By Abdulkadir Bolakale

For almost two years now, specifically after the last general election, it has been some sort of a battle to restrain myself from discussing the increasingly disturbing developments in the Kwara State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), particularly, the ridiculous dog-eat-dog intrigues going on in the party, but not anymore. Premised on the landmark performance of the Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration in Lagos, but oblivious of the tremendous resources available in the former federal capital, I relocated to my dear state to fight what I believed was an unacceptable hegemony of the Sarakis and to see if the Lagos success story could be replicated by our party, ACN.

This is why it has become expedient to shout so these fingers of monkeys can be removed from ACN soup pot on time before they turn to ‘poison’ in the face of the continuing desperation by some self-acclaimed party leaders in the state to impose their will on our party.

Indeed, what is happening in the ACN (or is it now APC?) today, reminds one of the bazaar of candidates imposition that characterised the last election where personal interests towered above people’s interest and ultimately drove the nail of defeat into the party.

Today, like an ingrafted skin leaving a scary mark on the body, that defeat has continued to haunt our party. There is no repeating the known fact that the party’s gubernatorial candidate at the election, Mohammed Dele Belgore, SAN, was merely preferred over other older and loyal party members because of his ‘Omo Alfa Agba’ background.

Shocking as the defeat by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was, especially after many party members risked their lives traveling at night as in the day, to rural communities to campaign for Alhaji Belgore, it hurts to think that the party leaders in the state have yet to learn any lesson from the past. This is why one feels strongly that ACN leadership needs to jettison the ‘I’ attitude and embrace the ‘we’ attitude in order to truly become a formidable opposition party capable of challenging for an elective office in the state. Truth remains that we have credible people who can give the PDP in the state a run for their money, but with a divided house even the best candidate would fail from within the party.

It would seem that some ‘political buccaneers’ in Kwara ACN are bent, once again, on foisting their selfish interest on the rest of us. They do not want internal democracy in our party, yet like kettle calling pot black, they want us to criticize and see nothing good in the ruling party. What a deceit? One thought that the first thing to do by a party deserving victory would have been to wake every party member from their deep sleep, before the talk of who should go for what elective office. This is the tragedy besetting Kwara ACN, which unfortunately, those who should know have overlooked, blinded by greed and selfishness., ,

Otherwise, how would one explain the sudden removal of the Acting State party chairman, KayodeGbengaOlawepo, and replacing same with his Secretary, MrToyinAyinla, purportedly chosen by a hurriedly constituted Interim Party Executive Committee and other allied stakeholders? While this move has since been roundly condemned by well-meaning party members, including the National Working Committee,(NWC), who described it as disrespectful, null and void, and an affront on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, it, no doubt, has left a very serious credibility question on the party, and also left the party vulnerable to unkind gestures and attacks from other political parties, especially the PDP. No matter how this drama turns out at the end, the party still has a hurdle to cross as it is faced with the challenge of harmonizing the divergent opinions over which zone in the state will produce the ACN governorship flag bearer in 2015. While the party’s members from Kwara Central, sees no need to change Alhaji Belgore, who, though the party’s Leader, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, seems skeptical about his loyalty, but is not ready to confront the dilemma, a faction loyal to the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, understandably, appears disposed to someone from Kwara South.

Abdulkadir Bolakale wrote in from Ilorin.