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.

Having contributed my quota to the little success recorded by the party in the last general election, I felt it would be a disservice to the collective efforts of all the young men and women, who worked for our party to watch and allow a few individuals tumble down the party’s growing goodwill on the ego table. 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 engrafted 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, lacked the verisimilitude of a true democrat, as he 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.

Sad enough, this talk of who gets what, or, should contest this or that post, is coming at a time when our leaders at the national level, kudos to Asiwaju’s strategic thinking, are working cohesively ahead of 2015 election.

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.

How really can our dear party survive this shameful display and be trusted by voters? Have we not succeeded in painting our great party as that which has no respect for hierarchy and simple democratic norms?

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, see 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. Yet, again, members from Kwara North, a zone that has never had an opportunity, is angling for a shot.

While our party leaders are merely read on the pages of Newspapers either antagonizing or abusing government of the PDP without proffering options to move the state to the next level, everyone sees as Saraki and other members of the PDP empower the youths and engage in developmental strides in form of scholarships for a number of indigent students, financial empowerment for small scale businesses and provision of boreholes and transformers to complement government efforts at making life more meaningful for the people. Waiting close to elections by our party leaders to carry out such empowerment and development actions will only query the altruism of our leaders. Who will trust us when we appear in the nick of elections to distribute vests and fez caps? Some of us are sick and tired of this camouflage.

For our party to win the people’s confidence and translate same to electoral victory in 2015, I think there must be leaders who are restless and selfless, and ready to make sacrifices. For, if with about N2.6billion monthly federal allocation and an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) maybe, in the region of N700million, the PDP leadership has been able to steadily transform the state into an haven of investment, it is without repetition that our party must recreate the never say die attitude of people like Governor Raji Babatunde Fashola, Senator Bola Tinubu, governor Adams Oshiohmole, Dr Kayode Fayemi and a host of other ACN leaders doing well in their states, for us to stand a chance at the elections.

But with what is going on in the party, today, it would probably take the blind not to see that the door to Government House in 2015 could have been closed against our party, except a miracle happens. All over the world, politics is fast moving from a ‘me’ standpoint to an ‘us’ philosophy. A development that has compelled political parties to join hands with the party that is already doing well for the people than seeking new grounds for a new government, particularly where its leaders lack self-discipline and cannot deliver. So, candidly, if ACN cannot provide a better alternative and doing so beginning from within, isn’t it better we joined the PDP to sustain developments in the state? A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

Abdulkadir Bolakale writes from Ilorin