Kwara LG poll: APC is party to beat — Ben Duntoye

Kwara is among states preparing for Local Government Council elections. In this interview with Sir Ben Duntoye, a Special Adviser to former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who also served as Commissioner for Information and Communications in Kwara state, here assesses ongoing political development in the state. Excerpts:

Q: In Kwara, the Local Government Council elections are fast approaching. The All Progressives Congress, APC, is the only party visibly campaigning. Why?

Well, not really. They are campaigning but their presence isn’t felt. I think that’s a better way to put it. This is simply because Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the supposed main opposition party has nothing to offer the people. That is why their party members are not campaigning with vigour of an opposition. And as far as the forthcoming Local Government elections are concerned, APC will floor them. The PDP members are afraid of defeat. They keep on giving false narratives about the precondition for the election, which is their usual old story being repeated as they go around telling the people who had since rejected them that there wouldn’t be election. One has to sympathize with them. For a fact, they are so confused. PDP is battling with propelling forces at the national level, and you will agree with me that when the head is rotten, it will surely adversely affect the other parts of the body.

Q: But PDP has gone ahead to challenge the State Electoral Body in the Court. Wouldn’t that hinder the conduct of the elections?

Well, since the case is in court, this means the matter is prejudiced. I will not want to comment on the matter. But from the little knowledge of the law I have, I know that the PDP is chasing shadows in their bid to stop the upcoming Kwara State Local Government Election. I know that the Federal High Court they approached does not have the jurisdiction to handle issues pertaining to Local Government Elections in any State of the Federation. So personally, I know it’s a futile efforts on the part of the PDP. The case is dead on arrival. Many people can discern why they went to court. It’s for no other reason but to distract the stakeholders, election management bodies, other political parties, and the electorate.
Since Kwarans are not giving them the desired attention they crave, they have resorted to doing the job of putting a clog in the wheel of the electoral process.

You will recall that they were the ones crying that the Government did not want to conduct local government elections. They were shouting on the rooftops that the present administration is anti-democratic for not deeming it fit to conduct Local Government Election. Now that the process has begun, the next thing PDP did was to rush to court with some frivolous and mischievous petitions.

Q: Political analysts are saying the current economic situation will turpedo the political fortune of the ruling Party. What is your take on this?

What you have just said is one of the strategies the opposition is banking on. They are busy bad-mouthing the present administration. They are going about with campaigns of calumny while playing politics with the current economic situation in the country.

You know, battling the nation’s multifaceted challenges is a work in progress. They are saying the State Government is not doing much. They forgot that Kwarans are politically sophisticated and wiser now. No amount of propaganda from PDP would sway Kwarans to their side. It is a new era in Kwara. The masses in Kwara have absolute trust in the government of Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. So they understand everything going on. What is happening today is a national challenge and issue. Making it a Kwara issue is a propaganda gone wrong. It will never fly in Kwara.

The government of Kwara State is doing fantastically well. To APC’s advantage, the Kwara people keep acknowledging the efforts of the state government through different platforms.

Q: In your own assessment, how popular is each of the participating political parties in Kwara?

APC is still the party to beat. You will recall the period when various political parties were conducting their primaries in various Wards and Local Government Councils; members of APC were the surging crowd. Did you see any crowd in any of the other parties? Not at all. They were literally begging the people to collect their nomination forms. On the other hand, there was massive turn out in the APC primaries. The APC campaign team are in every nook and crannies of Kwara. Since the beginning of the electoral process, every town and village have been bustling with activities spearheaded by APC faithful. That is how you know a living political party. That is how you know a serious party; not by social media noise.

Q: What is your party, APC offering the people as you campaign?

The Governor is doing very well. Here in Kwara, we have good governance. It is a government of the masses. That’s our strategy. Very simple. The works of the Governor across every Local Government Area and every Ward across the State is our banner. Despite that, we are still working round the clock telling the people that our Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates will continue to give the people good governance. We are not taking anything for granted. We are visiting every community. We are doing a house-to-house campaign. We are giving the people sense of belonging. And for everywhere the APC went in Kwara, we were always welcomed into the warm embrace of the people. In most cases, they tell us not to stress that they are happy and satisfied with the performance of the Governor and will continue to vote for APC.

We have very dynamic campaign councils across the 16 LGAs. It’s more interesting to tell you that the councillorship candidates of our party also constituted high-level campaign teams at the ward level. It’s been very engaging with the people. This you can only get in the APC.

Q: You are claiming your party will win all others but report says the winners’ list will be shared.

Well, I don’t know where you get such report but like I said earlier, APC will subdue all others and coast home to victory. For example, PDP knows it does not have a chance in this election. How come they continue losing members to APC on a weekly basis? It means belonging there could be very frustrating but they still need to struggle pretending things are okay while their party is on a downward journey daily.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is performing creditably well. He has delivered in the areas of infrastructure, Education, Health, and Agriculture. As a matter of fact, Kwara State is doing fairly well within the limit of available resources as the State keeps growing economically and the lives of the people are positively affected. The State is second to none in Youth Development and Women Empowerment. The Governor scored highest among his peers in the area of Youth and Women inclusion in governance. KWASIP as a Social Scheme is doing great with hundreds of thousands of people as beneficiaries. Care for the elderly and highly vulnerable members of society just to mention but a few.

Q: How has the campaign been so far?

We have the most engaging and incredible rallies and consultations, so far. People are eager to meet, receive, and listen to us. Our people have been busy engaging Kwarans on their plans as Chairmen and Councillors if elected into office. I can recall the words of Bob Marley when he sang: ‘You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. Now Kwarans have seen the light. They are not going back to the old ways of doing things.