Kwara state Communications Commissioner Saddiq Abubakar has given reasons for the massive votes Governor AbdulRaman Abdulrazaq recorded in Kwara North senatorial district at the March 18th governorship elections.

Mallam Abubakar hails from Edu local government area, the same council with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Shuaib Yaman Abdulahi.

The commissioner said that March 18 was a pay back time for Abdulrazaq, adding that the governor brought development to the district.

He hinted that though, the region is desirous of producing the governor, but not a 'stooge governor.'

The commissioner told some selected journalists in Ilorin, the state capital.

Said he: “The support he was able to get from Kwara North is a result of what Kwara Northerners have felt under his leadership. If it was to be another person on that seat and he gave them such due recognition and gesture, believe me, Kwara Northerners would have reciprocated the same thing to that person not just because he's a sitting governor but because he is Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq.

“It was his work that spoke for him. It was what he has done that spoke for him in Kwara North during the polls.

They voted for development. They could not afford to see that development is truncated.

“Interestingly, I happen to come from the local government where the major opposition party gubernatorial candidate comes from, in the person of Alhaji Shuaibu Yaman.

“I'm from Edu Local Government, I'm a Nupe man by the tribe. I know him so well, he knows me. But Kwara North, I have been saying it and I will continue to say it, this is democracy and what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Kwara Central have had it, Kwara South has had it, and Kwara North naturally is supposed to be given a chance as well but we from Kwara North there have so many issues bedevilling our senatorial district.

“Fundamentally, we are far behind in terms of development. And our major factor responsible for the clamour that you all saw it because of the underdevelopment of Kwara North when compared to the other two senatorial districts we have in Kwara State. One, aside from the fact that the development that we all yearn for, we are witnessing it reasonably under this administration.

“Kwara North sincerely wants to govern this state because, since the return of democracy in 1999, we have not had it in Kwara North senatorial district.

We will prefer to support somebody even from outside Kwara state that we know will attract development to our region rather than have our person who we know to a very rational level, that he is not for the development of our region but for his personal development. Aside from that, this is somebody who came under the platform of a supposed godfather. Kwara North can not afford to have a stooge as a representation for the position they have been clamouring for overtime to come and wear that cap, under the guise of Kwara North. We cannot afford to have a stooge as our representative in the government house as the governor from our region. This is not somebody unknown to Kwara Northerners, that same man is not unknown to Kwarans. As far as Kwara State politics is concerned. Aside from the fact that Yaman came under the leadership of Sen. Abubakar Bukola Saraki if you go back to history and you make your holistic findings, you'll agree with me that the person is a seasonal politician who always comes to look for a position wherever it is electioneering period and immediately after elections, once he loses or fails to get a personal benefit, he always flies out of the state. You'll not see him again until the eve of another four years.

“That has been the kind of game he has been playing. So people have been watching, people have been observing. In 2019 when we were doing 'O to get the struggle, the first beneficiary of the struggle was Alhaji Shuaibu Yaman because it was right before the 2019 general elections that he got appointed into a federal position, make your findings and discredit this statement that I'm about to make that for his 3 and half years representation in the federal position there was no single empowerment. The person or through the office. No development was attracted to the region.

“Not to his immediate community, not to talk of the entire local government by extension, to worsen it, Kwara North. You're in a federal position for about 4 years, there was no development, either directly or through the leverage of your office attracted to Kwara North or your local government and you want to come under the guise of Kwara North's agenda to cajole us. We are not fools. We are due for the governor but we don't want a stooge.

“And even when you talk about stooges, there are categories to them. This was supposed to be a stooge that does not care about his people, not even personal empowerment. He was rich enough to have brought out several millions of naira to purchase forms and embark on campaigns but could not even use one million nairas to empower one single person.

“We know what we are doing in Kwara North, we want to be governor. There's no hide-and-seek about that, but we don't want a stooge. We want somebody that we know is part of us, we want somebody that we know cares for us, we want somebody that we know will listen to the plight of Kwara North and Kwarans at large.

“We don't want a sectional governor. We don't want a governor that will say because we have not been governor for a long time, I am coming back for a vendetta mission.

“We want a governor who will be able to harness the interest of the entirety of Kwara State. We want somebody that we know that when you knock at his door at any time he's going to listen to you, he knows where our shoe pinches, not somebody who will just fly in the eve of the election and fly out if he doesn't get what he wants immediately after the election. This has been the trend, the kind of politics this same man has been playing and that is why it was so difficult for him to even win his local government. No matter how bad you are as a person, there has been a clamour that the Kwara North agenda but the supposed Kwara North agenda flag bearer could not even win his local government. It is that bad. And the major factor responsible for that is that Kwara Northerners know the kind of person this man is and they know that he could not be trusted.

“They will prefer to stand with Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq and I have always repeatedly maintained that the support you saw Abdulrahman got from Kwara North during and before the election I have been saying it and I will continue to say it, it is not because he is Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, not because he is the governor. It goes beyond being Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq or being the governor.

“Ordinarily, if the kind of developmental activities we are witnessing gradually in Kwara North was being given by another person, believe me, that person would get such support.”