Date: 2014-08-19

As the 2015 general elections draw near, principal players on the field are daily busy with activities which are also attendant with interesting developments and scenarios that are equally launched almost on a daily basis.

Interestingly, the political battle in Kwara state seems clearly restricted to PDP and the APC. While members of the ruling party at the federal level are strategizing on getting the party enthroned in states where it stands as opposition party, the APC has also not only un-relented on counter-strategies to ensure their strongholds are sustained, a possible takeover at the federal level is strongly considered. Following the defection of Kwara state political leader, Senator Bukola Saraki, Governor Abdul Fattah Ahmed and others to the APC from the PDP, all other political office holders at the local, state and federal levels from the state decamped alongside with him except a senator and two members of the state house of assembly.

PDP consequently became an opposition party and it has emerged the leading opposition in the state. Members of the party are quick in being boastful of federal might and support while the ruling party in the state would readily say it is in control of a long standing winning structure that would stand against all odds.

While talks about who flies the APC ticket is still in abeyance,  several groups have sprang up to endorse the governor for a second.

Interestingly, in the leading opposition party, the PDP, Kwara southerners, like Senator Sulaiman Ajadi, Senator Simeon Ajibola, Chief John Dara, Jani Ibrahim and Ben Duntoye are sort of immutably resolved to pursue their gubernatorial ambition with vigour.

Several groups have however, in the recent times endorsed the governor for a second term. Kwara State students, under the auspices of National Association of Kwara State Students (NAKSS) kick started the endorsement drive on July 8 when the group led by its National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Obafemi Oyeniyi stormed the government house and endorsed Governor Ahmed for a second term on the basis that within his three years in office, tertiary institutions in the state have had massive infrastructure development which includes 10 new lecture halls at the State College of Education, Oro; an e-library of 500 sitting capacity at the State Polytechnic, Ilorin to boost research and learning; as well as the 1000 capacity auditorium at the College of Arabic and Islamic Studies. The Kwara APC Youth Unity Group (AYUG), in a statement issued by its Chairman, Alhaji Tunde Aluko also gave a thumb up to the governor and endorsed him for a second term having, according to him religiously kept to his pact with Kwarans and made the government of continuity one that has ensured continued delivery of dividends of democracy to the people. ‘It is instructive to note that the four year mandate bestowed on the governor in 2011, consists of 48 months and the first 24 months were used principally for completion of projects inherited from the immediate past administration. This is a direct benefit of a government of continuity as it erased the old idea and tradition of a successor abandoning the projects of a predecessor, irrespective of financial commitments already made on such projects’ he stated. Several groups and bodies have followed.

The number of endorsements includes the Kwara South Forum and Emirate Youth Movement and support registered at Kwara South Townhall meeting held at Offa, Oyun, Irepodun, Oke-Ero, Ekiti local government areas.

Meanwhile, in spite of the endorsement galore, sources close to the governor disclosed that he opens doors for such groups principally not to get members of the party discouraged as involvement in different activities would naturally get them busy and promotes the ever viable political structures.

‘The governor knows the system and the structure that operates here and it was his loyalty that earned him the ticket in 2011. He is totally loyal to the state political leader indeed. Many do not know that it was his loyalty to his boss that earned him the alias maigida. It is clear that while he is in charge of administration and running of government, the former governor handles political issues and he solely takes decisions on such”, disclosed the source.