The struggle between the godfather of Kwara State politics, Olusola Saraki, and his
son, Bukola Saraki, over who becomes the next governor of the state,
reached a head on Sunday when the elder Saraki announced his defection
from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the relatively obscure
Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).
He announced his new party at Ilorin before a mammoth crowd who besieged his Iloffa Road residence. By implication, the ACPN may be the platform for him to realise his ambition of making his senator daughter, Gbemisola Saraki, the next governor of the state, having been denied an early push to make her the sole aspirant of the ruling People’s Democratic Party {PDP}. Ms Saraki, a senator, was at the declaration.
The ACPN, which was recently established, has a squirrel as its symbol. There is a feeling that the party might still merge with another party to present a force to the PDP. Last week, Mr. Saraki received the leaders of the Congress of Progressive Change and All Nigeria People Party (ANPP), Muhammadu Buhari and Ogbonnaya Onu.
Mr. Saraki said he decided to leave the PDP because it was full of undemocratic people. He said this has made the party to lose cohesion and focus and might make it lose the forthcoming elections in the state.
“Those who are not involved in the building of the party now capitalise on the inexperience of the leadership to perpetrate themselves and turn themselves into thin gods to decide the fate of the real people on the political turf.
“We now have a PDP that lacks cohesion, focus, directionless and bereft of ideas on how to carry supporters along and win elections. The situation is so bad to the extent that most decisions of the party are based on sentiments, instead of having recourse to party guidelines and all known democratic norms.
“Therefore, I and all who believe in me have been forced to take the decision to dump the Kwara PDP and move en-masse to ACPN, which we believe is the best platform to take the state to a greater height,” Mr. Saraki said...
History of defections
The politician tacitly launched a campaign for the senator, noting that she would only spend four years at the saddle of governance if elected the next governor of the state. He said the lady has the pedigree to cement the legacies laid down by his biological brother, the incumbent governor of the state.
Mr. Saraki, a former member of the ANPP, joined the PDP in 2003 in an earlier struggle with then governor of the state, Mohammed Lawal.
Mr. Lawal had resisted pressure to step down for Bukola Saraki to become the candidate of the PDP. Mr. Saraki won the fight and he will be hoping that his old skills still stand him in good stead in this battle against his own son.
Support for Bio
Meanwhile, the Agbaji Youths in Politics, a political association in Ilorin west local government area of Kwara State, has endorsed the gubernatorial aspiration of the immediate past minister of sports, Ibrahim Isa Bio. Agbaji is the home of Mr. Saraki.
Mr. Bio is contesting the primary election of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to represent the party in the 2011 gubernatorial election slated for January 9.
Speaking with reporters in Agbaji over the weekend, the public relations officer of the association, Abdulrasak Otta, said the association decided to back Mr. Bio’s aspiration because of his track record of achievement as a commissioner, Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, and federal minister of transport and then, sports, between 2008-2010.
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