KWARA State Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has shed light on the protracted crisis rocking the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, tracing it to his refusal to fund a campaign structure that was formed without his prior knowledge or input as governorship candidate.
Speaking on Saturday at the launch of a book entitled, “O to ge” in Ilorin, the governor also said that some cabals within the party who received hundreds of millions of naira as donations for the Kwara struggle from far and wide did not deliver a dime to him. Represented by deputy governor, Kayode Alabi, Governor AbdulRazaq, said party officials were equally barred from campaigning with him until the 2019 presidential election had been won and the pendulum was clearly swinging in his favour.
“Since this book is about history, I feel it is important to set the record straight on a few things. First, the O to ge is the struggle of our people and it did not necessarily start in 2019. Every Kwaran of good conscience owned and worked for that struggle in various ways. We were only positioned by providence to lead the final lap of the breaking of the jinx that dated back many decades,” he said, in what was the first public statement made by him on the issues within the party.
“However, permit me to assert here that contrary to some claims out there, the battle cry O to ge and its adoption were a product of a statewide field research that I commissioned shortly after the primaries in October 2018. If anyone could lay claim to its copyright, it has to be the Hook Nigeria, a communications outfit owned by very young people. One of them, Toyyib, is a Kwara South prince. I had held meetings with various PR outfits but I found their own presentation most strikingly catchy and reflective of the Kwara struggle. We ran our campaign with that slogan and it quickly resonated with our masses. So popular was it that even motorcyclists and trailer drivers adopted it in their honking. It became a household refrain. To God be the glory and we thank the people of Kwara for this.
“I also need to set the record straight about the party crisis. It did not begin after the election or swearing-in. It is safe to say that those who claimed to own the party in the state at that time practically disowned me until after the President had won his election and the coast became clearer back home. Shortly after the primaries in October, the party told me they have set up a campaign structure. Nobody consulted me before doing that, even though I was the governorship candidate. They asked me to fund the campaign structure that I was not privy to.
“Of course I declined it. I would later lead my own small campaign team across the state. It is on record that the party officially boycotted my campaign tours. Party officials got the instruction not to attend my campaign,” he said.
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