Abdulrazaq vs Mustapha: Titanic contest in Kwara Central Senatorial District

By Dele Moses

Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq will be the second governor of Kwara state after Dr Bukola Saraki who would be contesting for the Senate seat while rounding off his tenure as the governor. He would be contesting in 2027 general election for the seat of the Kwara Central Senatorial District on the platform of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) after clinching the party’s ticket for the contest.

There were two other former governors of the state who also served as senators. They were Chief Cornelius Adebayo and Alhaji Mohammed Shaaba  Lafiagi, But, while in the case of Adebayo, he had served as a senator before becoming a governor, in the case of Lafiagi, he became a senator long after he had been governor 

Saraki, while rounding off his tenure as the governor of the state in 2011 contested for the same seat of Kwara Central Senatorial District that Abdulrazaq is now seeking to contest. He won the election making him another politician in the state who served both as a governor and as senator.

Abdulrazaq who earlier before becoming governor had contested for the senatorial district without success would be contesting now with some 12 other candidates from various parties according to the final list of the candidate released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The other candidates in the district are: Musa Aliyu of Accord; Kehinde Adesola of Action Alliance (AA); Gani Omolabi of the Action Democratic Party (ADP); Gbadesogun Olufemi Adeleke of the African Peoples Party(APP); Risikat Motunrayo Abdulahi of the African Democratic Congress(ADC); John Temitayo Anjorin of the Action Peoples Movement(APM); Maryam Ayoola Abdulkarim-Adisa of the Labour Party(LP); Adekunle Adepoju of the National Rescue Movement (NRM); Abdulhakeem Toyin Lawal of the New Nigeria Peoples Party(NNPP); Suleiman Abdulrasheed Olufemi Omoda of the National Democratic Congress(NDC); Saliu Mustapha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Salma Abdul Yakini of the Social Democratic Party(SDP).

Observers have described Saliu Mustapha of the PDP as the most outstanding of all the other 12 candidates. This is because of his political clout in the district and in the state at large 

Mustapha is the serving senator representing the district. He is firmly on ground in the district because of the structure he has built and he his widely popular because of his philanthropic activities and humanitarian services.

People of the district are viewing the senatorial contest as likely to be the battle of the Titans between Abdulrazaq and Mustapha because of their respective heavy political weight in the district and the state at large. 

The two of them were formerly political allies that had worked together in different political parties before they became opponents in the upcoming election. They were both in the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the APC before Mustapha recently left APC for PDP.

Their schism was not unconnected to their respective political ambition. They had together worked to enthrone APC as the ruling party in the state in 2019 with Abdulrazaq becoming the governor while four years later Mustapha became the senator at the time Abdulrazaq won his second term of office as the governor.

However, while Mustapha was interested in contesting for the governorship election as Abdulrazaq could no longer go for another term of governorship after two terms, the governor was interested in the ticket of the party for senatorial election which means that each was interested in replacing the other in his post.

It appeared that since he knows that Abdulrazaq was interested in contesting the senatorial seat, Mustapha who is only just serving his first term in the Senate did not initially nurse ambition of retaining the seat but rather to go for governorship so that while there would be no clash between him and the governor he would also be taking the advantage of Abdulrazaq no longer contesting the governorship to seek to realise his own governorship ambition.

But it did not work out for him as he seemed to have intended as he lost the governorship ticket of the party to another aspirant. He and some of the other aspirant who lost the governorship ticket believed that their loss was fabricated by the governor as they alleged that the governor did not allow a free and fair primary election to hold but had the winning aspirant imposed on the party through a puckishly arraanged election.

When despite protests the APC kept to results of its primary elections for posts to be contested at the general election, Mustapha, probably, to prevent suffering an annihilating loss, defected to the PDP where he secured the ticket to contest the senatorial election. His contesting the senatorial election means that he would be seeking to retain his senatorial seat while he has forgone his governorship ambition.

As he has emerged the PDP senatorial candidate for the Kwara Central district he would be facing a major opposition from the governor who maintained the APC ticket for the same contest, thus, former allies will now be at loggerheads in an election.

The two of them have previously contested the senatorial election but never against each other as it will happen in 2027. Abdulrazaq contested the seat in 2015 on the platform of the PDP but lost before winning the governorship on the platform of the APC in 2019. Mustapha contested the seat for the first time in 2023 on the platform of the APC and won.

Now that they would be engaging each other in the contest, it appears to be difficult yet to predict who will win because they appear to measure up to each other in term of political clout, weight and popularity as at present.

Abdulrazaq, as the incumbent governor, has garnered far more political wight and secured popularity than he had in 2011 when he contested the governorship election on the platform of the CPC and in 2015 when he contested the senatorial election on the platform of the PDP

He has in over seven year of being the governor of the state run an administration admired by many people in the state because of achievements such as  construction and rehabilitation of numerous roads, rehabilitation and construction of more classrooms in public primary and secondary schools, rehabilitation of primary healthcare centres, regular payment of workers’ salaries, and pensions of the pensioners, construction of new office buildings for the state workers and recruitment of teachers on merit and in a manner devoid of partisan favour.

The central district he is seeking to represent at the Senate is the district where the state capital, Ilorin, is located and it appears the district where impact of his administration is most felt.

His party, the APC, is well rooted in the district. The party, until Mustapha defected had all the elective seats in the district from national to local level in its control. It now only lost the senatorial seat to the PDP, the party Mustapha join. But, aside this seat, the party is at present in control of the two seats of House of Representatives from the district, all the seats of the state House of Assembly in the district and all the four local government chairmanship seats in the district.

The party’s strength would be expected to foster chances of success of the Abdulrazaq at the poll. However the strenght may have been weakened by the internal crisis the party has over the primary election which appears not to have been resolved without reservations by some of the aggrieved members who still remain in the party.

Abdulrazaq won his first and second term of office as governor largely because of the unity in the party induced by members’ desire to put an end to continuous reign of a political group in the state. The unity in the party has now lost traction to the extended that some members are now aligning with the political group the APC had moored away from the control of the politics of the state.

An instance of this situation is the case of Mustapha who left the party to join the PDP, the platform of that formerly reigning political group. The group which so much desirous of regaining the control of the state politics fained to welcome to its fold Mustapha and all other politicians with whom it could share mutual benefit.

Mustapha’s popularity and personal clout is being seen as a great strenght he has in contesting the senatorial seat with Abdulrazaq. This strength helped him in 2023 when he defeated the then incumbent occupant of the seat at the primary election to win the APC ticket before going ahead to asphixiate his opponents at the election proper to take over the seat.

Before contesting the election he had been popular in the district with his philanthropic activities, coming to the aid of communities and individuals in need. These activities which he still engages in after becoming Senator sustain his popularity.

He appears to remain popular despite that he could not execute some projects he reportedly facilitated to the district through his office as a senator. It was being alleged that he could not execute the reported projects because the state government created impediments for him but the government denied the allegation saying that it was only concerned about ensuring that procedure for carrying out projects in public places are duly followed.

This happened while he was still in APC and the speculation about the development in the state was that he was being frustrated on the projects because he and Governor Abdulrazaq were no longer in good terms. It was being speculated that their relationship turned wintry because the governor was not pleased with him for keeping friendship with Saraki.

However, perhaps Mustapha would have still remained in the APC if  the governorship primary election had not been allegedly  fraught with lack of fairness and credibility as claimed by him and his colleague aggrieved aapirants or if there was an arrangement that he should not lose out on both governorship and senate tickets but should be allowed to clinch either one of the two.

When he left, the Governor Abdulrazaq’s side alleged that he acted against an agreement he allegedly had with the governor which the side claimed made the governor to support him to win the APC ticket against the incumbent senator in 2023. The side alleged that he signed an undertaking that he would only serve one term as a senator and thereafter remain with the governor. But, Mustapha denied signing such an undertaking.

The governor who many people were saying was interested in equaling attainment of Saraki in politics as a 2-term governor, chairman Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF),  a senator and probably a senate president would, in the senatorial election, be having a tough fight with Mustapha who is also interested in keeping himself relevant in politics of the state probably till he would attain another status in future 

Mustapha, considering his weight and popularity, could be said to be equal to the task but apart from his personal strenght he would also be enjoying the support of Saraki in the election. Saraki though lost his own last Senatorial election in 2019 as the incumbent senate president,  still, in the district and the entire state, maintains a strong structure that appears to have recovered its pre-2019 strenght to a great extent.

Abdulrazaq with the power of incumbency as the sitting governor  would not be confronting a Mustapha with his only strenght  in the contest but a Mustapha whose strenght is boosted by that of a recovering veteran heavy weight in the state and this will probably toughen the contest.

Abdulrazaq vs Mustapha: Heavy weight bout in Kwara Central Senatorial District 

By Dele MosesMallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq will be the second governor of Kwara state after Dr Bukola Saraki who would be contesting for the Senate seat while rounding off his tenure as the governor. He would be contesting in 2027 general election for the seat of the Kwara Central Senatorial District on the platform of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) after clinching the party’s ticket for the contest.

There were two other former governors of the state who also served as senators. They were Chief Cornelius Adebayo and Alhaji Mohammed Shaaba  Lafiagi, But, while in the case of Adebayo, he had served as a senator before becoming a governor, in the case of Lafiagi, he became a senator long after he had been governor 

Saraki, while rounding off his tenure as the governor of the state in 2011 contested for the same seat of Kwara Central Senatorial District that Abdulrazaq is now seeking to contest. He won the election making him another politician in the state who served both as a governor and as senator.

Abdulrazaq who earlier before becoming governor had contested for the senatorial district without success would be contesting now with some 12 other candidates from various parties according to the final list of the candidate released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The other candidates in the district are: Musa Aliyu of Accord; Kehinde Adesola of Action Alliance (AA); Gani Omolabi of the Action Democratic Party (ADP); Gbadesogun Olufemi Adeleke of the African Peoples Party(APP); Risikat Motunrayo Abdulahi of the African Democratic Congress(ADC); John Temitayo Anjorin of the Action Peoples Movement(APM); Maryam Ayoola Abdulkarim-Adisa of the Labour Party(LP); Adekunle Adepoju of the National Rescue Movement (NRM); Abdulhakeem Toyin Lawal of the New Nigeria Peoples Party(NNPP); Suleiman Abdulrasheed Olufemi Omoda of the National Democratic Congress(NDC); Saliu Mustapha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Salma Abdul Yakini of the Social Democratic Party(SDP).

Observers have described Saliu Mustapha of the PDP as the most outstanding of all the other 12 candidates. This is because of his political clout in the district and in the state at large 

Mustapha is the serving senator representing the district. He is firmly on ground in the district because of the structure he has built and he his widely popular because of his philanthropic activities and humanitarian services.

People of the district are viewing the senatorial contest as likely to be the battle of the Titans between Abdulrazaq and Mustapha because of their respective heavy political weight in the district and the state at large. 

The two of them were formerly political allies that had worked together in different political parties before they became opponents in the upcoming election. They were both in the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the APC before Mustapha recently left APC for PDP.

Their schism was not unconnected to their respective political ambition. They had together worked to enthrone APC as the ruling party in the state in 2019 with Abdulrazaq becoming the governor while four years later Mustapha became the senator at the time Abdulrazaq won his second term of office as the governor.

However, while Mustapha was interested in contesting for the governorship election as Abdulrazaq could no longer go for another term of governorship after two terms, the governor was interested in the ticket of the party for senatorial election which means that each was interested in replacing the other in his post.

It appeared that since he knows that Abdulrazaq was interested in contesting the senatorial seat, Mustapha who is only just serving his first term in the Senate did not initially nurse ambition of retaining the seat but rather to go for governorship so that while there would be no clash between him and the governor he would also be taking the advantage of Abdulrazaq no longer contesting the governorship to seek to realise his own governorship ambition.

But it did not work out for him as he seemed to have intended as he lost the governorship ticket of the party to another aspirant. He and some of the other aspirant who lost the governorship ticket believed that their loss was fabricated by the governor as they alleged that the governor did not allow a free and fair primary election to hold but had the winning aspirant imposed on the party through a puckishly arraanged election.

When despite protests the APC kept to results of its primary elections for posts to be contested at the general election, Mustapha, probably, to prevent suffering an annihilating loss, defected to the PDP where he secured the ticket to contest the senatorial election. His contesting the senatorial election means that he would be seeking to retain his senatorial seat while he has forgone his governorship ambition.

As he has emerged the PDP senatorial candidate for the Kwara Central district he would be facing a major opposition from the governor who maintained the APC ticket for the same contest, thus, former allies will now be at loggerheads in an election.

The two of them have previously contested the senatorial election but never against each other as it will happen in 2027. Abdulrazaq contested the seat in 2015 on the platform of the PDP but lost before winning the governorship on the platform of the APC in 2019. Mustapha contested the seat for the first time in 2023 on the platform of the APC and won.

Now that they would be engaging each other in the contest, it appears to be difficult yet to predict who will win because they appear to measure up to each other in term of political clout, weight and popularity as at present.

Abdulrazaq, as the incumbent governor, has garnered far more political wight and secured popularity than he had in 2011 when he contested the governorship election on the platform of the CPC and in 2015 when he contested the senatorial election on the platform of the PDP

He has in over seven year of being the governor of the state run an administration admired by many people in the state because of achievements such as  construction and rehabilitation of numerous roads, rehabilitation and construction of more classrooms in public primary and secondary schools, rehabilitation of primary healthcare centres, regular payment of workers’ salaries, and pensions of the pensioners, construction of new office buildings for the state workers and recruitment of teachers on merit and in a manner devoid of partisan favour.

The central district he is seeking to represent at the Senate is the district where the state capital, Ilorin, is located and it appears the district where impact of his administration is most felt.

His party, the APC, is well rooted in the district. The party, until Mustapha defected had all the elective seats in the district from national to local level in its control. It now only lost the senatorial seat to the PDP, the party Mustapha join. But, aside this seat, the party is at present in control of the two seats of House of Representatives from the district, all the seats of the state House of Assembly in the district and all the four local government chairmanship seats in the district.

The party’s strength would be expected to foster chances of success of the Abdulrazaq at the poll. However the strenght may have been weakened by the internal crisis the party has over the primary election which appears not to have been resolved without reservations by some of the aggrieved members who still remain in the party.

Abdulrazaq won his first and second term of office as governor largely because of the unity in the party induced by members’ desire to put an end to continuous reign of a political group in the state. The unity in the party has now lost traction to the extended that some members are now aligning with the political group the APC had moored away from the control of the politics of the state.

An instance of this situation is the case of Mustapha who left the party to join the PDP, the platform of that formerly reigning political group. The group which so much desirous of regaining the control of the state politics fained to welcome to its fold Mustapha and all other politicians with whom it could share mutual benefit.

Mustapha’s popularity and personal clout is being seen as a great strenght he has in contesting the senatorial seat with Abdulrazaq. This strength helped him in 2023 when he defeated the then incumbent occupant of the seat at the primary election to win the APC ticket before going ahead to asphixiate his opponents at the election proper to take over the seat.

Before contesting the election he had been popular in the district with his philanthropic activities, coming to the aid of communities and individuals in need. These activities which he still engages in after becoming Senator sustain his popularity.

He appears to remain popular despite that he could not execute some projects he reportedly facilitated to the district through his office as a senator. It was being alleged that he could not execute the reported projects because the state government created impediments for him but the government denied the allegation saying that it was only concerned about ensuring that procedure for carrying out projects in public places are duly followed.

This happened while he was still in APC and the speculation about the development in the state was that he was being frustrated on the projects because he and Governor Abdulrazaq were no longer in good terms. It was being speculated that their relationship turned wintry because the governor was not pleased with him for keeping friendship with Saraki.

However, perhaps Mustapha would have still remained in the APC if  the governorship primary election had not been allegedly  fraught with lack of fairness and credibility as claimed by him and his colleague aggrieved aapirants or if there was an arrangement that he should not lose out on both governorship and senate tickets but should be allowed to clinch either one of the two.

When he left, the Governor Abdulrazaq’s side alleged that he acted against an agreement he allegedly had with the governor which the side claimed made the governor to support him to win the APC ticket against the incumbent senator in 2023. The side alleged that he signed an undertaking that he would only serve one term as a senator and thereafter remain with the governor. But, Mustapha denied signing such an undertaking.

The governor who many people were saying was interested in equaling attainment of Saraki in politics as a 2-term governor, chairman Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF),  a senator and probably a senate president would, in the senatorial election, be having a tough fight with Mustapha who is also interested in keeping himself relevant in politics of the state probably till he would attain another status in future 

Mustapha, considering his weight and popularity, could be said to be equal to the task but apart from his personal strenght he would also be enjoying the support of Saraki in the election. Saraki though lost his own last Senatorial election in 2019 as the incumbent senate president,  still, in the district and the entire state, maintains a strong structure that appears to have recovered its pre-2019 strenght to a great extent.

Abdulrazaq with the power of incumbency as the sitting governor  would not be confronting a Mustapha with his only strenght  in the contest but a Mustapha whose strenght is boosted by that of a recovering veteran heavy weight in the state and this will probably toughen the contest.