BY UMMU ABUBAKAR, ILORIN
FORMER Senate President Bukola Saraki may be preparing to take control of the affairs of Kwara State again with the deep crisis that has engulfed the All Progressives Congress in the state, analysts have said.
The analysts, who spoke in separate interviews with THE POINT, noted that the race for 2023 had punctured the strong alliance against the former Senate president and his loyalists, which produced AbdulRasheed AbdulRasaq as the current governor of the state.
The “Otoge” campaign across the length and breadth of Kwara, believed to have been sponsored by officials of the Federal Government, led by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in collaboration with the candidate, now Governor, set the tone for a rebellion against long-standing godfathers in various states, including the National Leader of APC, Bola Tinubu, in Lagos.
But some of those who spoke with THE POINT said the former Senate President, being a strong policitian, should be able to exploit the current APC crisis to his advantage.
According to them, ‘Otoge’ (Enough is enough) has turned to ‘Etite’ (You have burnt your fingers).
An Ilorin indigene, Aremu Jimoh, said many members of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Union were already regretting the role they played in ‘Otoge’, saying that “if a woman does not taste what life looks like in another husband’s house, she will not appreciated her former husband.”
He, however, advised Kwarans to get their acts together and refuse to be sold to other regions in the name of politics.
Aremu, an architect, said, “Gbemi Saraki should know now that she was just used against her brother, no matter what the differences might have been. For a long time, Kwara State was given its due respect among states because of the calibre of leaders they had.
“Many of the ones we have today are people who go cap in hand, begging the powers in office not to sack them. The others are just growing politicians. We learn every time.”
A former top government official from Kwara State told our correspondent that already, stakeholders in Kwara were holding meetings to ensure that the state returned to its days of glory by 2023.
The source, who asked not to be named, owing to the sensitivity of the issue, said, “Everyone knows that out of all the intellectuals and names in Kwara State, across the LGAs, Lai Mohammed cannot be the one calling the shots.
“This is why there is crisis between them. The governor rode into power on the back of some mistakes that Bukola Saraki made, not because Bukola and his successor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, did not perform very well. Now, their ‘Otoge’ has turned to ‘Etite’.
These analyses followed a press conference called by perceived loyalists of the current governor on Thursday, where the duo of Lai Mohammed and the Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemi Saraki, were thoroughly insulted.
The group was led by the Chairman of the Kwara APC Elders Forum, Kunle Suleiman, with the immediate-past ambassador to Malaysia, Amb. Nurudeen Muhammed; and Senator Suleiman Makanjuola Ajadi, in attendance.
The group described the two ministers as paperweight politicians with no electoral value, accusing them of sponsoring failed governorship aspirants against AbdulRasaq.
“Those ministers and Association of Failed Governorship Aspirants can come to Abuja to say nonsense but they are just paperweight politicians. They have no influence at the grassroots. Even a professor like Oba Abdulrasheed who prides himself as a former university Vice-Chancellor, would still have to come to the grassroots to learn,” Suleiman said.
“Ministers are not elected officials. President Muhammadu Buhari picked them, not based on their capability to win elections. If you check the pedigree of the two ministers, you will understand what I am saying, that they do not have the capacity to win elections,” Ajadi added.
Other members of the Forum included Gen. Tunde Bello (retd), Sen. Muhammed Ahmed, Chief JB Ayeni (Chairman APC Elders Forum in Kwara South); Alhaji Alabi Ilyasu, Chief Wole Oke, Hon. Ayinla Folorunsho, Alhaji Abubakar Ndakene, Hon. Mumuni Katugi, Gen. Ibrahim Bola Kale Agbabiaka and Alhaji Hameed Adio.
The elders noted that the current administration in Kwara was ending “the helicopter money politics” that had plagued the state in the past, and declared total support for the appointment of Alhaji Abdullahi Samari as the Acting state Chairman of the party by the national leaders.
“This indeed is a lifesaving decision for the party that had been in the grip of power drunk and self-conceited individuals whose only loyalists are a garrulous and selfish few, whose only anger with the Governor is that he did not make himself a yes man or stooge through whom the public vault is thrown open,” they claimed.
The group added, “It is on record that these gangs dedicated a weekly programme to denigrate the Governor, his administration and the House of Assembly. They never missed an opportunity to denigrate the office of the Governor.
“Certainly, no system, much less an organised political party, can survive the level of indiscipline, arrogance and unbridled ambitions of these lousy few. The intervention of the national headquarters of the party is therefore timely and necessary to save the party from these oppressive, self-centred gang.”
“Contrary to their claims, Hon. Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa was rightly removed as chairman of the party for his many anti-party conducts,” they alleged.
With these accusations and counter accusations, the stage seems set for a fresh slogan in Kwara politics, observers say.
