A member of the National Assembly representing Edu, Moro and Patigi Federal Constituency, Kwara State, Ahmed Saba, has rejected Senator Saliu Mustapha’s claim that Kwara politics is decided by competence, using the 2023 governorship election as proof that Kwara North lacks the unity to produce a winning candidate.
Saba, who expressed concern in a Sunday report on The Nation, said Kwara North, which has never produced a governor since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, is united behind Engr. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly and the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate for 2027.
The response succeeded comments by Mustapha, who represents Kwara Central in the National Assembly, on Channels Television’s Politics Today on the political realignment in Kwara ahead of the 2027 elections.
Mustapha had cited Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s 2023 victory over Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi (Danmasani Shonga), a Kwara North indigene and Peoples Democratic Party candidate, as evidence that competence, not zoning, has historically determined political contests in the state.
Saba rejected that interpretation, saying the 2023 election involved several factors and could not be used to judge the political unity of an entire senatorial district.
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He pointed to AbdulRazaq’s position as an incumbent in 2023 and said Yaman entered the contest without that advantage. Yaman had also joined the PDP only the previous year, at a period when the opposition party was dealing with divisions at the national level.
He also cited the political circumstances surrounding Mustapha’s own governorship bid in 2026.
Mustapha’s 2026 losses questioned
Mustapha contested the APC governorship primary on 22 May 2026 but lost to Danladi-Salihu, who is from Baruten Local Government Area in Kwara North.
Saba said the senator’s argument about political process gained prominence after that defeat and after the Independent National Electoral Commission published AbdulRazaq as the APC candidate for the Kwara Central Senatorial seat, which Mustapha currently represents.
He said Mustapha therefore lost the governorship ticket he sought and the Senate seat he held within the same election cycle.
His response also questioned Mustapha’s decision to leave the APC and subsequently receive the PDP ticket for the same Kwara Central Senate seat without contesting a primary.
Saba asked why Mustapha was questioning the process used by one party after accepting a ticket from another without a primary contest.
He also challenged Mustapha’s description of himself as one of the founding fathers of the APC in Kwara State, saying founders should build institutions that can survive personal interests.
The dispute has now placed the 2027 Kwara governorship contest in the context of representation among the state’s three senatorial districts.
Since 1999, Saba said, Kwara North has not produced a governor “not for a single day.”
Kwara Central and Kwara South have both produced governors during the democratic period, leaving Kwara North without a governor since the return to civilian rule.
He said support for Danladi-Salihu should therefore not be viewed as a favour to Kwara North but as fairness within the state.
North promises ballot-box backing
Saba said Governor AbdulRazaq should be commended for supporting a Kwara North candidate to succeed him, identifying Danladi-Salihu as the person who should receive the zone’s backing in 2027.
“Let me be unambiguous: Kwara North is united,” he said.
He said the zone had previously supported candidates from other parts of the state in the interest of statewide unity, without demanding immediate political rewards.
He noted that support would be repeated at the 2027 election through votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Danladi-Salihu and APC candidates.
“We will prove it again in 2027; not through rhetoric, but at the ballot box,” Saba declared.
He also praised AbdulRazaq’s administration for its support of Kwara North since taking office.
Saba said Kwara State had maintained a reputation as one of Nigeria’s peaceable and religiously observant states, with loyalty, patience and fairness presented as values that should also guide political relations.
The contest over the 2027 governorship has produced a direct disagreement over how political history in Kwara should be read.
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