Before any argument is made or any appeal extended, there is something that must be done first. Something that deserves to come before everything else.
We rise to salute our elders.
To every man and woman within the All Progressives Congress in Kwara State who has given of themselves to this movement, whether you are at peace with where we are today or whether your heart carries the weight of unresolved grievance, we bow our heads in honour of you. All of you. Without exception and without condition.
You were there when Otoge was not a slogan but a cry from the soul of a people who had suffered long enough under the weight of political captivity. You were there in those early days when standing with this movement meant risking comfort, relationships, and in some cases, livelihood. You spoke when speaking was dangerous. You moved when moving was costly. You gave your name, your time, your sweat, and the full weight of your belief to the dream of a new Kwara. Some of you gave quietly, without cameras or recognition, without so much as a thank you. And you gave anyway.
The Kwara we are living in today, the government that flies the APC flag, the progress we now point to with pride, none of it exists without you. None of it. Every road, every policy, every moment of good governance our people have experienced since the historic victory of 2019 stands on a foundation that your sacrifice poured. You are not background figures. You are not footnotes. You are the very bedrock of everything this party has achieved in Kwara State.
We salute the elder who is standing firm and satisfied, whose faith in the direction of our party remains unshaken. We salute equally, and with just as much warmth, the elder who is aggrieved, whose heart is carrying something heavy, whose expectation has not yet been met. Your grievance does not make you less of a patriot. Your pain does not make you less of a party man or woman. It makes you someone who cares so deeply that disappointment actually hurts. And those who can be hurt by disappointment are those who truly believe. We need you. This party needs you. Kwara needs you.
We see every one of you. We honour every one of you. And we are grateful in ways that words can only begin to express.
Now, with that honour firmly on the record, let us speak to something that deserves to be celebrated without qualification.
There are leaders who govern for those closest to them, and there are leaders who govern for all. His Excellency, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has demonstrated through deeds, not words alone, that he belongs in the latter category. The evidence is not in speeches. It is in decisions.
The zoning of the governorship seat to Kwara North is not a small thing. Let no one reduce it to a footnote or treat it as a routine political calculation, because it is neither. It is a bold, deliberate, and profoundly meaningful act of statesmanship. It is a declaration, backed by the full authority of leadership, that no senatorial district in our state shall be treated as an afterthought. It is the kind of decision that does not merely answer today’s question but speaks to questions that generations ahead have not yet found the words to ask.
Kwara North waited. And in honouring that wait, our governor sent a message that echoes across every district, every community, every family. He said, in effect, that everyone’s time matters. That equity is not language for campaign posters but a governing principle that will be honoured even when honouring it is not the easiest path.
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has also shown himself, time and again, to be a man who listens. Not for the cameras. Genuinely. He is a governor whose door has not been shut to those who disagree, whose openness to dialogue is not political strategy but character. He is accessible. He is open to correction. He carries within him the understanding that leadership is not the elimination of dissent but the management of it with wisdom, patience, and grace.
This is leadership that deserves our protection. And the best way we can protect it is by standing united behind the future it is pointing us toward.
Let us now speak plainly to one another, as members of one household must, because plain speech between family members is not disrespect. It is love.
We are the APC. We are a progressive party, and we understand, perhaps better than most, that politics is about interests. This is not a shameful truth. It is simply the truth. Every aspirant who entered the governorship race did so out of genuine conviction about their vision for Kwara, their capacity to serve, and the legitimate interests of their communities. There is nothing wrong with that. It is how democracy breathes.
But here is what we must reckon with honestly. Every single aspirant who stepped forward was qualified. Every. Single. One. Each of them carries merit. Each commands loyalty. Each represents a network of support, of energy, and of capacity that our party needs. The tragedy would not be that they contested and did not emerge. The tragedy would be if we allowed the outcome of a primary to permanently silence the enormous strength they each bring to this house.
Because here is the truth about where we stand. The APC in Kwara State is not walking into the general election on a comfortable road. We are going into a fight, and in any fight, a side that is divided before the battle begins has already handed the advantage to the opposition. Building factions within our party does not hurt only those we disagree with. It hurts the candidate, the governor, the party, and most painfully, the people of Kwara State who are depending on us to hold it together long enough to win for them.
Think carefully about what our collective strength actually looks like when it is assembled. The support base of every former aspirant is not a small thing. These are real people, real voters, real campaign foot soldiers, real community structures built over years of relationship and trust. Now picture all of that energy pointing in one direction. Every former aspirant on the same platform, speaking with one voice, mobilising their networks for one candidate. That is not just a united party. That is an unstoppable force. That is the kind of coalition that produces landslides.
Now picture the opposite. Those energies scattered. Those networks quietly withdrawn. Those structures either sitting at home or, worse, pointed elsewhere. That is how parties that appeared invincible walk into elections and come out devastated. That is how Kwara’s story could be written in a way that none of us want. And I refuse to believe that anyone reading these words wants that story.
To every aggrieved member of our party, I come to you today not with arrogance or the cold language of political management, but with open arms and an honest heart.
I hear you. We hear you. And I want to say plainly that the concerns about inclusion in the selection process are not frivolous. When people who have sacrificed, who have built structures, who have delivered results, feel that their voice was not sought and their contribution was not adequately weighed, that is a legitimate wound. It deserves to be treated with the seriousness it carries, not dismissed, not minimised, and certainly not answered with platitudes.
But I want us all to think carefully about what sustained agitation at this stage will actually cost. The consequences will not fall primarily on party leadership. They will fall on the people. The market woman in Offa who needs the APC to win because the alternative threatens the progress she has lived. The farmer in Kaiama who has seen what this government has begun and needs it to continue. The civil servant in Ilorin whose confidence in governance has slowly been rebuilt. The young person in Lafiagi watching how we handle this moment and deciding whether politics is something worth believing in.
These are the people. These are the ones whose lives our unity or division will shape most directly. And if we love Kwara more than we love being right, the path forward becomes clear.
Come back to the table.
Not because your grievance is wrong. Not because your pain is without basis. But because there is a governor who is genuinely willing to hear you out, to engage without ego, and to find resolutions that honour every stakeholder without reversing what has been decided. The door is open. The willingness is real. What is needed now is the courage and the patriotism to walk through.
On the specific concern of non-inclusion in the selection process, the truth is that a primary, by its very nature, produces one winner from many. But the end of a primary is not the end of relevance for those who did not emerge. It must be the beginning of a broader, more deliberate conversation about how every aspirant’s strength, network, and loyalty is channelled into the campaign and into governance. No genuine voice should go unheard. No real contribution should go unacknowledged. There is room in this house for every person, and I call on our party leadership to demonstrate that in ways that are visible, sincere, and sustained.
To those calling for the replacement of the existing governorship candidate, I speak with the greatest possible respect and the greatest possible directness. That road leads nowhere good. It leads to legal confusion, institutional damage, and the kind of public spectacle that hands our opponents a gift they have not earned. Beyond the legal reality, it sends a message to the electorate that we cannot govern our own house, and a party that cannot govern its house cannot be trusted to govern a state. Our candidate emerged through a process. That process must be respected, not because it was perfect, but because the alternative of dismantling outcomes every time some members are dissatisfied eventually destroys the very architecture of party democracy. What we must do instead is ensure that around this candidate, every arm of our party wraps itself fully and sincerely. Every former aspirant. Every elder. Every ward executive. Every supporter. Not as a performance of unity but as a genuine investment in a shared victory that will belong to all of us.
To those raising the concern of dynasty, let me engage that honestly. A dynasty concentrates power permanently in one circle and closes the door to others. Zoning the governorship to Kwara North is the precise opposite of that logic. A dynasty does not willingly transfer power to another zone. A dynasty does not build structures of rotation. The decision our governor made is itself the most persuasive rebuttal of the dynasty argument. Receive it for what it is: the action of a leader who is thinking beyond himself and beyond his immediate circle.
To those who have taken these matters beyond Kwara’s borders to national platforms, I understand the impulse. When people feel unheard, they seek a louder room. But carrying Kwara’s family matters outside Kwara does not strengthen the cause. It creates a perception of a fractured state, dims the image of a party that has worked so hard to build credibility, and invites outside interference into matters we have the wisdom and the structures to resolve ourselves. We have elders. We have party institutions. We have a listening governor. Every tool needed to resolve every legitimate grievance exists right here at home. Let us bring it all back to the table and resolve it the Kwara way, with respect, with dialogue, and with our people’s future as the only agenda.
Here is the simple, undeniable truth about who we are.
The APC in Kwara State is made up of extraordinarily capable individuals. Every former aspirant is strong. Every party elder is strong. Every stakeholder who has built community trust over years of consistent work is a force in their own right. This is not flattery. It is a political fact. The individual strength within this party is remarkable by any honest measure.
But individual strength scattered across competing factions is not the same as collective strength in full alignment. A party of powerful factions is actually more vulnerable than a party of ordinary people who are completely united. Because in an election, what counts is not how impressive any individual is in isolation. What counts is how many people show up, how many doors get knocked on, how many votes get cast, and how many of those votes travel in one direction.
The togetherness of our individual strength is what will win the general election. Not the suppression of any person’s contribution. Not the dominance of one network over others. The full convergence of all our networks, all our communities, all our voices, all our foot soldiers, into one coordinated and unstoppable campaign. That is how we win. That is the only way we win. And winning is what every single person in this party, aggrieved or not, ultimately desires. Because a win for our party is a win for all of us without exception.
So this is my plea. Not a directive. Not a political instruction from any office or platform. A plea from a man who loves this party and loves this state and cannot bear to watch either of them bleed from a wound that is entirely within our power to heal.
To our elders, come to the table. You have more than earned the right to be heard, and there is a governor who is willing to listen.
To our former aspirants, your ambition is not buried. Your relevance is not finished. Your networks are needed now more than ever. Come back, not as a favour to anyone, but because Kwara genuinely needs everything you carry.
To every party member who feels overlooked, I see you. The work you do in wards and local governments is the engine of every election this party has ever won. Do not let the temperature at the top rob the people at the ground level of a victory they have worked for and deserve.
To our candidate, carry this mandate with humility. Let every former aspirant see in you a man who wants to win for all of Kwara, not just a comfortable part of it. Reach out. Include deliberately. Campaign in every community with the same energy.
And to every member of the APC in Kwara State, remember what we are truly fighting for. Remember what Otoge cost. Remember the faces of the ordinary people who believed in this movement before it was fashionable to do so. We are not in politics for ourselves alone. We are in it for Kwara. And Kwara is watching every move we make right now.
Let us settle our differences together. Let us forgive what needs to be forgiven, hear what deserves to be heard, and then face forward, shoulder to shoulder, for the people who need us to win.
Not for the party alone. For Kwara. For our people. For every person who looked at this movement and chose to believe.