Battle For Kwara Speakership Slot Rages On

Steve Oni, Ilorin

The last has not been heard on the Speakership tussle among the APC family in Kwara state ahead of the inauguration of the 9th Assembly in the state on June 6, 2029.

While Kwara South Senatorial District APC said experience should be the yardstick for picking the new Speaker, their counterpart in the
Northern Zone believed the slot is rightly theirs, Kwara Central and Kwara South having produced the governor and deputy governor respectively in the last election.

However, within Kwara North, a group, under the aegis of Concerned APC Stakeholders in Moro Local Government Area, said the slot, in the interest of fair play, justice and equity, should be conceded to Moro local government because it is the “only local government in the zone that has never benefited from any elective and appointive positions since the return of democratic rule in 1999.”

At a press briefing on Ilorin, the state capital, on Tuesday, spokesperson for the group, Saka Salawu said: “We in Moro would like to appeal earnestly to our brothers and sisters in the Kwara North, our party elders and leaders in the zone, under the dynamic leadership of Senator Ahmed Mohammed, including all the memvers-elect who are Speakership Aspirants to please consider the political plight of our local government area and concede the post to us.

“We want to appreciate and thank His Excellency, Governor-elect Abdulrahman Abdulrazak for giving his zeal of approval most resolutely to the idea that the Speakership belongs to the people of Kwara North, and should be given to us in the interest of fairness, equity and justice, the Kwara Central and Kwara South having achieved governorship and deputy governorship respectively in the current power arrangement and equation.”

Salawu, who noted that the local government was grouped in the zone, not for punishment, oppression or marginalisation, said the time is now to correct the wrong of several years, adding that, “such oppression and alienation that have befallen us as a local government area have had their day and must now end in the interest of our collective sanity, progress and development.”