By Ibraheem Abdullateef

The politics of the next elections has not started. The real politicians and power players understand that and are probably sitting somewhere watching and laughing at the neophytes prowling the scenes now. We can liken the ongoing exchanges in the media as the strikes of thunder and storms before the rain, which often have no significance on how heavy the water will fall.

The incumbent Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is performing excellently, breaking new grounds daily, and further making it difficult for the opposition parties to build any real strength and alliances across the aisles. Out of blinding frustration and confusion, it appears the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is rather driven to further insult the sensibilities of the electorate after they rejected them in the last gubernatorial polls.

PDP is the kind of a political group that gives you a sheep to rear and demand of you your life in return as a show of gratitude. It is evident in the manners the party has gone about so far to demand Kwara North of respect for the favour they never did to them.

In 2023, the party gave Shuaibu Yaman Abdullah the gubernatorial ticket against the incumbent Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. I remember dubbing it a ‘leprous ticket.’ It was dirty, dolorous, and dead on arrival. Not even their godfather Mr Bukola Saraki would have won either the guber or senatorial seat if he were on the ballot that year. The outcome of that election would prove me right, as the party was rejected flatly across the 3 senatorial districts.

Looking at the results, the easiest thing was to blame Kwara Northerners for not voting for their son at the polls. But the real job is in having the wisdom and courage to understand the psychology and the aspirations of the people. They simply were not ready again, and were right, to let another gamer use them as tools to reinvent an accursed dynasty. It was not a Kwara North thing.

It was not only Yaman who lost his local government. Mr Bukola didn’t only lose his local government, he lost all the four in his district, and could not deliver even a single House of Assembly member. This was a two-term Governor, former senate president, and the national leader of the party. Much more than a Yaman or Kwara North problem, the 2023 electoral shellacking was a Bukola Saraki issue, and by extension the party’s to fix. It is gross shallowness and cheap hypocrisy for Saraki’s followers to continue to taunt Kwara electorate for the failure of their party to garner support and goodwill for their political cause. The latest diatribe from the party’s spokesperson Olusegun Olusola Adewara, branding the Northerners’ appeal as “babies cry” is more of advertisement of his lack of awareness, foresight, and indecency. But we will come back to that.

At the centre of this crisis of communication is a glaring lack of political identity. In 2019 after it has failed to fulfill its promise to them that year at the primaries, the PDP sought to posture as a party that recognised and respected zoning . It entered into a memorandum with Kwara North leaders to support power shift. In the process and up to the last elections, it called them beautiful names just to trick them into unholy alliances. Barely two years after that hit brick wall, how the party has turned around not only to denounce zoning but continously ridicule the whole district and its people, for simply exercising their rights like other districts, is something they must not miss. It is a full unveiling of the crisis of identity in PDP, its stark hypocrisy, and the measure of respect and honour they have for them, and have had over the years.

Now coming back to Adewara, Kwara PDP spokesperson’s comment, it also underscores the understanding of Saraki as a leader. He seems to have also decided to hang the North for rejecting his Greek gift, thereby ultimately cancelling them for future alliances. But what kind of a (true) leader shirks responsibility? Not the one with the big balls and the vision befitting of a statesman expected to build bridges and coalesce people across cultures and tribes to unite them for sustainable development. Shall we not begin to fear for Kwara South now that Mr Saraki might also never forgive them for the ‘sins’ of Governor Ahmed?

The interesting thing about PDP’s statement is that it is early. The party has decided to give every politician and the people of Kwara North a middle finger, right ahead of the electioneering. They say they don’t understand them; need them; or seek to hear them as they are “babies.” It is some sort of statement they should study, analyse, translate and share with their people from house to house, ward to ward, up to every local government for full and contextual understanding. I hope they have put this down accordingly for prosperity sake. Now and in the future, there is only one party and leader that recognises, respects and values the existence and aspirations of every part of Kwara: it is Governor AbdulRazaq and the APC. Let the record bear it.

Away from its Northern somersault, there is another nuance to some of the PDP operatives’ public commentary. It dwells on the outright regionalising of leadership selection process. It must be understood as an old trick to mask its small pool of credible, competent, and experienced aspirants as a party long deserted by people of goodwill. When things are stripped to the barest minimum, can we find just two people within their ranks today with a demonstrated history of moral and financial integrity, competence, and courage befitting 21st-century leadership? Yet, this is what APC’s men have speaking for them so far despite none of them coming out to declare officially yet.

The APC is spoiled for choices across the districts. There you have the answer as to why, so far, PDP’s main strategy has been to pitch a section of the state against the other. But the folly in that is that, neither the North, Central, nor South is ready to fight each other. Kwara never and will not disintegrate flagrantly along party lines.

Regardless of where each of the two major political parties pick their guber candidates, there will be no Kwara North Vs Central or South. Did MDB win Central against Maigida in 2011? Did Yaman win North in 2023? It will be PDP vs APC. The conquest will be decided majorly on the strength of the party, its record of performance, and its demonstrated ideals of democracy. The dearth of capability PDP is hiding will soon be visible as the war it is hoping to incite will not happen, and its _yansh_ shall be opened one more time, again. May God keep us alive.

•Abdullateef is the Senior Special Assistant to Kwara Governor on Communications