YEKINI JIMOH writes on the power play and intrigues that have attended the search for next governor of Kwara State in 2011.

THE political situation in Kwara  State is very calm. Calm in the   sense that people are still waiting for Kwara State political icon, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, who is father to the incumbent governor of the state, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to nominate people that will hold various portfolios in 2011.

Even the oppositions are not left out as they too are waiting patiently for godfather of Kwara politics to come out with his political agenda for 2011. Saraki, who is chairman and founder of Northern Union (NU), disclosed recently that he had instructed his son, Governor Saraki, to name his successor for 2011 governorship election in the state.

Saraki, while saying that, pointed, with pride, to the legion of achievements recorded by his son in the last seven and a half years as governor of the state.

The state, which was created on May 27, 1967 alongside 11 others, has to the satisfaction of Saraki, who is also popularly referred to as Baba Oloye, transformed phenomenally and could no longer be easily referred to as a civil service state.

Therefore, it is in the view of Dr. Abubakar Saraki that his son would also be in a better position to pick a candidate that would be adequate for the number one position in the state, come 2011.

Even members of the opposition appear to share the view that Dr. Saraki, who is also the Waziri of Ilorin, holds the ace as far as politics is concerned in Kwara, how it is played and its patronages distributed.

Speaking on the personality of Dr. Olusola Saraki, the National Chairman of Action Alliance (AA), Senator Suleiman Salawu, said: “This distinguished Senator Abubakar Saraki of the Second Republic is not a lazy politician. Apart from the seriousness of his political approach, he devotes 24 hours a day and adequate material resources to Kwara politics. In view of this, it is an empty alarm for a group of politicians to be hammering on Dr. Saraki’s dominance of Kwara politics.”

Saraki, who was a Second Republic Senator, cannot be separated from Kwara politics and evidence abounds to prove such.

It is on record that he has single-handedly installed all the civilian governors starting from Alhaji Adamu Atta, who was the first civilian governor of the state; Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Alhaji Muhammed Shaba Lafiagi, late Alhaji Muhammed Alabi Lawal and the incumbent governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

Even any appointment by the Federal Government from the state must have the input of Saraki as he is always consulted and asked to forward names for such positions.

Not only that, he also plays major roles in making sure that all the candidates for the state assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and council race were endorsed by him and to the extent that one needs to be endorsed by him before one can win any election.

As the race for 2011 poll picks, the Second Republic senator is of the view that his son, Bukola, has done well in transforming the state from a civil service state to an industrialised state and as such, he would like to see that whoever is going to take over from him would also deliver the dividends of democracy.According to him, the next governor of the state must not come from the bush, adding: “I am waiting for the state governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to give me an acceptable candidate for the plum position in order to move the state forward.

”What I want is the kind of person that would continue with the legacy that Governor Saraki has put in place in Kwara State because he has worked hard to bring dividends of democracy to the people of the state, especially in the areas of education, health, infrastructure, rural development, water supply, among other in spite of little federal allocations that have been coming to Kwara since assumption of office.

“The governor has made me proud and I usually thank God for giving me Bukola as my son, who has come to lay an enduring legacy for the socio-economic growth of the state to the disappointment of the opposition,” he said.

On the other hand, Governor Saraki has always said that whoever was going to take over from him in 2011 must be part of the system so that there would be continuity in government, even though he refused to name his successor.

Currently in the state, there are about five governorship aspirants gunning for Dr. Saraki’s seat and they include Honourable Yekini Alabi, a former governorship candidate in the state; Mr. Lola Ashiru and Reverend Bunmi  Olusono.
 

Yekini Alabi 

 Yekini Alabi is a Lagos-based businessman and former governorship aspirant in 2003 on the platform of PDP.  Besides, Alabi was chairman, Board of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and currently, he has flooded the city of Ilorin and its environs with his campaign posters announcing his readiness to vie for the governorship seat come 2011.

Bunmi Olusona

 The aspirant contested for the governorship seat on the platform of Alliance for Democracy in 2007, but has since flagged off his campaign to become the next governor of Kwara State in 2011 on the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).  Olusona was a students’ union activist nicknamed Beyond Jordan while he was at the University of Ibadan (UI).
 

Theophilus Bamgboye

 There are speculations in the state that the former military governor may renew his ambition and contest the 2011 governorship post on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he defected into.  A retired Colonel, Bamigboye contested for the number one seat in the state in 2007 on the platform of Accord Party (AP) but  lost to the incumbent, Governor Saraki.  However, he has refused to disclose his intention for 2011.
 

Lola Ashiru 

During 2007 elections, Lola Ashiru contested for Kwara South Senatorial seat under the then Action Congress (AC) but lost to Senator Simon Sulaiman Ajibola, who will be completing his second term in office at the Senate.
 

Khalil Bolaji

 Another governorship aspirant is Alhaji Khalil Bolaji of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). During the 2007 election, he was ANPP governorship candidate but lost to Dr. Bukola Saraki.

Meanwhile, speculations are on in the state that Dr. Olusola Saraki wants to impose her daughter, Rukiyat Gbemisola Saraki, who is a senator as, the next governor after the tenure of her brother.

Although posters of Saraki’s daughter are at present at different places in the state to confirm her intention to run for the 2011 governorship race, there are also anti-Gbemisola’s posters sighted in Ilorin.

Some time ago, Dr. Saraki told his supporters that he never informed anybody in any gathering or functions that his senator-daughter would succeed her brother, come 2011.

According to him, it is just a rumour carried by some people that do not have the interest of the state at heart, noting that he would never fight or quarrel with the governor on who succeeded him in 2011.

He opined that when it was time for Governor Saraki to pick who succeeds him, he will definitely do so because he is in control of the state and the party.

”People want to see me and my beloved son fight on who succeeds him, just like what happened during Lawal’s period.

“Bukola has done nothing wrong, he is doing his best for the state and I am proud of him, why should I choose his successor for him when I know that he can do that by himself?” he said.

He posited that all stakeholders in the state should rally round the governor so that, with little time left for him in office, he could deliver more dividends of democracy to the people of the state.

He equally warned his supporters not to cause a division among themselves, saying that the supporters of Gbemisola and those of Bukola were one as the family always remained united in the state.

However, there is a strong indication in the state that Senator Gbemisola Saraki is all out to contest the 2011 gubernatorial race, even though she has not indicated on what platform she will contest.

Already, she has started visiting some notable places in the state and her recent visit was Offa, where she was welcomed by the people of the community.

Again, some groups are already calling on her to contest for the 2011 governorship race, just as PDP in the state said they were yet to endorse anybody as the party’s governorship candidate for next year’s race.

For instance, a group of female students from some institutions of higher learning in the state has vowed to go on exile and walk the streets of Ilorin naked if Senator Saraki representing Kwara Central Senatorial District fails to contest the coming governorship poll.

Operating under the aegis of Distinct Ladies of Gbemisola Saraki Forum (DLGSF), the students, numbering 100, told newsmen that they were asking the senator “to come out of her hide-out” and declare her intention to contest for the post. Their operational office, they claimed, is at Kunti Area, Ilorin.

The coordinator of the DLGSF, Miss Bola Babs, said the senator, whether or not is from the family of Saraki, was immaterial to her political ambition, “after all, Dr. Olusola Saraki, who is the father of both, has the final say on who becomes the governor of Kwara.”

She added: “For some time now, we have been drumming it to the hearing of Senator Gbemisola Saraki to go out and represent the women folk, come 2011, but she has not answered us. We want her consent to become the next governor of this state, yet she has refused to answer us.”

National Chairman of Action Alliance (AA), Senator Suleiman Salawu, while speaking on the alleged ambition, remarked that from all records, Senator Saraki was far ahead in the race.

According to him, the senator maintains an open-door policy with members of her constituency and others outside, adding that she employed more people and gave them a living wage.

Another group called Gbemi Saraki Movement (GSM) has also given their total support to the senator.

The coordinator of the group, Mr. Odunlami Toyin, said that their mission was to see Senator Saraki elected as the first elected female governor of Kwara State and Nigeria as a whole.

Meanwhile, the alleged ambition of Gbemisola Saraki has caused some ripples in the fold of the state chapter of the PDP.

Chairman of the Kwara Central Senatorial District of the party, Alhaji Jimoh Adesina, while speaking with Saturday Tribune shortly after an emergency meeting of the senatorial district in Ilorin, declared that neither the party nor Governor Saraki had taken a final decision on who becomes the next governor of the state.

The chairman, who expressed dissatisfaction over the activities of some members of the party campaigning for a particular person as the next gubernatorial candidate of the party in 2011 election, said neither Dr. Saraki nor Governor Saraki had nominated any member in the state as the party’s standard bearer.

He warned that it was unethical for any member of the party to cause disharmony among the peace-loving members of the party, through what he termed “illegal campaign” for unauthorised gubernatorial candidate, even as he cited the party’s constitution to buttress his point, with a vow that the party would not hesitate to deal with recalcitrant members who continued to engage in act inimical to PDP’s interest.