After the crushing defeat occasioned by the O to gee mantra at the presidential and national assembly elections last week, the Saraki dynasty bequeathed to the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, by his father, Olusola, appears to have collapsed like the Berlin wall as predicted. KEHINDE OSASONA in this report looks at discontents and other factors that led to what analysts referred to as electoral massacre as well as the sudden change of narrative.
Political analysts watched with keen interest when the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, during a campaign tour of Ilorin South, promised to deliver more prosperity to the people of his constituency and the state in general in the days preceding last Saturday’s elections.
Saraki had said he would consolidate on the previous gains by delivering more dividends of democracy to the people of the state. “With your mandate, I have facilitated considerable constituency and intervention projects to Kwara state. Once again, I have come to seek your renewed mandate and support. I will consolidate on previous gains and deliver more prosperity to our people,” he said.
Saraki further emphasised the need for Nigerians to vote en masse for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, whom he said had the capacity to make Nigeria work again and eradicate poverty from the land.
Ironically, the outcome of last week’s presidential elections in the state, buoyed by the O to gee mantra aptly captures the present mood in Kwara and it appears as if the political narrative has changed.
Expert speaks
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, a political analyst, Afeez Abdulahi, said, “If anyone had told Saraki that a former beneficiary of his father political benevolence, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, would be his nemesis and eventually puncture his return to the red chamber, he would probably not have believed it. But the truth is, it has happened, the Saraki monarchical hegemony has crumbled.
Before the ‘tsunami’
In the thick of the campaigns as the governorship aspirant of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) in Kwara in 2011, the current presidential candidate of People’s Trust (PT), Gbenga Olawepo Hashim ,had said the greatest gift anybody could give to the people of Kwara state “is to ensure that elections in the state are free and fair.”
“Kwarans have endured a lot of insults due to the atrocities allegedly committed by people like former President Olusegun Obasanjo who foisted on them the so-called Saraki dynasty. Should there be a free and fair election in Kwara state today, the so-called dynasty would be demystified and the people of the state would breathe some fresh air,” he had said.
Similarly, an elders’ committee which comprised former civilian governor of the state and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Barrister Sambo and Dr Amuda Aluko, among other leaders from the three senatorial districts, had demonstrated its unrepentant opposition to the political rulership of the Saraki dynasty over the years.
The setting up of the campaign Advisory Council and the Elders’ Consultative Forum back then was part of the activities to galvanise the people of the state behind the collective effort to free Kwara from alleged misrule, corruption and oppression.
Corroborating the looming ‘tsunami’ at a political gathering shortly after Saraki’s defection, the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, hinted that the people of the state were ready to demystify the Senate President Bukola Saraki in the 2019 general elections, saying “Saraki’s reign is over.”
He said: “I am not saying this because I am probably the most senior surviving member of the ruling party; I am saying this because I can feel the pulse of the people of Kwara state.
“For the first time in Kwara state, people have now resolved that no longer will one man control their destiny. Young, old, male, female, north and south have all united that by 2019, they are going to liberate themselves.”
Saraki’s loyalists, deserters
Unconfirmed report has it that some Kwara elite within the emirates and in the Diaspora may have plotted Saraki’s defeat.
Analysts opine that the position of Saraki came under threat when some of his former aides considered as political strategists and backbone deserted him and joined the O to ge revolt.
As at the last counts, Yinka Aluko, the former security aide to Saraki during the latter’s tenure as governor of Kwara state who left his former boss before the 2015 general elections to become a running mate to then PDP candidate, Simeon Ajibola, but has now defected into the APC.
Similarly, a former chief of staff and secretary to the state government, AbdulGaniyu Cook Olododo, who has now become Reps-elect for Ilorin East/South Constituency and lately, his ex-special adviser on inter-parliamentary affairs, protocol and special duties on national assembly matters, Moshood Mustapha, who have now swollen the ranks of O to gee camp.
In 2018, the coordinator, Kwara Rescue Alliance, Abdulsalam Ibrahim, boasted that 70 political youth groups in Kwara State had formed an alliance to unseat and puncture Saraki political dominance, citing bad governance and misrule.
According to the group spokesperson, the residents of the state had yet to enjoy dividends of democracy under the Saraki dynasty, saying there was a need to liberate the people from misrule.
“The alliance was to reposition the opposition and make it more vibrant so that there would be a change of government in 2019. As we speak, 70 youth political groups has formed an alliance to unseat Saraki because the state has lost direction completely and we have no hope in the possibility of a change especially by the ruling government.
“We feel that even the opposition that is currently in the state needs some guidance,” he said.
Also, early in the year, as practical step to end the era of slavery
and poverty in Kwara politics, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had inaugurated 18,720 polling canvassers in Ilorin, with a charge to the group tagged: Buhari/Osinbajo Project (BOP) 2019, “to rescue the state from those who have held it by the jugular.”
The ceremony was attended by Lai Mohammed, the minister of information, who is also the Kwara APC leader, as well as Mr Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of transportation and director-general, President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign organisation.
He said: “Today marks the most practical demonstration of our determination to rescue Kwara from those who have held it by the jugular, those who have pauperised our people, the pathologically-dishonest ones who govern by deceit.
“We are inaugurating an army of well-recruited, tested and trusted canvassers, who will go from house to house in each of the 1,872 polling units to tell our people why they must vote for President Muhammadu Buhari and all the candidates of the APC right here in Kwara state in the 2019 general elections.
“Gathered here today are 1,872 canvassers representing the 18,720 canvasses – that is one canvasser per polling unit across the 193 wards in Kwara state; we are also inaugurating today 193 ward co-ordinators, 193 ward secretaries, 193 ward women leaders and 193 ward youth leaders.”
The minister also said the canvassers would be the party’s victory army, “the army that will dismantle the gargantuan edifice of corruption and mis-governance that has held our dear state down for too long.”
“The unprecedented move remained the most potent weapon against the opposition who are the enemies of the state and the oppressors of the people. Democracy is about the people. The people’s votes are their most powerful weapon against bad governance, and they are the keys for unlocking the door of democratic dividends.
“Such votes should only go to those who truly deserve them, those who have a proven record of performance, not those whose only claim to victory is their perverted sense of entitlement.”
Political voyagers
Meanwhile, while predicting his victory ahead of the February 23 polls at a press conference in Lagos, Dr. Ibrahim Oloreigbe, his main contender, condemned Saraki’s style of governance, saying “they are political voyagers and power merchants who don’t share the Islamic values and culture of leadership.”
A former majority leader in the Kwara House of Assembly, Oloriegbe’s popularity cannot be said to dwarf that of Saraki before the election, but his candidature has received a boost because of the O to ge revolt.
Still on Saraki, Oloriegbe said “the people of his constituency had been poorly represented at the federal level and this has deprived us of legitimate human, fiscal, economic and developmental entitlements.”
Oloriegbe also boasted that he had received the blessing of the Senate president’s sister, Gbemisola Saraki.
Gbemisola’s influence
Saraki’s journey to the Senate, Blueprint Weekend recalls, began when he defeated his sister, Gbemisola, a development that almost polarised the family’s political structure.
A few days to the election, Gbemisola was captured in a video campaigning for President Buhari.
But in a counter-reaction, Saraki laughed off Oloriegbe’s boast that he would defeat him in the senatorial election in the district.
In a statement by his spokesperson, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki said the APC candidate would receive his greatest shock when the result of the poll was read.
The statement read in part: “Dr Ibrahim Oloriegbe is not a candidate in the senatorial election. Rather, he is the candidate of a faction in the APC, the Bolarinwa faction, which the court, in a subsisting and unchallenged judgement, rejected and rather, recognised the Balogun-Fulani faction.
“Oloriegbe belongs to a group of people known in Kwara state as ‘seasonal or visiting’ politicians. The people do not see them. They don’t relate with the people. They don’t help the people and their community until six months to the election when they move in noxious money and they start printing posters.”
Although analysts are of the view that the biggest intrigue playing out in the senatorial district emanates from the renewed anti-Saraki dynasty revolt in Ilorin and other parts of the state, it is also believed that the exits of some of Saraki erstwhile loyalists and associates due to irreconcilable differences may have worked against Saraki’s PDP.
The O to gee as Saraki’s albatross
Although, it was described as ‘inciting’ by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of the ruling PDP when it first berthed via billboards which were strategically positioned across the three senatorial districts, the coinage O to gee later became a campaign revolution, now spreading like wild fire and has become Saraki’s albatross.
The revolt, which eventually captured the street lingo, surprisingly took the life of its own from the heart of Ilorin and has continued to spread like wild fire to other parts of the state.
Amids chant of O to gee the raging political battle for control of Kwara soul also took a dangerous dimension when the annual fundraising ceremony of Ilorin Emirates Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) ended abruptly following the clash by the supporters of the two warring politicians.
The gathering became riotous when Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the governorship candidate of the APC, was invited to the podium by the organisers to announce his donation. At that point, his supporters reportedly hailed him with his O to gee political slogan and were shouted down by the overwhelming supporters of the senate president.
The party’s adopted slogan had been a subject of friction between it and the ruling PDP in the state who resulted to destroying down each others’ billboards across the state.
Consequently, the state government directed the state controlled signage agency to outlaw O to gee usage.
But while condemning the vandalism of APC billboards bearing O to gee inscription across the state, the candidate for Kwara South senatorial district, Arc Lola Ashiru, describe it as “undemocratic.”
Has the ‘Berlin Wall’ collapsed?
With the declaration by Lai Mohammed that February 23 be declared as Kwara Liberation Day immediately the new government comes to power in the state, it would not be out of place to ask if Kwara’s ‘Berlin Wall’ has finally collapsed?
While addressing a press conference with stakeholders of the party in the state, the minister was quoted as saying: “It is a clean sweep for our party, the All Progressives Congress. All three seats in the Senate and all six in the House of Representatives were won by our party.
“The match between our party and the PDP ended 10-0 (1 President, 3-0 Senatorial, and 6-0 House of Reps). With the outcome of last Saturday’s elections, I can now conveniently say that Kwara is Free! Free from a choking and pauperising political hegemony of a self-imposed dynasty!
“Never again will Kwarans be treated like slaves in their own land. Enough is Enough. O to gee!”
The minister also said: “I want to ask the incoming governor of our state to, immediately he is sworn in on May 29, 2019, declare February 23 of every year as the Day of Liberation for Kwara state. Today, the Berlin Wall of Kwara politics has fallen. The chain has been broken. The good people of Kwara have ensured that.
“The victory in Kwara was achieved in the sweetest way. The election was conducted in an atmosphere of peace and security. Not a single shot was fired throughout Kwara. No one snatched ballot box. It was an atmosphere of conviviality. It was a sharp departure from what used to be in the state.
“It confirms what we have been saying, that when there is adequate security, there will be a level playing ground for all the parties, and for all Kwarans.”
What next?
Meanwhile, Saraki has conceded defeat after losing his re-election bid as the senator representing Kwara Central.
Saraki who polled 68,994 votes to emerge a distant second to Dr Ibrahim Yahya Oloriegbe, the candidate of the APC who got 123,808 votes, said although the election was “generally peaceful” it was marred by “multiple voting, over-voting and other discrepancies.”
“I wish the candidates that emerged in the Kwara polls all the best in their attempts to serve our people. It is my prayer that the good people of Kwara State will always have the best from any government both at the state and federal levels,” he said.
When contacted to speak on the Kwara scenario, a governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the state, Barr Manzuma Issa, declined to comment, saying “as candidate for governorship, I prefer to keep mute for now.”
However, in a reaction, a concerned Kwaran and chieftain of the APC from Ilorin west, Ibrahim Ayinla, said: “With this defeat, I believe Saraki and his co-horts have been humbled by the superior power of aggrieved Kwarans.
“I also think that this development would teach our elective representative that we Kwarans are not cowards as erroneously perceived by Nigerians. Today, liberation has come and no one dare take Kwarans for granted again.”
