Reminiscing KWSIEC, maladministration under Saraki; the Kingmaker turns commoner

As Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, KWSIEC gears up to conduct the local government polls on September 21, the same day as the Edo governorship election, some elements in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and bootlickers of the former Senate President Bukola Saraki have been sharing articles written under pseudo names to call the state government names and accuse the electoral body of working in its interest.

While it is common in this part of the world to see opposition parties accuse the national and state electoral bodies of scheming with the ruling parties to subvert the will of the people, this writer feels such an accusation shouldn’t emanate from the deluded individuals from the People’s Democratic Party and Saraki dynasty under which the people of Kwara State witnessed all forms of daylight electoral robbery and subsequent suppression of dissents.

The last LG polls KWSIEC conducted under the Saraki dynasty, which had the opposition party sweep all the chairmanship and councillorship seats, was all manipulated by the agents of the banished dynasty in the Commission who declared the PDP candidates who performed abysmally, winners even as Kwarans trooped out in their thousands across the 16 local councils to protest the electoral heist Saraki and his agents of destabilization feigned deaf-mute.

Rather than Bukola Saraki and his cronies, who had found comfort in subverting the electoral will of the people to take a cue from the embarrassing defeat their party suffered in the last LG polls and prioritized the welfare of Kwarans, they continued their dishonorable leadership misadventures. They would later be sent to their political retirement by the revolutionary Otoge movement, which saw the APC claiming and repositioning the State for its deserved development.

In a recent article by one of the pseudonyms of the PDP and Saraki dynasty, they claimed that KWSIEC was working for the ruling APC because it extended the deadline for the party primary election — a decision observers say is in the interest of all the political parties. But Saraki’s bootlickers believe the shift in the date was part of the APC and the electoral body’s scheme to rig the election. Perhaps these guys are already moaning about their seeming defeats in the forthcoming LG polls.

There’s no gainsaying the Saraki dynasty was among those who laid the precedent for the problems the third tier of government is contending with today across the country. Aside from stealthily rewriting election results and rigging LG polls, they also pocketed the funds that should have ordinarily gone directly to the local government purse. The council chairmen under Saraki weren’t only denied access to funds; they were made errand boys with nothing to show for their years of service.

The chairman of KWSIEC, Alhaji Mohammadu Baba Okanla, has offered his words in his recent contact with newsmen in Ilorin. He said the Commission is giving all political parties a level playing field and promised that the LG polls will be free and fair. What is expected of a political party that has not been perceiving its own defeat is to continue its consultation and watch as things unfold. But because the Kwara PDP knows it is a rejected party, it has resorted to propaganda and defamation of character.

This writer does not doubt that the September 21 polls are another moment of rejection for the PDP and the Saraki. The election, which will take place at the 16 local government areas of the State, will have all the candidates of the PDP, including councillors, suffer an embarrassing defeat as Kwarans will, once again, halt them from coming close to the State’s treasury with their thumbs.

Abdullahi, a public affairs analyst, writes from Kaiama.