By Mumini AbdulKareem
On Tuesday, the leadership of the Kwara state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was literarily thrown into dilemma of a sort when the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party approved for the state Indirect Primary for its forthcoming gubernatorial primaries slated for Saturday in Ilorin.
The decision to particularly adopt the mode of primary for Kwara state which jolted stakeholders and leading gubernatorial aspirants subsequently attracted outright rejection from the elders of the party back home.
On Wednesday, the party elders in a press conference held in Ilorin and read by Alhaji Lasisi Jimoh (LAK), described the decision as unacceptable and a rape on “our collective sense of humanity as a people and a contradiction to the principle of fairness and justice”.
But since the decision of the national leadership, many political analysts have describe the development as a case of the voice of Jacob and hand of Esau; accusing Tinubu of using the extremely unpopular model in the state to imposed his candidate on the state APC for the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
They argued that issue of direct and indirect primaries by the leadership of the party was the sole idea of the former Lagos Governor to handpick and anoint the governorship candidate for Kwara in his quest to dominate the political atmosphere and collapse the leadership of Senate President and political leader in Kwara, Dr Bukola Saraki.
Many of the narratives out there however see the last minute entry of Dele Belgore (SAN) into the race under the APC platform as the beginning of the actualisation of the grand plot by Tinubu especially in the light of the long standing personal and family relationship that had existed between the former’s family and Belgores.
Although, past attempts by Tinubu had failed with the likes of Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed during the ACN days and even Belgore in the 2011 election, the present political dynamics in the country which led to the defection of Saraki from the APC have reportedly renewed the long held plot to wrestle power from Saraki at home.
With the present situation, many political observers in the state have weighed the implication for the Kwara APC aspirants many of whom have mouthed the cry for freedom and liberation struggle as the reason for ditching the Senate President.
Bearing in mind the sad narrative of the dichotomy between the Emirate and Yoruba chieftaincy imbroglio which almost crippled the state few years back, the present situation will definitely be a worst case scenario for our freedoms fighters who will now be receiving orders and political sovereignty from Lagos with all the attendant effect on our traditional and historical heritage.
