Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State, who was the main beneficiary of the 2019 Otoge movement that sent Saraki’s dynasty out of Government House, has turned a common enemy even within his All Progressives Congress (APC).
Leading the race to wrestle power from the governor in 2023 are top politicians within his party, who were instrumental to his emergence but are now dissatisfied with his style of leadership.
The other groups are the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by the former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, and the breakaway aggrieved members of APC, who have pitched tent with the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Analysts are already predicting a three-horse contest in 2023 among the Abdulrazaqs, Sarakis and a “third force” represented by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
Members of the minister’s camp are polarised by political interests, forcing some of them to dump APC for other parties.
Though former APC governorship aspirants, like Prof Abdulraheem Shuaib Oba, Hakeem Lawal, Engr Sunday Babalola, Khaleel Bolaji and Tajudeen Audu, among others, had declared their interest in the governor’s seat, Abdulrahman has proved to be politically sophisticated than they thought.
The governor has not only snatched the APC structure in the state from their grip but has also succeeded in sending them out of the party, thus setting the stage for what observers described as another watershed in Kwara come 2023.
The opposition PDP, populated mostly by Saraki’s loyalists, has zoned its governorship ticket to the marginalised Kwara North in its quest to return to power.
The zoning and other consensus arrangements did not only attract bigwigs in the senatorial district to the PDP but also triggered agitations from some party members.
The party’s plea and explanation that it adopted the consensus arrangement for all positions to avert violence, crisis and acrimony did not stop some members like Tope Olayonu (Danladi) to defect from the PDP.
Pundits said the step PDP will take in the coming days would determine its fortunes in the 2023 elections in the state.
They argued that for the opposition parties to make a difference, there is the need to form an alliance against the governor. But the governor’s camp claimed that such an option was dead on arrival because of the political ambitions that had polarised some bigwigs involved in the struggle to wrestle power from the governor.
For the SDP, the stage appears to be set for it to lead the challenge against Abdulrazaq after the conclusion of its congress and the inauguration of the state executives a few days ago. The appeal by the minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed for them to reconsider their stand and return to the APC had fallen on deaf ears.
A member of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Saheed Popoola, said there was no going back on their decision to dump APC.
SDP’s newly-inaugurated Chairman, Alhaji Abdulaziz Afolabi, said he was confident that his party would replicate the Otoge movement on the APC because its members were the major pillars of the struggle prior to their defection.
Speaking with Daily Trust on possible gang-up against Governor Abdulrazaq by opposition parties, Kwara APC Chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, said: “I wish them luck in their wishful thinking. But the reality on ground now is that we have started receiving back into our fold decampees from SDP and other political parties in the state.”
Already, there are different perceptions in the state as to whether or not the governor will be re-elected in 2023.
While critics had said that he did not get his politics right and urged him to learn from the experiences of other governors, his supporters had rubbished such admonition.
They said the governor’s sin for which he is been crucified was that he prioritised the interest and welfare of the citizens above the personal interest of the aggrieved party leaders.
A political scientist, Dr Adebola Bakare, said the political calculations in Kwara would become clearer in the days ahead and that the APC governorship primary election would tell whether it will be a three-horse race.
“We cannot authoritatively say the governor will win the election for now, but we can authoritatively say he will win the primary of the APC,” said Bakare, who is also the National Secretary of the Nigeria Political Science Association (NPSA).
He said te best approach for the governor is to find a way to reconcile with aggrieved party members after primary.
He said if the governor had managed his victory properly, the election would have been a walkover for him.
The consequence of his action had given the PDP the opportunity to relaunch itself for the battle for the soul of Kwara, he added.
