Suspense and shock best describe the unfolding political situation in Kwara State that has pitched father versus son in the bid to determine the successor to Governor Bukola Saraki.

Last Sunday, after several months of intrigues in the Saraki paternal and political family arising from the public endorsement of Senator Gbemisola Ruqayat Saraki by her father, Senator Olusola Saraki otherwise known as the Oloye, a politically fratricidal war between father and son seemed to have broken out.

As expected by keen watchers of Kwara politics, the political icon pulled out from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] which was handed over to him by Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2002 when he was having a running battle with the then governor, Alh Mohammed Lawal over his second term ambition.

Remarkably, Oloye using the same PDP and his mammoth supporters helped Governor Bukola Saraki into office in 2003. Walking in the same familiar terrain, he also directed his supporters and sympathizers to join a relatively unknown political party, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria [ACPN] where he hopes to make his daughter, also a PDP senator the next governor.

The  real grouse of the elder statesman, according to Vanguard investigation  is the number of gubernatorial aspirants, about seventeen of so far, despite his open endorsement of his daughter as the next governor.

Apart from this development, all the nominations of ''Oloye" for other elective posts have also been faced with opposition within the same PDP by his son.

In a statement issued much earlier by his personal assistant  Mr Lateef Okandeji, he described the development as an affront to his over forty years of political dominance in Kwara politics. The PDP leadership of which Governor Bukola Saraki is the leader of the party in the state through its Public Relations office, Alh Musa Dan Meiromu in a statement severally noted that the party has no candidate for any elective post stressing that there will be  primaries based on the guidelines of  the national headquarters, where popular candidates that will represent the party against other political parties will emerge.

Consequently, in  glaring disregard to Senator Gbemisola's public endorsement by the father and godfather, more aspirants trooped out making about seventeen of them as at press time. Top among them  are Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a petroleum engineer, Alh Yekini Alabi, Chief Theophilus Bamigboye, Senator Makanjuola Suleiman Ajadi and Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa, a member of the House of Representatives. Others are Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, former vice chancellor of university of Ilorin popularly remembered for sacking 49 lecturers during his tenure, Alh Ahmed Abdulfatah commissioner for economic planning and development, and his counterpart in finance Barrister Rasaq Atunwa.

Also in the race for the PDP gubernatorial ticket are Alh Bio Ibrahim minister of sports who recently resigned his appointment to pursue the ambition and Alh Ibrahim Adelodun, a  former SSG and presently, chairman civil service commission who Vanguard reliably gathered will pick his form anytime from now to contest the primaries and a serving senator, Ahmed Mohammed. Six  of the aspirants are from Kwara south because of the political expectation on the unwritten code of zoning that it is the turn of the area to produce the next governor.

Vanguard investigation among other stakeholders in Kwara politics revealed that the moral questions about Senator Gbemisola Saraki are indeed germane. Being the immediate younger sister and a woman it is felt that she would never be supported to take over from the outgoing governor no matter how revered her father is on account of the Islamic inclination of the majority of the electorate.

Another serious argument was that after the tenure of the present occupant of the Government House, that is Governor Bukola Saraki, that Kwara Central would have spent twelve uninterrupted years maintaining the office of governor.

One of the leading  governorship aspirants, Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola from Omu Aran in Kwara South who claimed to have clean credential among others has urged the stakeholders to ensure that the area produces the next governor in the interest of peace, justice, and  fair play.

Apparently angry by the fact that he was not allowed to hand pick candidates for the party as was the tradition over the decades, the elder Olusola Saraki allegedly severally described other aspirants as idiots, people who cannot win councilorship elections in their wards. "I don't even know some of these people, can you imagine?' he said last week when interacting with journalists when the leadership of CPC and ANPP visited him,

According to him," I want to ask all of you to please help me to pray to God  to bring  my son back to me. I do don't like the way PDP is being run. I have discussed with President Jonathan and he said he will do something about it ,We are no more in PDP, we have not decided which party to go but by Sunday, I will address the press on it"

On why he chose to abandon the party instead of settling the crisis being a leader, he said' The door of PDP in Kwara has been locked against me. By their laws when the door is locked you cannot open it. I am a peaceful person, I don't want to break the PDP law so the best thing to do is to leave, it has nothing to do with being a leader"

"Already, the PDP has known its delegates even long before the primaries and since I cannot contest that, the best thing to do is to leave the party"

Finally last Sunday the second republic senate leader Dr  Abubakar Olusola Saraki  directed his teaming supporters to join Allied Congress Party of Nigeria [ACPN] so as to realize the gubernatorial ambition of his daughter Senator Gbemisola Saraki as the next governor in 2011.

The strongman of Kwara politics addressing his supporters at his GRA country home in Ilorin explained that  this became imperative because the ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] has locked him out of the party.

Even while declaring the PDP dead and its officials problematic, the senior Saraki did not find any fault with his son, Bukola who he acquitted of doing very well as governor.

Dr Olusola Saraki however noted that," in the recent time, as the 2011 elections approach, some forces in PDP in the state have begun to cause confusion and disunity among the teeming members of the party for selfish reasons. There were proven cases of political intimidation, assault of party members and illegal suspension of ward executives of the party, thereby killing the party at the grassroots"

"All these and many other attributes for which the PDP in Kwara state is reputed and respected are as today been frittered away. It is however unfortunate that the door of the PDP has been locked by these people against the decorum and against genuine members party. And we do not want to force the door open and be counted among those tormenting the society"

"Those who are not involved in the building of the party now capitalize on the inexperience of the leadership to perpetuate themselves and turn themselves into tin gods to decide the fate of the real people on the political turf. We now have a PDP that lacks cohesion, focus, directionless and bereft of ideas on how to carry supporters along and win elections"

The elder statesman who recalled that the party was handed over to him in 2002 by the then vice president Atiku Abubakar to realize the governorship ambition of Dr Bukola Saraki said ''The situation is so bad to the extent that most decisions of the party are based on sentiments instead of having recourse to party guidelines and all known democratic norms. It was really an assault of epic proportion to psyche of our teaming supporters" ''though, we have taken all these unfortunate developments in good stride, we have for the past few months bore the situation with unimaginable equanimity.

We saw it as a challenge which must be overcome so that our people can continue to be relevant politically. In the life time of every mortal, there must be testy time and trying moment, but each stage of life is not moment to feel despondent or despair but opportunity to aspire and get to the pinnacle of every possibility" he added.

In order to dispel the rumor that Governor Bukola Saraki is being witch haunted in the family for not supporting his younger sister's gubernatorial ambition because himself and Senator Gbemisola Saraki are not of the same mother, the second Republic Senate Leader, Olusola Saraki broke the silence  saying  that his wife, Morenike gave birth to the two of them and  that the rumor was baseless and unfounded.

The rumor it should be noted has been persistent for years that Bukola was not born by Morenike who is the mother of  Gbemisola and who is the only known wife of  Saraki. According to the rumor, it was Morenike who was pushing for Gbemisola as the next governor of the state and she was doing this because she wanted her own child to also emerge as a governor.

Hitherto the rumor persisted without the family speaking on it publicly until Saraki senior did so last Sunday. While the family refused to speak on the rumor the unconfirmed story became almost convincing recently when a contemporary of Saraki, Abdulganiyu Abdulrasak, a first republic Nigerian envoy to Cote d' Voire said things that  lend credence to it in an interview with The News magazine where he  said that Bukola's mother was allegedly different from Morenike. However Saraki who disclosed that he was aware of the rumor said there was no iota of truth in it as he explained how they gave birth to

the two people. According to the elder statesman, "Bukola and Gbemisola were born by the same mother. We gave birth to Bukola in London while we gave birth to Gbemisola in Lagos." "Some people said they heard that Bukola 's mother is from Calabar. That could be very funny." "It was just about five months after I have qualified as a medical doctor that Bukola was born.

He was born at about 5:pm and I was phoned that he was born." "I just recently became a doctor while my wife also just qualified as a lawyer when she gave birth to Bukola and that is why we named him Oluwabukunolawa (God enriched our wealth)," he clarified. He said that Gbemisola did not ask to contest for the governorship seat of the state but it was he who felt she should contest because he wanted her to consolidate on the achievements of her elder brother.

The elder Saraki further said that this is not the first time Dr Bukola Saraki would oppose the political ambition of his younger sister." When Gbemi wanted to contest for the Kwara Central senatorial seat, Bukola was against her, but he did not have all these police and security people around him then, so his being against his sister is not the first time"

He particularly recalled how he told Governor Bukola Saraki sometime last year that he should allow his younger sister to take over from him and spend just one term so as to consolidate on his achievements and thereafter put anyone he likes there which he did not oppose.

The governor who is leading the battle in the ruling PDP indeed has so many battles to fight against the backdrop of his father's open declaration that he does not know anything about kwara politics, by letting everything loose and allowing every body to contest election.

Already Vanguard investigation revealed that there are frayed nerves in the party that the governor is giving the serving commissioners undue advantage above others by allowing them assess to government resources and logistics when he is actually harping on the fact that he is not supporting any candidate and that he will ensure a level playing ground in the forthcoming primaries of the PDP.

Interestingly as at today the foot soldiers of the political icon have been polarized into two with some on the side of the governor as was clearly noticed last Sunday.

How the governor will ensure that the primaries of the PDP on Monday will not cause implosion and vindicate his father's comment about his naivety in Kwara politics is indeed an uphill task.

Also the final battle in the general election with other political parties who are strategizing to gain from the present political crisis within the PDP and the Saraki dynasty will also confirm whether PDP will rule the state in 2011 and if so, whether Governor Bukola Saraki will be politically relevant thereafter in the state.