The 2015 election in Kwara State is clearly a two-horse race between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, writes Hammed Shittu

Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) registered its presence in Kwara State, it has successfully penetrated the nooks and crannies of the 16 local government councils of the state, setting strategies and platform to outwit its rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of next year's general election.

The growing popularity of the APC in the politics of the state is not far-fetched as the presumed political leader of the state and senator representing Kwara Central district, Senator Bukola Saraki had diffused all his political structures from his former party, PDP into the APC. This, expectedly, has continued to give the APC a greater patronage in the state.

Apart from this, the defection of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, who was one of the G-5 PDP governors that defected to APC, 22 out of 24 lawmakers in the state House of Assembly and mass defection of all the 16 council chairmen, vice chairmen, 180 councillors and supervisory councillors of the affected councils in the state has enhanced the growth of the APC in the state.

The development has continued to assist the defection of more PDP members to APC as witnessed in Oyun local government council of the state where over 3000 members of the PDP publicly defected to APC in Erin-Ile town.

As if that was not enough, members and the leaders of the legacy parties- ACN, CPC, ANPP and APGA led by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Kayode Olawepo, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, Alhaji Tauwo Eleja, Alhaji Suleiman Buhari and Alhaji Saliu Mustapha among others have also pledged their commitment to Saraki's political leadership in the state in order to ensure the electoral victory of the APC. They have continued to add value to the growth of the party in Kwara State.

Politicians from Offa which happens to be a major opposition town in the state to the Sarakis for many years have returned to the Saraki empire and they are now working together to ensure the growth of the APC in the state. These members have been on the ground and they have become foot soldiers in the task of ensuring the growth of APC in the state.

Although there are some aggrieved members of one of the legacy parties that formed APC in the state, allegedly in sympathy with a former governorship candidate of the ACN during the last election in the state, Mr. Muhammed Dele Belgore (SAN) and have even threatened to form a new APC, the national leadership of APC as well as Belgore have dissociated themselves from such an association and had called on the people to disregard the information.

But Senator Saraki in a recent chat with journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, vowed that the APC would control the state and even win the forthcoming general election. "I want to tell you that APC will win 2015 polls in Kwara; we will win all elections in Kwara State, Insha Allah for as long we have the political machinery.

"What should interest you is that everywhere our political machinery goes to, we win elections. Not that PDP has been winning elections right from 1999. In 1999, PDP did not win. We voted for PDP under the alliance of APP and PDP at that time. In 2003, we were in PDP and PDP won. So now we are in APC and APC has already done first salvo because it has the majority. APC will win the elections.”

While calling on the teeming supporters of APC to come out en masse during this month's party registration in the state, Saraki said this would assist the party to have more members and therefore put the party forward to achieve its electoral success in next year's general election in the state.
However, the PDP in the state, has begun to re-organise and re-strengthen itself in order to regain the state in the forthcoming general elections.

Although the Saraki dynasty had taken away its political structure from the PDP, the remnants in the PDP has taken the bull by the horns to work as a team and ensure the electoral victory of the party in the state. Political pundits in the state believe that with support from the presidency, the party is likely to spring surprises in the polls.

The party is already parading people like the Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, Senator Simeon Ajibola, Senator Suleiman Ajadi, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, former minister of Transport, Hon. Issa Bio, Mrs. Serah Jubril, Chief Rex Olawoye, former commissioner for Information and Alhaji Abdulmumin Katibi among others.

Though after the defection of the new PDP leaders in the state, the national secretariat of the PDP had put in place, a caretaker committee led by Hon. Solomon Edoja from Delta State to oversee the day-to-day affairs of the PDP in the state. The committee has commenced work in earnest and has been reaching to some stakeholders in the state so as to ensure the electoral victory of the party.
At his inaugural sitting in Ilorin recently, Edoja told journalists that the party would still win next general election in the state in spite of the defection of some key members of the party to the APC, saying "the PDP possesses necessary political structure that would earn the party electoral victory during the period. With the political structure in Kwara, it is crystal clear that PDP will still win all elections in the 2015 general election.

“It has shown that PDP is highly acceptable in the state and nothing shall make it prove otherwise as the party is waxing stronger,” Edoja said, adding that his leadership as the caretaker chairman was put in place by the national leadership to erect a wining machinery ahead of the general election.

“If any election is scheduled to hold tomorrow, PDP will win landslide in Kwara State. We shall win by demonstrating our 'One Man, One Vote' mantra," he stressed

He however confirmed that Kwara PDP has acquired a new building for its secretariat named 'Freedom House' as part of steps towards accommodating more members who desire freedom from economic and social bondage.
“A grand reception has been organised to host our national officers into the state soon and meeting will commence from ward, local government, senatorial districts as well as state level as part of consultation move," he said.

As it stands today in the state, the only two political parties to watch in Kwara in 2015 are the APC and the PDP. The political history of the state always radiates wherever the Sarakis switch to and now that the Saraki political structure had been taken out of PDP to APC, the battle for the soul of Kwara is between the PDP and APC in 2015.