By Wahab Oba
Over the past six years, Kwara State under Ogbeni Alade has witnessed alarming economic stagnation, gross financial mismanagement, and a disturbing pattern of political vendettas. His administration has launched a deliberate assault on our highly cherished traditional institutions and communal values. In the same vein, there have been inhumane urban renewal policies that have destroyed the life-long investments of innocent citizens, often without fair or adequate compensation.
Rather than empowering the state indigenous contractors, whose wealth circulates within and uplifts our communities, Alade prefers foreign contractors, exporting both opportunities and prosperity out of the state. Charity, they say, begins at home, but in his government, charity is outsourced. This is economic sabotage and a true example of poor leadership.
Kwara’s place near the bottom rung of the national GDP ladder is not just a statistic. It is a somber metaphor for a land of promise shackled by underperformance. It speaks to dreams deferred, talents untapped, and potentials deliberately dimmed by an administration bereft of vision. When a state so rich in heritage and intellect finds itself trailing in prosperity, the blame lies not with its people but with leaders who have traded economic growth for personal glory. For the ordinary Kwaran, this ranking translates to silent factories, unemployed youths, neglected farmlands, and a future mortgaged by mediocrity. It is a call to awaken, to reclaim a destiny stolen by indifference and misgovernance.
It is of note that in a frantic effort to tighten his hold on power and mask the ashes of failed leadership, Ogbeni Alade now schemes a backdoor third term, hiding behind the veil of a loyal proxy, rehearsing the script of his political twin in Kogi State. In another time, championing a successor might have been noble. But his reign has danced to the drums of waste, impunity, and a deliberate darkness. Kwara cannot afford another chapter of deception wrapped in reckless governance. This is no longer politics. It is a wildfire threatening all we hold dear. And when a house is in flames, none stand idle. We do not ask who fetched the water. We all fetch water.
This is why all hands must be on deck. The coming election must not be about sentiments, patronage, or compensation. It must be about winning. Being on the ballot is not enough; being on the ballot to win is what matters. Patronage can only follow victory. And victory only comes when the right candidate is chosen, not based on personal ties, but on street credibility, clean records, and a wide network of support across every section of Kwara.
We must rise and reject the arrogance of exclusion, the worn-out mantra that some aspirants are ‘not within the structure.’ It is not only divisive; it is a relic of a fading order. Those who chant this parochial hymn neither love the state nor the system they pretend to defend. Their gospel is not of service, but of self, anchored in ambition, not the people. They vanish in the trenches of struggle, only to reappear at the dawn of elections, circling like vultures over a feast they did not hunt. These are the proverbial kites, feasting on the chicks of the hen that once gave them warmth. But the season of silent submission is over, Kwara must speak and start to speak now.
Thankfully, the leadership insists on the voices of the people as the true custodians of democracy. The last local government elections, though brazenly rigged by Alade’s government, revealed the people’s resolve. They voted their conscience, even when the results did not reflect their will.
Now is not the time for political tourists who come and go at will. He who was not present when the corpse was buried should not come to exhume it. Those who stayed through thick and thin, who weathered the storm without benefits or appointments, who kept the flame of the system alive, they deserve the front seat.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
The next election is that moment of challenge. Let us not miss it.
Let us rise, unite, and act, not just to contest, but to win and to restore dignity, justice, and progress of Kwarans and kwara State.
