Sholyments Olusegun Olusola
The appointment of politicians and APC members into board of KWASIEC by Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq has signaled the cold blood murder of Grassroot Democracy in Kwara State .
This action alone , where people with one or more affiliation with the ruling party made it to membersship of the KWASIEC board , already passed an important message to the people , the message is that no credible elections should be expected from that agency , an agency that was named Independent Electoral Commission.
With the calibre of people that make up the KWASIEC board today, how can Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq prove to Kwarans that KWASIEC, as presently constituted, is or will be Independent of his authority and dictation?
A government that could monetise the national elections and manipulate results in her favour will do anything to have 100% council election in her favour especially now that it is the one paying the piper
The board chairman, who alongside his members resumed duty today, had further rubbished the little credibility left in that commission . A keen study of his address to staff of the commission has affirmed that the commission is now a department in the Secretariat of Kwara APC.
Let me share with you extract of what the KWASIEC Board Chairman, Mr Okanla Mohammed Baba, during his address to the KWASIEC staff said for your perusal so that as lovers of democracy , we can buckle up for the danger ahead of us all:
Mr Okanla said and I quote: “I equally laud the number one man in the State, His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for such honour bestowed on me and my team members to lead the board of this great commission and we PROMISE NEVER TO DISSAPPOINT HIM ON THIS RESPONSIBILITY WE ARE SADDLED WITH” GBAM!!
The KWASIEC chairman said he and his team will never disappoint the Governor , what does that mean to you as a layman ? Do we need any herbalist or pastor to predict what the outcome of the next council elections will be in Kwara with this statement? Don’t blame the chairman, its possible that the speech he read was prepared from Government house anyways.
As a top opposition member, I can tell you for free that credible people who are not in APC but are nursing one ambition or the other to enable them serve their communities may not come out to express their interest in the council elections again, knowing fully well that it will amount to time wasting and shadow chasing. By this, we can easily tell Local Democracy to ‘Rest in Perfect Peace’ under Abdulrshaman’s dispensation.
I just want to remind kwarans of the last council elections in Kwara , the people in opposition that time who condemned and chastised the Sarakis of that time are today in government and are committing more impunity than what we observed at that time. Yet, nobody is talking.
Right now, our friends in APC may be jumping in ecstasy, thinking they are being protected by this impunity, but they lie, when the game fully begins , many of them will realise they are also victims of this menace because the internal Democracy within the ruling party will also be murdered . I will not dig more into this since I’m not in APC but those with passion in APC will also be disappointed that the monster process created by their own regime has ended up killing their dreams to serve their people.
I’m not blaming the ruling party anyway, I’m blaming my party ,the People’s Democratic Party in Kwara, that is not offering reasonable opposition to the ruling party, how will people take us seriously when we just ‘sit down dey look’ after suffering election defeat twice?
A reasonable opposition should stand up to challenge membership constitution of this KWASIEC even in court of law, but no, our leaders and party officials await ENETSUD to do what they were supposed to do .
I will only tell us one thing, there’s no SDP, no Saheed Popoola anymore to assist the opposition at this time . The best time for us to start doing the job of 2027 has started and this time, the leadership must show readiness to provide hope and support for the youths who are the driving forces, lest , it will be ‘BLLB’ as K1 would say.
I charge our party members especially youths not to be deterred by the outcome of 2023 elections, people should summon courage and come out as PDP’s candidates for this elections, let us go into the contest, win the election and let them declare who they like . We cannot because of fear of AA impunity erode ourselves the opportunity that lies ahead of us.
The Abdulrazaq who became champion today had suffered more than we could imagine prior to 2019, but with determination and resilience, he is now in charge . The 2023 electons outcome has put to rest the claim whether Kwarans want PDP or not, we all know we got our strategy wrong in many places and we did not have the financial power to wrestle the APC, these are critical factors responsible for our failure .
Should we then sit down, look and expect the ruling party freely dash us this opprtunity? The answer is no! Let us wake up from our slumbers and do what is required of us as party for the sake of our people.
Sholyments Olusegun Olusola writes from Ilorin