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The Kwara State Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is playing a strange kind of politics that is not known or understood by many, including some of his ally and associates.
His approach to politics and political balancing has been described by some as political nonsense.
In the absence of context or understanding of Gov. Abdulrahman’s approach, confusion and even misunderstanding is inevitable, hence my decision to make sense from the governor’s political nonsense.
First and foremost, it must be understood that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is an highly experienced politician, but he’s not a typical politician.
He’s an experienced politician because he was born into a political family and have been playing the game at top for over 20 years, leading to his eventual emergence as a state governor. But he’s not a typical politician because, politics for him is not a profession, but a hobby, which he plays, only after being done with his main business.
To a typical politician, politics of who gets what and how is the ultimate, but to Abdulrahman, politics is only a means to an end, it is not an end on its own.
A typical politician will see failure to get political office, either elected or appointed as ultimate blow, but Gov Abdulrahman see’s beyond that. In his mind, there’s much more that can be done with or without political office.
Because politics is just a means, not an end on its own, all those who share in the ideal of the bigger picture will understand that there’s much more that can be done, with or without political office. Unfortunately, most typical politician may find it hard to understand this.
The 2023 electoral season is on and the drama of the recently concluded primary election played out in public eyes.
Many expected the game to go in a certain way and since it didn’t go that way, they raise all sorts of complaints. Others expected certain people to win and since they didn’t win, then things didn’t go well. We also have those who expected support from certain quarters and since those people didn’t support them, bitterness sets in and all sorts of conspiracy theories are concorted.
I have heard people say that the governor is supposed to have done this and that and they maybe right. Others say the governor is supposed to have come out to support this and that person which may not be outrightly unjustifiable, and some even claimed that the governor actually supported certain individuals and none of the claims were backed by any evidence.
In an effort to truly understand what has happened, those who are familiar with the process have explained that, Governor Abdulrahman canvassed for direct primaries ahead of the election, but most of the stakeholders preferred indirect, with some even preferring concensus. The governor’s preference for direct primaries was outrightly rejected.
Our own group, the Kwara Must Change canvassed for direct primaries in all political parties in the state and some delegates in the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), who thinks a direct primaries would deny them adequate utilization of their delegateship, which they worked hard to get, actually approached us to engage us on our advocacy on direct primaries.
They argued that, almost all the stakeholders in the party wanted indirect primaries, but because of Kwara Must Change advocacy on direct primaries, which they believe the governor is holding onto to push further on his own preference for direct primaries, they feel that if we tune down our position, the governor would be alone on that idea and he would have to support the position of the stakeholders to conduct indirect primaries.
However, since this is democracy where majority will always carry the day, both leading parties in the state did indirect and concensus primary election respectively.
What this means is that, despite Governor Abdulrahman’s preference for direct primaries, he didn’t get his way, neither did he forced it down the throat of the members.
Additionally, many within the government of Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq resigned to pursue their ambition.
In one federal constituency, 3 people resigned from the same government to aspire and they are all close to the governor. Almost all of them and their supporters described themselves as the governor’s choice, but at the end of the day, only one would succeed.
In all the primaries, hardly would any candidate not describe themselves as the governor’s choice amongst all of those close to him, but there was no evidence that the governor actually announced anyone as his candidate. I stand to be corrected though.
The closest to this, was the governor’s preference for women. But this is just a preference, not something that was imposed or mandated in anyway.
Some stakeholders who keyed into the governor’s preference for women only decided to work for the emergence of women in their own constituency and some didn’t. If we go by the governor’s preference for women, as seen in the recent gender composition bill passed by the Kwara State House of Assembly, which mandated the state to produce a minimum of 35% and maximum of 65% for either of the gender, the recent primaries would have produce a minimum of 35% women, but this didn’t happen and the governor didn’t force it either.
What this means is that, the governor didn’t get his way on direct primaries, neither did he gets his way on his preference for women.
So, if the governor didn’t force his preference for direct primaries on the party, neither did he force his preference for women, I find it strange that he would be accused of working against some particular aspirants, who are actually his friends and associates.
Ofcourse, some of his aides could advance their ambition or their friends’ ambition using their proximity to the governor, but from all indication, he seems to have removed himself as much as he could.
The truth of the matter is that, governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is like President Muhammadu Buhari, who belongs to everybody and belongs to nobody and his disposition is to provide a level playing field for all aspirants, since all those contesting are his people. He did have preferences, which is natural, but he didn’t impose his preference on anyone.
Ofcourse, it is normal that some people think they are more closer to him than others and that they are his preferred aspirants, but whether they are his preferred aspirants or not, the fact is that, he didn’t lift a finger to unfairly aide their candidature over those of others, who are equally his people.
The governor’s decision not to unduly aide one person over the other, is what some people consider as treachery, which I believe is untrue, unfair and an outright misrepresentation of fact.
Although, those who believe the governor should aide them due to their loyalty over time have a right to such expectations, but the governor also have a right to remain neutral to ensure all aspirants enjoy the fruit of their efforts.
Let me conclude by saying that, incumbents who have sense of entitlements because of their loyalty to the governor have forgotten that, there are many people who are not in public office, but are equally supportive and loyal to the governor, using their own hard earned resources, time and capacity and it would be unfair for the governor to use his priviledged position to unfairly tilt the primaries in favor of the incumbents over the independent supporters who are equally loyal.
Abdulrazaq Hamzat writes from Ilorin
