The houses of assembly at the State and Federal levels are mostly empowered by people without the slightest sense of patriotic intuition; they are simply short of ideas and human feeling, caring no whether the rest of us eat from garbage bins. Some of them are so politically lousy, morally bankrupt and doggedly insensitive to the plight of those who elected them in the first place; that is if elections actually held in some places. As a former secretary in the National Assembly, Abuja, I personally witnessed painful moments of national tragedy through delusive, empty garmented rhetoric which had nowhere to go except drop on the flow of the national house. Mediocrity, pride, needless arrogance, odious name-dropping and name-calling, empty verbal political gymnastics, and “Eko-for show” type of eccentricities simply littered the space. While democracy was kept in the cupboard of immobility, expediency, greed and corruption swept through the atmosphere as if such should be the practice in the first place.

It is not unexpected; therefore, Nigerians will always call for a change of batons. Politics of insanity, crudity, ideological impotence, selfish vagabondcy and meaningless arrogance must be replaced by politics which must move us forward, politics of progressivism, not atavism; of sensitivity, not monkey hardness; of rich democracy, not crushing mediocrity. Reading through Dr. Wale Okediran’s novel, Tenants of the House (2009) written after his stint as member of the House of Representatives (2004-2007) will reveal a lot of such obscenities which hr personally witnessed.

Nigerians have very reasons to listen to the social critics, and give them a chance, if they call for it, to experiment their obsessions mostly of ideological bent. This is why the likes of Okediran must be supported to move in to our political space to launch attack against negative indices of which have kept threatening our collective survival as a people since independence. And this is not shelly because he has vehemently criticized the system through his books. He has equally been in the system, and he only narrowly escaped being sulked in to the smelling mud.

Over the years, Okediran, a medical doctor and consultant, has emerged as one of the most visible writers and authors of our time. Some of his penned works, most of which of have won different awards include Rainbows Are for Lovers (1987), Strange Encounters (2004), After the Flood (2003) The Rescue of Uncle Bab (1997), The Weaving Looms (2005), Dreams Die At Twilight (2009), The Boys At the Border (1987) and Sighs of Desire (2002). In these works, Okediran has ceaselessly exposed aspects of our socio-political excesses, especially bad leadership, questionable bureaucratic system, greed, wastefulness, graft, intolerance, impotent, officiousness in high places and violence, and freely setting most of these works in the Urban Centres of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Ibadan, Jos and Kano, among others where environmental degradation and manifestations of social recklessness mingle with political ablepsy and pestilential rascalities. Rich in attractive images, elegant symbols poetry, ironies, sarcasms and moving scenes, Okediran’s credible artistic offers suggest ways out of our collective dilemma, which shows that he is not an artists dialoging with the silent muses but one who is very much knowledgeable about the stupefying unattractive socio-political system.

Born April 14, 1955 in Iseyin, Oyo State of Nigeria, he studied for his B. Sc (Health Sciences) and MB, CHB, both from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (1973-1980); obtained a Diploma in writing (1983) and became a Fellow of General Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (FGP) in 1990. A former Secretary and President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Okediran has practiced Medicine in Ibadan for many years where he is generally known as “the people’s doctor” by virtue of his undisguised generous attention to the poor and helpless who need his assistance. The brilliant and easy going man quite known for his attention to details and meticulously became a popular politician among his people when he demonstrated an usual interest in their social, health, material, educational affairs between 2004 and 2007 where he also demonstrated  the rare temerity and courage to fight slothfulness, reckless greed, indiscipline, corruption, violence and ethnic particularities.

While writing and doing advocacy in the area of medical Science, Okediran has also served as facilitator and consultant for world-acknowledged bodies including  Civil society organizations; Action Aid Nigeria; Internews/Enhance Nigeria, the MDGS; state government; Health Reform Foundations of Nigeria; National Health Insurance Scheme; Education Trust; National Programme on Immunization, (Federal Ministry of Health); National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; Constell Futures International, US; and UNAIDS, among several others. The quality of his many papers remains appreciably high and potent.

When in the National House of Assembly as a representative, he quite responsive to the needs of his constituents especially in the areas of scholarships for education, health cares, rural development, agriculture, and sports as well as Youth and women mobilization. He was reachable, and indeed his easy disposition actually worked in their favour quite unlike in most other constituencies in Nigeria where the representatives were no where to be found. Modesty and sincerity are no strange virtues to his award winning author; self discipline, punctuality, sensitivity and human feeling are his second nature. Okediran knows of the values of hard work and commitment to service; he is an advocate of progressive political engineering s dutifully acknowledged by hundreds of people who had the opportunity of speaking on his credentials at book presentations and constituency programmes launches. He is a man of proven integrity and a strong adherent of accountability and transparency whose doggedness and forthrightness have made him a role model for the youth of Nigeria, like his mentor, the late Chief Bola Ige.

Okediran is, therefore, a true grassroots man; one who truly understands the complexion of the troubled waters of our politics. He is a social change agent, a motivator and inspirer of people. A man like this will be afraid of failure, especially because he is in the public eye as his numerous books are being read by Nigerians on the characteristic dilemma of our peculiar society. As he raises his hand to be elected as a senate symbolically representing the betterment of people and good leadership in Oyo North Senatorial District (Oyo State), in the 13 Local Government Areas, there is  no doubt that the people will not be wasting their votes by aligning with this man of history destined to bring good dividends of democracy.

Fajenyo is a writer based in Minna, Niger State.