Adeniyi Ìṣhọlá
I ordinarily would not have bothered responding to Oloriewe Raheem Adedoyin’s rejoinder to my article, “Has Abdulrahman fallen out of favour with Tinubu?” A rejoinder deserves the courtesy of assuming that its author is arguing in good faith. But Oloriewe’s track record makes that courtesy difficult to extend.
I am not surprised that Oloriewe has jumped to defend Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, while struggling to usurp the duty of the governor’s media aides and data boys. This same man was all over town defending the Mohammed Lawal administration when it was in office. He did the same for the Saraki administration and the Abdulfatai Ahmed government without blinking an eyelid. Now is the turn of Abdulrazaq to enjoy his services. The government after Abdulrahman will still benefit from Oloriewe’s small-time explanations. There is no qualm about this.
Still, since he has chosen to defend Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, it is important to separate political sycophancy from facts. I find it amusing, however, that rather than address the central issues I raised, Oloriewe spent considerable space attacking my motive, describing my article as a “hatchet job”, “blatant falsehood” and “conjecture”. That is understandable. When the facts are uncomfortable, attacking the messenger is often easier than answering the questions.
But let us return to the issues. In my initial article, I did not claim to have privileged access to the private conversations between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Abdulrahman. I examined a series of political developments and asked whether, taken together, they suggest a decline in the governor’s standing at the centre. That is a legitimate subject for political commentary.
In his rejoinder, Oloriewe still did not convincingly answer the question of why the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum occupies no prominent position in the APC Presidential Campaign Council beyond serving as the coordinator of his own State. His claim that the governor simply did not want a national role because he has a tough electoral battle to fight at home does not hold up. If anything, the chairman of the NGF should be an important asset to a presidential campaign seeking nationwide support.
Even if we are to take Oloriewe’s excuse at the face value, how will he explain the governor’s inability to secure even a single nominee of his own on the Campaign Council? A governor who voluntarily declines a national assignment to focus on his state is still expected to retain influence over appointments affecting his state and zone. Governor Abdulrahman secured neither. That is not the profile of a man who opted out by choice. It is the profile of a man who was opted out by a party leadership that has taken note of the chaos he created at home.
Also, Oloriewe could not dispute the facts I raised about the crisis and division Governor Abdulrahman orchestrated in the Kwara APC. He cannot. What he attempted instead is to recast Governor Abdulrahman as a victim of circumstance rather than the architect of his own troubles. But the record speaks for itself. His attempt to absolve Abdulrahman of responsibility for the crisis is therefore preposterous.
It is important to understand that Governor Abdulrahman’s current predicament is entirely self-inflicted. The Kwara APC crisis did not just happen. It is something the governor created through a pattern of political recklessness, vindictiveness, and an insatiable appetite for influence and control.
He manipulated the governorship primary to install Speaker Salihu Danladi Yakubu as his preferred candidate, showing no regard or respect to other governorship aspirants of the party with the manner he went about it. He hijacked the Kwara Central senatorial ticket for himself. He installed his stooges as party candidates for the National Assembly and State Assembly seats, leaving no room for internal party democracy to function. He publicly endorsed and then abandoned Ambassador Yahaya Seriki in one of the most shameless acts of political betrayal in Kwara’s recent history.
In a bid to further legitimise his political manipulation, he dragged traditional rulers to Abuja on a taxpayer-funded trip to lobby the APC leadership and the presidency, seeking to create the impression that the outcome of the manipulated primaries reflected the will of the people rather than his own selfish interest. And through it all, he seemed to believe that his political power and connections would insulate him from the consequences of his reckless actions. None of these is speculation. It is the documented pattern that produced the crisis that is now engulfing the Kwara APC. A crisis this manufactured cannot credibly be blamed on anyone but its architect, Governor Abulrahman.
Oloriewe’s argument that the distribution of the Kwara APC 2027 tickets was a product of fairness and balance collapses under the mildest scrutiny. If Governor Abdulrazaq genuinely believed in equity, why did he not push for Kwara North to get the governorship ticket of the APC in 2019? When he was eventually imposed on the party as its guber candidate, why did he not relinquish it to Kwara North in the spirit of rotation and equity that he now preaches? Or was Kwara North not ready to produce the State governor then?
Similarly, if the governor is genuinely committed to fairness in the distribution of political positions, why did he take the Kwara Central senatorial ticket for himself when Ilorin West has historically dominated that position? Why was consideration not given to other parts of Kwara Central, such as Ilorin South or Asa, particularly when both the APC senatorial candidate and its House of Representatives candidate for 2027 are from the same Ilorin West? Oloriewe cannot invoke equity selectively. If equity is the principle, then let us apply the same principle consistently.
Oloriewe can dismiss my observation as conjecture and falsehood. He cannot, however, wish away the political signals that I identified as symptoms of Abdulrahman’s declining political stock. No amount of rejoinders will reverse the reality. And there is a bigger lesson for Governor Abdulrahman and his supporters, including Oloriewe to note: political power is not measured by how many people a governor or political leader can impose on a party structure. It is measured by his ability to build consensus, accommodate competing interests and retain the confidence of the people and the wider political establishment. A governor who alienates too many stakeholders while attempting to control every aspect of his party’s political machinery may eventually discover that political power has limits.
- Ìṣhọlá writes from Lagos