The forthcoming 2015 general election will no doubt mark a milestone in the political history of the people of Kwara state. AROWONA ABDULAZEEZ examines the situation as awaited by observers from both within and outside the state.

It is a truism that the administration of Kwara State in the last four decades has been reflecting the dictates of the Saraki’s ruling dynasty established by the Second Republic Senate Leader and Waziri of Ilorin, Dr. Olusola Saraki who shortly before his demise lived to witness the emergence of his son, Dr. Bukola Saraki, as yet another ‘political godfather’.

Dr. Bukola Saraki became a godfather in the Kwara political circle owing to the empowerment of his erstwhile Commissioner for Finance and later Commissioner for Economic Planning, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, as his successor after two-term tenure of eight years as the Executive Governor of the state from 2003 to 2011.

However, the emergence of Saraki-son (Bukola) as ‘Leader’ as popularly called by his admirers no doubt marked the end of the road to the political struggle of the Saraki-father (Olusola) having conceded victory in the 2011 gubernatorial election when the candidate of the former emerged and while that of the latter lost gallantly.

Although, concerned individuals and lovers of the late Waziri (Saraki Oloye) will continue to mourn the scenario of 2011 even as they failed to believe the aftermath of the campaign struggle which the gladiator took to the nooks and crannies of the state vis a vis the regular patronage and sympathy he usually receive during electioneering exercise.

It would be recalled that in 2011, the current Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed hoisted the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, while Barrister Mohammed Dele Belgore SAN, carried the flag of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, while the late Saraki’s anointed candidate, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, also contested on the platform of the defunct Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN among other actors in the poll.

Furthermore, in an attempt to break the jinx of the political history of Kwara State by vying to become first female governor, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, the younger sister of Senator Bukola Saraki who had been in the national assembly as an Honourable member of the Federal House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and later Distinguished member of the Senate between 2003 to 2011 hurriedly relinquished are position while her elder brother smartly grabbed the opportunity of earning himself the ticket to replace her.

Today, Bukola Saraki is one of the 109 distinguished Senators in the National Assembly and most importantly, he is the Chairman Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology.

Amazingly, the Sarakis are the only family in Ilorin, Kwara State and Nigeria at large that had since produced Senator-father (Olusola), Senator-son (Bukola), and Senator-daughter (Gbemisola), a rear privilege that could happen anywhere in the globe.

Also, the electoral victory and emergence of Governor Ahmed attracted post-election reconciliation between the Sarakis even though some loyalists were satisfied with the arrangement while many others went into voluntary retirement from active politics pointing out that “there is no party politics” in the state but personality politics, therefore they only recognised the late Baba Oloye’s leadership and nothing else.

It was on record that in order to achieve his set objectives, Bukola Saraki persuaded the many aspirants who were jostling to succeed him as governor among all on the platform of PDP and adopted zoning principle of one term of four years each for the three senatorial districts on rotational basis.

They were; the Chairman Federal Character Commission, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, Hon. B.  Ashir Bolarinwa, former Sports Minister, Alhaji Bio Ibrahim, Senate Mohammed Ahmed, Col. Theophilous Bamigboye, Alhaji Ibrahim Salman among others,

while Prof Abdulraheem was later made the Director-General of the PDP campaign committee with the mandate of ensuring the party’s victory in the polls.

Since there is neither permanent friend nor enemy in politics except permanent interests, things suddenly fell apart among friends in the Kwara State Chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, owing to numerous happening within the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party which eventually led to the defection of five sitting governors including Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State to the All Progressive Congress, APC.

With this, there had been permutations and re-arrangement in the state political calculation as all the political apparatus in the state have been painted APC except for few individuals who felt that their interest can only be protected in PDP and decide to let their political status quo remain.

On this note, the erstwhile Bukola Saraki-led PDP structure is now in full charge of the, Gbemisola Saraki of the defunct ACPN has declared for the PDP, Mohammed Dele Belgore, a governorship candidate of the defunct ACN has also defected to the PDP even though, the party is yet to officially accept their membership.

While declaring her movement into PDP Senator Gbemisola Saraki publicly condemned the political leadership in Kwara State stressing that, “Such was not the state my father brought me up to know”, even as she  urged members to show their strength by beginning to pull together and give support to President Goodluck Jonathan-led government.

She also emphasized that the gathering was not meant for campaign but rather to awake Kwarans irrespective of their political parties and positions noting that “We cannot fight the hunger of the stomach when the poverty of minds is getting stronger.”

According to her, “I am emboldened by the events of the last three years. Three years may not be so much a long time, but it is has been long enough for me to learn very important lessons. During this period, I have interacted more and intimately with thousands of Kwarans from different towns and villages.

“Such people are the very poor, the common people, educated and uneducated, workers and unemployed, old and young, traditional rulers, community and religious leaders. I have lived everyday of my life as an Ilorin woman and as a Kwaran. I have had my happy moments and derived my utmost joy when I have you especially the common people around me.

“I have had my low moments, unfortunately, this has been more pronounced because each day, I see despair and helplessness from people who are ordinarily hardworking, honest, and courageous. I hear tales that are heart rendering. I see how we being stripped of our dignity just so that we may our rights to live and do the basic things of life for our children, our families, our friends, our communities and ourselves.

“We have seen how our women, especially mothers struggle daily just to give their children the very basic necessities of life. I have seen men working so hard with little to show for their efforts as well as our youths are losing faith in their own future and are now driven to the edge, losing focus and have stopped believing in themselves and their own abilities.”

Gbemisola Saraki however disclosed that, “Thousands of youth roam about with no hope. Those who are educated are left to wander about with excellent academic degrees with no hope of jobs. Those who have skills for trades and crafts cannot covert their skills to asset. They are left unattended to.”

Similarly, Belgore who recently defected to the PDP alleged that APC is “undemocratic” saying: “Today is very symbolic because people have waited with baited breath for us to make a pronouncement on our political future.”

While announcing his defection amidst mammoth crowd of supporters at his office along Abdulrazaq road, GRA Ilorin, the Senior Lawyer noted that “The expectations and anxieties are understandable, given the happenings in the APC which we laboured so hard to nurture to a party of choice in Kwara from its ACN days.

“Hope had risen that with the birth of APC, our struggle for socioeconomic development of our dear state which we began in 2010 would be better served under a stronger and broader political platform.”

According to him, “Hope suddenly evaporated very quickly. An alliance of those who yearn for change and development and those who desire to maintain the status quo of oppression and denial of opportunity was suddenly foisted upon us.

“By that alliance, the politics of patrol age, of denial of merit-based opportunity, of running the state like personal assets, of deploying public wealth for the Union unfit of a select few, of selling the state assents to shadowy private concerns was given a new life.

“But it is not just about pitching of the voices for change against the forces of retrogression. It was also about the manner in which it was done.”

Corroborating reasons for his defection to the PDP, Belgore emphasized that, “We said yes, anyone could be admitted to the party, but we insisted that it would be UNDEMOCRATIC, inequitable and even contrary to the very idea of change that APC claims it stands for, to automatically hand over the party structures to new entrants, especially when those entrants are at the commanding heart of the oppression and arrested development of Kwara and its people.

“Not only does this arrangement confer the party structure on these new entrants, it is pre-determined to ensure that they continue, no matter the pretence of internal election, to control it. Thus by this ultimately self-defeating arrangement, APC had determined the scores of the game even before kickoff. The same ugly trend occurred in Kano, Sokoto and some other States.

“APC’s leadership had in seeking to satisfy a few, alienated the rank and file, and to many, the soul of the party.

The owner of a home need not be displaced to give any false sense of friendship to a stranger.

Our people do not believe that people are made for a platform. Rather they believe that platforms are made for the people. No positive change is possible where we are to coexist with the same elements that the people of Kwara want to dislodge.

“To our supporters and political independents, APC has let us down. We have therefore decided not to be part of an arrangement that put us in the same ship driven by the oppressors. We are therefore joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which – as fate now has it – has shed the very core of the liabilities that made our people run away from it.”

The party chieftain however put it on record that, “We are joining hands with other like minds in the PDP who were unjustly shut out because of their progressive bent to endear the party to the people of Kwara State.

“Together we will work to advocate and bring about economic liberation, equal opportunity for all and positive development to our dear state and its people. We join forces to break the shackles of oppression and restore our state back to its former glory.

“It is never easy to leave a party that one has nurtured to such an enviable position, but the reality is that APC by its undemocratic stance and scant regard for the yearnings of o people and supporters has strayed from the path of progress and development – that is the core of our political existence in Kwara. We remain true to this cause and its sanctity limits our affiliations.”

He therefore said: “I call on all those who wish Kwara State well, both within and beyond Kwara, indigenes and non-indigenes, to support us in the PDP to fight this just and noble cause so as to bring a brighter day to the lives of our people and to renew their positive aspirations.”

However in reaction speech of its former member, APC described Belore’s defection as a good riddance adding that the party in the state sees his exit as a good omen to bad rubbish because “he is more of a liability than asset in the political chess game of Kwara state”.

APC’s interim chairman in the State, Hon. Ishola Balogun-Fulani said: “Belgore is more of an ethnic card player than a politician who is sincere to serve the people. If Belgore is truly a progressive politician which APC represents, he would have been in the APC which everybody sees as the platform that would address the yearning and aspirations of Nigerians including the people of Kwara state.”

The party chairman further said: “But for him to have claimed that his exit in the party was because he was not given the leadership of the party speaks volume and this clearly shows that he is more interested in his own aggrandizement rather than the interest of the people and this he has confirmed in his speech he delivered where he formally declared for PDP.

“But we want to congratulate the people of Kwara that today (yesterday) the last of him has formally exited the platform that would take us to the next level. Everybody has seen that the only political party that is with the people is the APC”.

Nigerian Pilot’s politics desk however gathered that with the current political arrangement in Kwara State, it is crystal clear that the battle for the soul of the state is now between Senator Bukola Saraki and others who have teamed up to challenge his political leadership through “The Ballot” come 2015.

Can Bukola Saraki survive this battle even as the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, has rolled out timetable for the 2015 general elections, who laughs last?