The growing endorsements for the second term bid of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State are a booster for the governor, writes Shola Oyeyipo

Some few months back, the growing concern among supporters of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State was that as a factor of political expediency – not non-performance – the governor may not secure a second term ticket of his party and for so many reasons.
The fear emanated from the consideration that after the defection of the governor, his predecessor, Senator Bukola Saraki and practically all other elected officials from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the best option would have been to pick an APC candidate from Kwara Central senatorial district in order to effectively contain the PDP which has continued to boast that it would reclaim the state.

This calculation is however predicated on the fact that Kwara Central has the highest number of voters in the state and also that the PDP is likely to pick its candidate from that part of the state. But where the PDP picks it candidate from the Central, it would hope to divide votes with the APC in the South senatorial district, where the governor comes from and work to garner as much votes as possible from the North in the quest to defeat the incumbent governor and reclaim the state.

But recent developments in the state may have altered all that, reason being last week’s endorsement of Governor Ahmed for second term by the Emir of Lafiagi, Alhaji Kawu Haliru, who lent his voice to the barrage of endorsements coming for the governor from the district.

The event was a town hall meeting convened by political office holders from Kwara North which comprise Moro, Edu, Patigi, Kaiama and Baruten, where spokesperson of various groups and associations from the formal and informal sectors showered encomiums on the governor and cited the alleged spread of developmental projects and empowerment schemes in all parts of the state as their conviction that the governor deserves a second term.

Though there have been several second term endorsements for Governor Ahmed in the state’s political circle, Haliru’s endorsement is a valuable one and which could actually be the game changer in the coming election, if indeed the monarch spoke the minds of his people.

This is so because the North, like the Central also votes in bulk and has the second highest voting strength after Central. Outside that, the contention had been that the North senatorial district is also clamouring for the governorship. But where a large variety of groups, student bodies and even a revered traditional ruler are saying the governor deserves a second term, such issue may have been laid to rest and paved the way for the incumbent.

This, coupled with the relentless efforts of the governor’s kinsmen from South senatorial district, who have embarked on an aggressive mobilisation drive aimed at getting people from the district, who are resident in Lagos and other parts of the country to return to the state for voters’ registration ahead of the next governorship election may as well put the governor in a comfortable position for the election because Kwara Central, which could be a source of concern is also Senator Saraki’s stronghold.

But the PDP in the state does not see it that way. To them endorsement does not translate to electoral victory and also because the traditional ruler that pronounced the endorsement was not necessarily saying the minds of the voting populace.

The Kwara State PDP deputy publicity secretary, Mr. Femi Yusuf who gave the party’s official position to the endorsement doubted the originality of the endorsement and flayed it as unreliable in the face of election.

“Let me tell you the candid view of our party to the endorsement, we see it as a mere figment of the imagination of the APC. It does not provide the party with any leverage when election proper comes.

“That aside, the traditional ruler is a civil servant who gets salary from the state government monthly. So what do you expect? When they are endorsing him for a second term what would warrant the endorsement - what have they done to the area to say he should continue in office?

“You can only deserve endorsement if you have surpassed the previous administrations, but the past 12 years have shown that the people in the North senatorial district have been neglected. Go to Baruten or Kayama, Lafiagi and Patigi to see for yourself,” Femi said, noting that the endorsement came from the traditional rulers with the prompting of the state government. 

This is however contrary to the position expressed by a former Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Raheem Adedoyin, who is currently a Special Adviser on Communication Strategy to Governor Ahmed.

According to Adedoyin, the governor, through his Shared Prosperity Agenda, has sustained the impactful developmental momentum of his predecessor and actually deserves the support of well-meaning people in the state to continue his people-oriented projects.
“He has successfully consolidated on the projects of the former governor and opened up new ones with direct bearing on the lives of the people and that simply explains why the people are clamouring for his comeback,” he said.

He cited some of the projects that the government carried out in past three years to include the Independent Power Project (IPP) to drive industrialisation, rehabilitation of schools, construction of 800km of roads and embarking on operation no potholes.

The administration also introduced Harmony Holdings, Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWABES), completed the construction of the Aviation College started by the Saraki administration and built an international standard Vocational Centre at Ajase-Ipo.

The Governor Ahmed-led government, he said, also reduced fees payable by students in the state-owned Kwara State University (KWASU) and provided N100 million micro credit facility to micro and small scale enterprises as a way of empowering the people.
According to him, five General Hospitals in various parts of the state have been rehabilitated with 13 ambulances and drugs provided to hospitals. Likewise, 234 boreholes were sunk while 17 water works were rehabilitated.

The government, he claimed, had also installed transformers in 135 communities and connected several rural communities to the national grid while farmers also get support from the government, particularly in the area of provision of fertilizer.

These and some other projects that the government had initiated across the state are considered as the factors selling the administration to the people and not sheer politics. But how much that would eventually help the governor secure a second term is what many are waiting to see in the age of PDP’s stomatocracy.