Saliu Mustapha, Buhari and the Price of Loyalty

Babatunde AbdulRahman

In politics, especially the Nigerian variant, loyalty is one of the rarest virtues. Politicians change positions and convictions as the season and moments demand, even when such changes clash with the ideals of their allies and benefactors. Across party lines, selfish interests often cloud loyalty to causes and people. And so, whether it is to a personality, an ideology, or a cause, loyalty is therefore considered worthy of being cherished when exhibited by any politician.

As the 2022 National Convention of the All Progressives Congress successfully comes to a close, one aspirant whose commitment to the progressive cause and the Buhari phenomenon was put to an unprecedented test was Saliu Mustapha, the Turaki of Ilorin.

In the minds of many pundits, Mallam Mustapha exemplifies the quintessence of a loyal politician whose commitment to the progressive ideals are built on principles and trust.

Apart from his youthful personality, his clean public records, his widely acknowledged integrity, as well as his bridge-building efforts as a loyal party man, Mustapha also represents that rare species of a loyal political disciple through and through. This is the reason why, among all of the leading chairmanship aspirants of the ruling party, he is considered the most loyal to the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. Unlike others, he has stayed with the retired general from his days in the ANPP through to the CPC and finally the APC.

First, between 2001 – 2002, he was the National Publicity Secretary of the Progressive Liberation Party (PLP) and a little further in 2003, worked with likeminds to register and form the Progressive Action Congress (PAC), where he served as National Publicity Secretary. Shortly afterwards,  President Buhari conceived the idea of coming back into public service as a civilian President and Saliu Mustapha keyed into the vision, becoming a pivotal member of The Buhari Organisation (TBO) and the Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO) respectively for several years.

Since then, he hasn’t looked back in his loyalty to the Buhari cause and, by extension, the entrenchment of progressive governance in Nigeria—a commitment for which he has paid numerous prices in vilification, disappointments, maltreatment, injustice, etc. But not once has he showed any sign of weakness in his loyalty to these causes, despite the turbulence.

For instance, after the failed attempt by President Buhari to assume the presidential seat in 2003, Saliu returned to Ilorin to revive the ANPP structure in Kwara State ahead of the 2007 general elections at a time it was not fashionable to do so. Determined to build the winning structure for President Buhari, he funded the party in the 2007 general elections and even contested for an House of Representatives seat, amid a climate of fear and bullying of opposition figures.

Undeterred by the result of the 2007 elections, Saliu moved to the Congress for Progressive Change in 2010 ahead of the 2011 elections. Due to his commitment to the party’s ideology and progressive philosophy, he became the CPC National Deputy Chairman and practically ran the party due to Momoh’s ill health at the time. He stood strong and solid with Buhari all through his court cases in 2007/2011 standing as witness, coordinating witnesses and guiding the legal team.

In Kwara, where the late Olusola Saraki called the shots as the kingmaker, Saliu Mustapha installed the CPC structure and made it the biggest opposition party next to ACN and ACPN. These structures were nurtured and allowed to grow into what later metamorphosed into the APC alliance ahead of the 2015 general elections.

In the historic 2015 Presidential election, Mustapha played a leading role in ensuring that President Buhari emerge winner. He also worked for the success of the party in the state.

It was a big test of Mustapha’s loyalty that when President Buhari came into government, he and his supporters were left in the cold. But as a loyal party man and disciple of President Buhari, he never complained. Assuring his supporters that all was well, he also ensured that the party grew in leaps and bounds ahead of bigger challenges.

In 2019, he declared interest in the governorship seat of Kwara state but was mischievously disqualified from the race. His disqualification was greeted with a loud protest at the time and he was asked to seek redress in court. But as a loyal party man, he envisaged that the move could lead into intra-party conundrum and subject the party to what it suffered in Zamfara State, he declined. The party would later apologise to him in a written letter by its former chair, Adams Oshiomole.

Despite discontent among his supporters who were angered by the ‘illegal disqualification’, he rallied round the party’s candidate and now governor of the state, standing solidly behind the party when things were tough.

When the campaign became intense, he funded and worked tirelessly with likeminds to spread the gospel of the Otoge campaign and it is a testament to his loyalty to party development that he even donated his campaign secretariat to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the party’s candidate in that election. Despite the support and loyalty, he was not considered for anything and he hasn’t complained. Rather, he has been a pillar of support for the party both in the state and at the national levels. In Kwara, where things have become quite polarised, he has been a unifying figure. Despite the disagreement between Governor AbdulRahman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and other leading figures of the party, he has remained neutral, insisting that as a founding father of the party in the state, he can’t afford to support any faction but ensure the crisis was resolved for the sustenance of one, indivisible party.

Therefore, in the build up to the APC convention, political observers had opined that Mallam Mustapha’s long years of unrewarded loyalty would stand him tall among the rest of the candidates, but yet again, that would not be as the President Buhari anointed Senator Abdullahi Adamu.

Without doubt, Mustapha has paid his dues in terms of loyalty to President Buhari and the progressive cause. In the same breath, he has remained the quintessence of unity and inter-generational understanding in the party both in Kwara and at the national levels, standing out as the aspirant with the brightest prospects. Whether the APC and by extension President Buhari would reward such an unflinching loyalty is still is a big question on a lips of many.

Babatunde AbdulRahman writes from Ilorin, Kwara State.