The crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress took a new twist as a party chieftain and public affairs analyst, Musa Idris Buko, backed the emergence of the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Salihu Yakubu-Danladi, as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2027 election.
Buko, who was speaking on Arise Television’s The Morning Show, dismissed the notion that the state had entered a “mourning period” after the emergence of Danladi, insisting that the outcome of the primary was an expression of a wider demand for political inclusion, fairness and justice.
Dandladi’s emergence, it was reported, has split elders and stakeholders in the Kwara APC with one side endorsing his candidacy and defending Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq against allegations of imposition while another caucus rejected the process as flawed and lacking legitimacy.
Last week, an APC chieftain in the state, AbdulMajid Abdullahi, appeared on the same programme where he criticised the outcome of the primary and raised concerns over the internal process that produced Danladi.
“Kwara North has been left out.”
Buko said during the interview that the agitation for Kwara North to produce the next governor was rooted in the political history of the state.
He said Kwara State was created in 1967 and has three senatorial districts, Kwara Central, Kwara North and Kwara South but Kwara North has largely been shut out of the governorship seat.
“Kwara Central senatorial district has had the seat of governorship for over 19 years now, to be completed 20 years in 2027 and Kwara South senatorial district has had the opportunity for eight years,” he said.
“Kwara North senatorial district, which is the second largest demography in Kwara State, the largest landmass in Kwara State and the economic backbone of Kwara State, has not had the opportunity to be governor.
Buko added that the district had only managed to produce a governor for some 22 months before a military coup cut short the administration.
He argued that the call for power shift to Kwara North was not about partisan politics but a “people’s movement’’ supported by political actors, traditional rulers, artisans and stakeholders across the state.
Buko APC primary was democratic
The APC chieftain said the primary held on May 22 produced a clear winner following what he described as a democratic process.
He said the negative reaction to the exercise could be traced to four categories of people.
He said the first group is made up of supporters of the “One Kwara Project 2027” who believe that Kwara belongs to all its people and that political inclusion is necessary.
The second group, he said, comprised “sectional supremacists” who want one part of the state to continue to control political power, and the third group, he said, is made up of “gerontocrats,” who think that everything must be aligned to their choices.
The fourth group, he added, are the “rocking the boat mindset.”
“If it is not me, then everything should go down the drain,” Buko said. Most Kwarans in the three senatorial districts are glad and happy.”
He also praised President Bola Tinubu, the APC leadership and Governor AbdulRazaq for what he called democratic inclusion for a “critically marginalised” part of the state.
“Kwara is not in mourning mode. The category of people I have told you about are the people that are mourning presently,” he said.
Aggrieved aspirants told to respect party supremacy
Amid the division, Buko asked aggrieved stakeholders to accept party supremacy and work for unity ahead of the 2027 election.
“The way forward is to accept party supremacy, to know that the person that emerged, somebody must emerge. We can’t all have a job.
“We have 35 elective positions in Kwara State and we have over 160 aspirants,” he stated.
He urged the President, the governor and the national leadership of the APC to intervene and reconcile the aggrieved members, stressing that the party still needed all hands on deck going into the election.
“Kwara belongs to all of us and the outcome is in the interest of inclusiveness, strategic sustainable development of every nook and cranny of Kwara,” Buko added.
“It is in line with the principles of equity, fairness and justice”.
He also described Danladi’s emergence as a generational shift, adding that the Speaker is “barely 41 years old.
Danladi’s mass appeal’
Buko dismissed allegations that Danladi has no statewide appeal and that the primary was an imposition.
He said petitions and complaints after elections were normal in politics, but insisted the process that produced Danladi was democratic.
“There is no time an election is held in this country that there are no petitions at electoral tribunals. It is a natural process.
I want to believe that there are some demands from these stakeholders. They also want to be recognized and get some recognition. So I will urge the President and the governor of Kwara State to take them along.”
However, Buko accused some critics of trying to destabilise the party because their choice of aspirant did not come out.
He stressed that Danladi has the support of the grassroots and electoral value and has shown political strength in previous elections.
“The popularity, the electoral value and the grassroots rootedness of this candidate is unarguable,” he said. ”He is down to earth, accessible and has learnt the rudiment of governance and politics in the past seven years.”
APC chieftain calls for joint action against insecurity
Insecurity in Kwara State was also discussed in the interview and one of the interviewers asked why party leaders were talking more about politics than security challenges in the state.
Buko said insecurity in the state was caused by a number of factors, including landmass, international borders, national parks and wider global security concerns.
“There’s a lot of factors,” he said. I can enumerate up to 20 factors. We have the world war factor. We have the enormous landmass factor. We have the international border problem. We have factors for the national parks.
He said the federal and state governments were already working on the issue but stressed that security matters need strategic handling and collective action.
He said, “It requires the combined efforts of the federal government, the state government, the executive arms of government, the legislative arms of government, the judicial arms of government, the media and every responsible and patriotic citizen of Nigeria.”
“Security issues are not always issues that can be talked about openly in the same way as politics,” Buko added.
“Security issues are very strategic. You don’t come out in public and be saying it,” he said.
