Salihu Yakubu Danladi (SYD) is the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State for the 2027 general elections. There is opposition within and outside his party in the quest for the seat. BIOLA AZEEZ analyses contending forces looking at their strength, competence and reach as they prepare to slug it out in the race.

Opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the quest for the 2027 governorship ambition in Kwara State has continued to grow within and outside the party, especially, among opposing political parties. Irrespective of efforts to reconcile aggrieved members of the APC by the party leadership, the hitherto members of the G15 group, comprised of ten aggrieved governorship aspirants and National Assembly hopefuls, have metamorphosed into The O to ge Progressives (TOP).

Speaking at a town hall engagement with APC critical stakeholders in Ilorin last week, members of the T.O.P. endorsed presidential candidacy of President Bola Tinubu but rejected all candidates produced by the state chapter of the party for next year’s poll.

In an address by one of the stakeholders, who was also a governorship aspirant, Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe, on behalf of the group, he said that the group would reject every attempt to treat the APC as the personal property of any individual or to impose a predetermined political arrangement upon its members.

Earlier at a separate stakeholders’ meeting in Ilorin, participants overwhelmingly endorsed a proposal empowering the leadership of the movement to explore alternative political options ahead of the 2027 general elections. The approval followed an open voice vote coordinated by a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Salman Jawondo, SAN, after which a committee was proposed to examine available political options and make appropriate recommendations to the leadership within a week.

Also, one of the notable figures in the opposition political parties in the state and the governorship aspirant of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia, in his criticism of the present government, urged Kwara people to leave the past behind them and embrace new ideas, saying, “We live in the 21st century with immense technology. Let’s harness the technology and move the state forward.”

The NDC governorship candidate urged the electorate to ask the three leading governorship candidates, including himself, for the ideas to move Kwara state forward, to confirm their choice of a right governorship candidate for the state.

“It’s not about who is coming from where. It’s about who’s going to be the governor, and who’s going to do the job. Between the two others; one who’s in government and the other proposing, what are the ideas?

“There are lots of dependence going on. I don’t want our people to be dependent. We want policies that would make our people self-sufficient. Mark of good leadership is to translate concerns and yearnings of the people to tangible practical things that would make meaning in the lives of the people”, he said.

Ajia said that his goal is to move Kwara people from survival lifestyle or subsistence levels to millionaires through higher industrial productivity with assistance of responsive and responsible government.

“Under our Forward Kwara Agenda (Itesiwaju Kwara), we plan to have Garri produced in Osi, Ekiti local government on every Nigerian table, and West Africa, thus, creating jobs for many people and turning them into millionaires. So, is the plan to create industry around potato that is produced among the Ibolo. We then have potato flakes, pounded potato, as an healthier food for people. Here in Ilorin, we will scale Aso Oke industry and make it comes to mainstream, thus, turning people in subsistence levels to millionaires. We’ll also partner with fishermen in Kwara North axis and make fish available and affordable among the people”, he said.

The chairman of the leading opposition party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Adamu Isa Bawa, in his criticism of the ruling APC on security situation, said that the PDP handled it better when it was in government.

He said: “I’m particular and feeling concerned about what is happening today in Kwara because I was privileged to serve in a government before now, and I know what it used to be. People know Kwara as a state of harmony where investors can come. But that is not the Kwara that we see today. So, it gives everybody concern, except you don’t want to say the truth, except you want to play politics about it.

“We’re not happy because primary purpose of being in government is to protect lives and property. Infrastructure, education, health etc are secondary. The primary purpose of any government is to protect lives and property. When we were there, Kwara was peaceful.”

“Even foreigners were here, to be specific. The farmers from Zimbabwe, they came to Kwara. So, if we have done it in the past, and what we are seeing today is different, then it means something is wrong somewhere.”

Speaking on what his party would do differently if elected into power, the PDP chairman said that the opposition party would find it easy to tackle security situation because it did it in the past.

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“We did it in the past. So, to do it differently will not be difficult for us. As a party, we are adequately prepared to take back, to restore the dignity of life and property in the state. You’ve seen how we conducted our primary as well as all the primaries in the states. That is leadership”, he stated.

Professor Gana Isa, who is a stalwart of one of the opposition political parties in Kwara State, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said that the ADC is the real opposition in Kwara State.

He said that the party is the party to beat in Kwara State, adding that the ADC is present in all the 16 local government areas and in all the 193 wards of state.

Ambassador Isa said: “As far as the political terrain in Kwara North is concerned today, there’s only one governorship candidate, and that is the ADC governorship candidate, Zakari Muhammad.

“Why am I saying so? The APC doesn’t have a candidate. There is total collapse of the process there. There is disagreement. Coming back to Kwara North, Yes, we agreed that we would allow one person to contest the election. We didn’t fight over nomination.

“Our own party has no godfather. Whatever we are doing is between the leaders of the party and the other members of the party. Our own governor will not have a godfather to report to. Here, both PDP and APC, there are godfathers there. So, whoever they put as governor, will be reporting to the godfather.”

The governorship candidate of the APC, Salihu Yakubu Danladi (SYD), on his part had since affirmation as the party’s flag bearer by the national leadership of his party, commenced “thank you” visits to traditional rulers and stakeholders in the three senatorial districts in the state.

Speaking during one of the visits, the APC House of Representatives candidate for the Ekiti/Isin/Irepodun/Oke-Ero federal constituency, Mrs. Olasumbo Oyeyemi, said that background, personal virtues, competence and experience of the APC governorship candidate pose challenge to other candidates from other parties.

“So, I’m not sure there is any other candidate that can stand a chance with SYD because he has been well-rooted across all the senatorial districts in Kwara.

“He served as the Right Honourable Speaker, meaning that he was the number three man in the state. So, there is no space within the state that SYD is not known. So, His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, made the right choice, as he has always done, in supporting SYD’s candidacy because he knows the number of developmental plans that we have and the person that has helped him achieve it thus far.

“And if we’re gearing our campaign towards what SYD truly represents, I’m sure that all other candidates from other parties will just be a walkover for SYD because he’s the right man for the job. And he’s been carefully and duly selected, he’s been carefully and duly nominated, he’s been carefully and duly voted for through the primaries that made him emerge as the candidate.

“So, SYD is going to win. Just the same way His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq won in 2019 and 2023. SYD is going to win, and this one would even be with a major, much more gap because he’s a man that we know, he’s a man that can be related with, he’s a man that understands power, he understands leadership, he understands followership, and he’s able to move with both at the same time.

“So, I’m sure his candidacy is actually a major challenge to all the other opposition party. But are we scared of any opposition? No, we are not, because APC has chosen right,” he said.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to resolve internal disputes in the ruling APC, following the party’s primary elections, the reconciliation committee set up for the task, has submitted its report to the State Working Committee (SWC) of the party.

The party had on July 3, 2026 set up the five-member committee, chaired by retired Col. AbdulWahab Ademola Lawal to resolve internal disputes following the party’s primary elections.

Presenting the report at the party’s secretariat in Ilorin, Col. Lawal, said the committee had invited all the aggrieved members in the course of their findings and provided them with a level playing ground to ventilate their grievances – a step he noted aided their work.

Col. Lawal said that the committee, however, got assurances of the members to remain in the party and to “not go back to Egypt.”

“I want to say that on the mandate given to us we received the blessings of His Excellency (Gov AbdulRazaq), and the party chairman made it clear to us that ‘please allow everybody to vent their anger and sentiments and also do what is needful’,” he said, adding that the report will go a long way to resolving the disagreement.

The state APC chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, however lauded the committee for its “thankless” effort, and pledged that the state leadership of the party will do everything humanly possible to do justice to the report.

“When we go through the report of the committee, we will do all that is humanly possible to make sure we remain as a family. We are appealing to all that are aggrieved to await the actions that will be taken after the presentation of the committee’s report,” Fagbemi said.