see today is a product of sweat, past failures, and hard work. He should be a case study for young ones. Why would some persons be hellbent on wanting to pull him down? Are they afraid at the crescendo at which his profile is rising and which is not declining anytime soon? For what reason and for what purpose? If I may leave with this, Who is Afraid of Matthew Kolawole? Karma is real.
Williams Charles writes from Lokoja
