ASHIRU: PEACEMAKER EMERITUS @ 65- By Raheem Adedoyin

L-R: Raheem Adedoyin (Oloriewe), Dr.Femi Ogunshola, Senator Lola Ashiru and Kale Belgore

By _Raheem_ _Adedoyin_

Today is his birthday. That man, hen. We spoke at length last night but not a word or a hint from him on his turning 65 a few hours later.

Well, that's vintage Arch. Yissa Oyelola Ashiru( aka Lola Ashiru), the Senator representing Kwara South Senatorial District in the National Assembly. He shuns self- promotion.

You are not a notable politician in Kwara or far away from the media if you don't know my close relationship with SLA. Two decades of it. Solid.

The tribute I published when he became a senator last year ( after nearly two decades of trying and failing) subsists. His humility,  inspiring  focus, doggedness belied by his  innocent look and carriage, generosity and incredible tolerance. None of that has changed.

But one more has surfaced significantly: peacemaking. The viral  photograph of him and his colleague senators from Kwara meeting Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo in Ashiru's house in Abuja underscores that.

He had told me that that meeting would hold. And the meeting came after a productive engagement the three senators had with Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq last weekend on growing Kwara.

The musketeers are meeting other big masquerades in the Kwara APC leadership crisis. With huge ego of the combatants  on display, the peacemakers' job is not going to be easy but Ashiru is confident of a lasting truce.

No matter how right u think u are, SLA counsels u to avoid fighting. That wise counsel has restrained me from tackling a combatant who has been serially rude to me on account of his self- inflicted wahala with the Governor.

But for all the Good Samaritan he is playing, all eyes are on our senator on his performance in NASS. Kwara South abhors mediocrity. Good enough, SLA is not disappointing us. He brought all the APC chairmen from the  seven local givernmets in Kwara south to my house in Ilorin last year for their inputs on Kwara south blueprint on socio- economic development. The roadmap on that remains his  challenge. We are waiting with bated breath how his bill in NASS  on the establishment of a National Heritage, Esie  pans out.

Three more years to go in NASS on our popular mandate. I pray he successfully breasts the tape.

Happy Birthday,  Peacemaker Emeritus.