Kwara 2023: Lai Mohammed, Governor Abdulrazaq Draw Battle Line

BY AMOS DUNIA – The political cloud in Kwara is really thick and difficult to point at the exact direction it is heading as a result of the determination of the Governor Anbdulrahman Abdulrazaq and Lai Mohammed to tear the party structures and the state apart in a battle of wits aimed at having a firm and total control over the affairs of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

To put it mildly, Governor Abdulrazaq as a sittin g governor is certainly not finding the political equation in his party in his state easy owing to the activities of some Abuja powerful forces that are desirous to end his tenure in 2023.

Leading the Abuja forces is the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, whose faction of the APC commissioned a parallel State Secretariat of the party situated at the GRA part of the Kwara State capital.

This was as Mohammed has vowed to visit Governor Abdulrazaq with the same treatment that was meted out to former governor of the State, Late Mohammed Lawal by the Late Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki.

And to put words into action, Mohammed has already penciled down three members of the party in the state loyal to him as possible replacement of Governor Abdulrazaq that was a product of a coalition of forces that fought and edged out of office the Peoples Democratic Party in 2019.

Checks by Forefront News indicate that Governor Abdulrazaq is not letting anything to chance as he is working night and day to equate and balance forces with the powerful Abuja APC bloc considered to wield so much powers. It was gathered that the governor has equally put in place some grassroots politicians that are working to edge the Information Minister, his associates and supporters aside and silence them permanently through a well and carefully designed plan that would lead to reducing their political influence to naught ahead of 2023.

At the commissioning of the factional APC Secretariat on Saturday, Mohammed did not hind his feelings and plans as he pointed at the recently conducted re-registration exercise of the party, accusing the governor of hijacking and deliberately denied genuine members of the party from participating in the exercise.

Mohammed insisted that the exercise was not genuine as it did not capture every member of the party. This is just as his supporters described the governor as “recalcitrant”.
The minister specifically said that the major sin of Governor Abdulrazaq is the recently concluded membership registration and revalidation exercise conducted in the state which he described as a charade.

In the words of Mohammed; “Most members of the party were not given the opportunity to register as the registration documents were not made available to them. When we observed this, myself and two former governorship aspirants, Prof Oba AbdulRaheem and Alhaji Tajudeen Audu, went to the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, and he assured us that a fresh registration would be done for party members in Kwara.
“The battle line is now drawn. Without you, members, there would be no APC in the state. I want to assure you all that no party congress will hold in Kwara State until fresh registration and revalidation exercise is conducted for all APC members in Kwara State.”
Not done, Mohammed further said; “AbdulRazaq, on June 26, alleged that a cabal within the party who received hundreds of millions of naira as donations for the Kwara struggle did not deliver a kobo to him.
“I did not receive donations from any minister or governor of the party as campaign funds for the 2019 general elections in the state.

“I never diverted APC 2019 general elections campaign funds for my personal use as alleged by Governor AbdulRazaq. By the grace of God, I single-handedly, with the support of friends and family, raised all the monies for the Oke-Ero/Isin/Ekiti/Irepodun Federal Constituency by-election of November 2019 that brought Tunji Olawuyi to the House of Representatives.
“And I challenge anybody here to say he gave the party one penny apart from what I gave them. I challenge anybody here to say he gave logistics support to the party. I did that by the grace of God. I distributed 500 motorcycles and 20 vehicles,” he said.

The Minister continued; “Many of the beneficiaries in attendance here can buttress my claim. I want them to explain to Nigerians what happened to the N70m that Mr Olawuyi kept that the governor refused to give us during the by-election. But for the grace of God and some friends, there would have been no election in November 2019, because when we raised money, we gave them, but two days before the election, we could not reach them on their phones anymore.
“I had to go to friends to raise another N150m to prosecute that election. I remember very well that there are 42 wards in that constituency. We thank God today that was the beginning of our success. When elections proper came, we did not see our governorship candidate. We could not wait.
“Without any fear of contradictions, the money raised from friends, colleagues and associates were used to finance the four elections. The party in the state scored 100 percent.
“I remember a governor calling me when we won the first election to ask if it was true we won the by-election. And I told him ‘yes sir.’ He said, ‘I want to apologise to you, when you came to me for money, they told me not to give you money. They told me you are a Lagos politician and nobody could defeat Saraki.’
“But then, we did not know that God brings more wonder. That is how we won all the elections. But today, they have gotten there and forgotten the people that put them there. If we did not give money to the party, how did he think the party won?” Mohammed asked.
Information pieced together point to the fact that the governor is not moved by the activities of Mr Lai Mohammed as he considered it the ranting of a feather weight politician whose base in Kwara State is very weak thus, no need to waste energy and human resources on the minister and his few associates in the state.

An aide of the governor told Forefront on condition of anonymity that there are many options available to the governor but the fact remains that he is the leader of the party in the State and certainly not the Minister who wants to impose himself as the leader of the party in the state in spite of his lack of popularity amongst the majority of party members and the people of the State.

According to the aide; “Lai Mohammed knows that he belongs to Lagos and not Kwara. There is no APC State in which a minister is the leader of the party. Why does Mohammed think that Kwara must be different? We are waiting for him in 2023 to prove to Nigerians where he truly belongs”.

It was also gathered that Governor Abdulrazaq is not interested in using brute force in dealing with the matter like some other governors do, else he could have served the owner of the property where the Lai Mohammed-led faction of the party commissioned a factional secretariat a notice of demolition or revocation of the land over wrong utilization.