Between Kwara Governor, AbdulRazaq and Saraki. and Saraki … It’s a Battle of Supremacy

There are states in Nigeria that will have to hold the mantle of cantankerousness among the big shots in charge. Kwara State, which is ironically the State of Harmony, is one such place. Even now, it is reported that the governor of the state, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, are at each other’s throats. Of course, only an individual who is not following recent events would be surprised at this news considering that the tiff between AbdulRazaq and Saraki has shattered the peace many times in Kwara.

At a time when incoming governors are throwing their predecessors at the dogs, Kwara state Governor AbdulRazaq is reaching into far-flung history to poke his grand predecessor, Saraki, in the eye. In his corner, Saraki is not letting experience and wisdom dictate anything to him and has likely grown too used to responding to AbdulRazaq’s comments to ignore them now.

At the end of 2022, AbdulRazaq and Saraki renewed their quarrel. According to some reports, the pair had decided to let sleeping dogs lie sometime around June. Those that followed that event were delighted at the ceasefire and used that as an indication that all political rivalry eventually fades. Alas, what was once considered to have faded is back in full force.

The December 2022 fiasco between AbdulRazaq and Saraki started allegedly because the former accused the latter of embezzling funds meant for Kwara’s Universal Basic Education Fund (UBEC) and also using his position to prevent the authorities from doing anything about it.

On his part, Saraki denied the claims and had one of his people threaten AbdulRazaq to retract the comment or meet in court. So far, AbdulRazaq has done no such thing so the matter will likely be settled in court. They have been calling each other names for a long time and nobody has done anything about it. Whether this incident will be different from others, time will tell. Nevertheless, not a few think that all of this is a fight for supremacy in Kwara.