By Según Oderinde
The godfather has bared his fangs. And the wound is mortal and mortifying. The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, otherwise the godfather of Kwara State politics, has ordered one of his favoured political godsons, the incumbent governor of the state, Abdulfattah Ahmed, to drop his ambition to fly the Kwara South flag in the next election.
Like a sniper bullet, the news penetrated his skull like a fatal head shot. It ricocheted through his soul, stripping him of hope and the piquancy that heralded his election campaign for senate come 2019.
Ahmed cried blue murder. He wept and wailed like a banshee. He ran from pillar to post seeking to get his mandate. Yet no dice!
Ahmed had won the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, ticket to contest the seat currently occupied by another Saraki stooge, Senator Abdulrafiu Ibrahim. Saraki had reportedly been agitated and angered by the party’s crushing loss in the recent bye-election into Ekiti/ Oke Ero/ Irepodun House of Representatives seat which became vacant following the death of Funke Adedoyin of the All Progressives Congress. The governor became the fall guy.
One of the major beneficiaries of the imperious political style of Saraki, Governor Ahmed is not likely to be aggrieved considering that he was a polytechnic lecturer turned banker before being appointed Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development at the outset of the Saraki administration.
He also served as Commissioner, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in the twilight days of Saraki’s second term. For him to become governor, Saraki forsook his father – the late Olusola Saraki – who preferred Gbemi, the Senate President’s younger sister to succeed him as governor. Father and son never quite reconciled before the former’s passing in 2012.
Now that he is holding the short end of the stick, Governor Ahmed has been running hither, thither in a bid to placate the godfather to have a change of mind, even getting several PDP governors to mediate on his behalf but Saraki’s mind seems made up.
In desperation, the governor caused a statement to be issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, where he said contrary to insinuations that he had dropped his ambition at Saraki’s behest, “Consultation had been going on before the November 17 elections within the political family to consider the request by the leadership of the Ibolo division of Kwara South, from where the current Senator hails, for a second tenure at the Senate.”
While describing the last by-election as a farcical exercise marked by voter intimidation, widespread disenfranchisement and the use of security agencies against PDP supporters and members, Ahmed said the result of such an exercise could, therefore, not have formed the basis of a review of his candidacy for the Kwara South Senatorial elections. He assured that PDP will win the general elections in the state as the people of Kwara have resolved never to allow such harassment by security agents again.
