*MM: The Real Personality, the Wrong Perception*

By – Tunde Fadipe

The march to the gubernatorial election of Kwara State in 2019 will be interesting. The personalities around the election are known to Kwarans already and the sole aim of an average Kwaran going into that election is either to unseat the cancerous dynasty headed by Saraki or to change the status-ante for the preservation of the future of the state.

There’s no doubt that Hon. Mashood Mustapha is one of the key personalities in the election. He’s an Ilorin born politician with vast experience in political administration and corporate governance. He ventured into politics in 2002 and was privileged to have held positions of Special Adviser, Commissioner and federal legislator.

Hon. Mashood Mustapha is an accomplished businessman with the bulk of his business available in Kwara; this alone and other attributes will put him ahead of every other aspirant gunning for the seat of the governor of the state in 2019.

Despite the fact that Hon. Mashood Mustapha has never been indicted or implicated in any scandal both in and out of political office, he may not be entirely immune from the mischievous attacks of political propagandists. The reason is just simple; MM has become a political tormentor to his former associates in PDP and at the same time a nightmare to his fellow gubernatorial aspirants in APC. He’s towering ahead of every other personalities and they all know that he’s always the man to beat.

Therefore, it is not difficult for both sides to accuse him of being a ‘mole’ inside the APC with all of them waiting to harvest crucial benefits from his political misfortune as a result of the implication of that propaganda.

Hon. Mashood Mustapha has never denied his political relationship with Saraki and I wonder why that would be seen by the mischief makers as a reason for him not fit to contest for the gubernatorial seat. It is to the common knowledge of every living Nigerian that Saraki dynasty has been the decider of the political happenings in Kwara since 1999. Therefore, there’s no experienced politician in Kwara who has never in one way or the other had a deal with Saraki. So, I wonder why Hon. Mashood Mustapha will be held as a criminal for associating with Saraki.

The PDP members including Saraki are jittery of the potential of MM picking the ticket in APC and they will do everything to prevent this. They will prefer a weak candidate without any strong political pedigree for them to have an easy ride to power again to further enslave Kwarans .This is the main reason the PDP men will never relent in their efforts to destabilize the ranks of APC.

For the records, there has never been anyone in the history of Saraki political dynasty that has been so bold to challenge Bukola Saraki on policy formulation, implementation and management like Mashood Mustapha. Those who were in state executive council with him will also testify to his boldness and courage to confront Saraki and this will be the reason Saraki will always keep him within the reach to avoid his trouble because MM is a resilient and dogged fighter.

It is also on record that he demanded for a level playing ground for the gubernatorial contest in Kwara which didn’t go down well with Saraki and that become the basis for personal attack and victimization.

MM is a democrat that will always believe in party supremacy and internal democracy; he will never subscribe to anarchy. The reality is that Mashood Mustapha and Saraki are two political associates that parted ways for the good of Kwarans and there won’t be basis for Hon. Mustapha to take Kwara back to him.

Hon. Mashood Mustapha is a Kwaran with love for the state and will never surrender the state to any individual or groups. His constituents while he was a federal legislator will testify to that. To him, Kwara is greater than any individual either dead or alive.

The aspiration of Hon. Mashood Mustapha can be likened to the journey of Moses (Musa) in the Holy Book; a young Israelite who was trained by Pharaoh but was consecrated by almighty God to lead his tribe and generation out of eternal slavery.