After several months of suspense, the strong man of Kwara politics, Dr Olusola Saraki, has finally endorsed Senator Gbemisola Saraki for the 2011 gubernatorial race in the state.

The veteran politician apparently bowed to pressure to endorse the senator. The clamour for her by the broad spectrum of the Kwara people have been deafening, so loud you could hear it in Lagos, from Ilorin and other major towns of the state.

A demonstration of the clamour for the   affable senator, whose political profile is on the upswing, was recently exhibited to the face of Dr. Saraki, fondly called Oloye, when he visited Ilorin from Abuja where he is domiciled.

It had been a while since Oloye visited home last. He possibly stayed away from home for some time to enable him have thorough consultations on the issue of the successor to Governor Bukola Saraki, who is completing his maximum tenure of two terms in office next year, having been put under intense pressure to name the successor.

But people across the state got wind of the Oloye visit. Not only did they storm the Ilorin Airport to welcome him home, they also used the occasion to demand Gbemisola Saraki’s endorsement for governorship. Clad in the same attire, the people carried placards of different inscriptions to drive home their clamour for Gbemisola governorship.

The Oloye had a hectic time disembarking from the aircraft that brought  him because of the mammoth crowd whose mission at the airport was not only to welcome him but also to tell him that the clamour for Senator Saraki  represents the wishes of the people of Kwara.

That was not the first time that the people of the state would mention the idea of fielding her to the hearing of the Oloye. It had been mentioned by individuals and groups while representations had been made to him that the senator is qualified on all counts to lead the state. But the Oloye had been hesitant to give the endorsement so that the opposition in the state does not imput selfish motive to the action, especially since Gbemisola is one of his own.

Yet the clamour for the senator as represented by the demand by the mammoth crowd at the airport was a pointer that the people really wanted her in the 2011 gubernatorial race. The Oloye must have at that point began to think that Gbemisola running for governorship was a viable project and was worth considering after all.

The long and short of the senator’s endorsement for the office of governor come 2011 is that Dr Saraki bowed to the pressure mounted on him to have her in the race. It was not as if the Oloye has no faith in the political acumen of the senator; it was not that Dr Saraki is unaware of the leadership qualities of Gbemisola; it was not as if the Oloye cannot trust the senator to deliver democracy dividends to the people of the state, after all, a cliche says what a man can do, a woman can do better.

Yet, for a man of Dr Saraki political stature, it was expedient to exercise caution so that a negative meaning is not read into his endorsement, that his motive is to foist a political dynasty on the state. But the people of the state would not give up; they continued to pile pressure on the Oloye that senator’s candidature is in the best interest of the state.

The people’s argument is simple. The state’s unprecedented development of the last seven years, going to eight is a product of the political stability facilitated by the last-minute decision of the Oloye in 2003 to have Bukola at the helm of affairs. Before then, Kwara had been at the precipice following the war of attrition launched on the Oloye by Alhaji Mohammed Lawal after Dr Saraki had helped him to become governor.

The Oloye had thought Lawal was the person to build the Kwara of his dream but he was mistaken as the then governor, rather than deploying the state’s resources for the benefit of the people, used them to fight the godfather.

Development only found relevance in Kwara when Bukola Saraki assumed office as governor and that is a product of the peace in the state as against the political instability that held sway when the Oloye sponsored Lawal.

To many Kwarans, the key to the sustenance of the peace and consolidation of the development of the last seven years is Senator Saraki governorship.

Now, the senator’s endorsement by the Oloye has set the stage for  the Kwara gubernatorial race next year. But as Dr Saraki rightly pointed out, the endorsement is only a phase in the electoral process, not automatic ticket to contest the poll.

The platform on which the senator is actualising his bid, the PDP, has already issued the guidelines for the primaries that will produce the candidate. The Oloye has come a long way as the king maker in Kwara politics, and so vital is his endorsement of the ambition of any politician seeking political office in the state.

A candidate endorsed by Dr Saraki is as good as having won a political contest. Senator Saraki may have secured the endorsement of the Oloye but, beyond that, her impeccable and robust political antecedents are sure to speak for her at the PDP primaries.

The bulk of the support for the senator’s gubernatorial bid is grassroots-based, an edge that played out at the occasion where Dr Saraki anointed her for the 2011 race. At the function, the nomination of Gbemisola for the gubernatorial race was formally done by the chairman of local government areas across the state who spoke on behalf of their people.

The endorsement electrified Kwara. Moments later, the people, in different communities of the state, trooped to the streets in celebration of a much-expected endorsement.

It was a celebration of merit over sentiment of gender apologists, a celebration of reason over mediocrity, a celebration of the new lease of life that a Senator Saraki would bring to Kwara, a celebration that family affiliation did not becloud the sense of judgement of the elder Saraki to endorse the senator rather than throwing away quality leadership that she represents. Behind the celebration is the senator’s consistent philanthropic activities that predate her entry into politics in 1999 and the empowerment programmes to uplift the less privileged.

The quality representation of her people in the National Assembly spanning 11 years also counts. The totality of her achievements among the people of Kwara is that she can do a lot more for them if she becomes governor. For the record, it is to her credit that many who possibly would not have seen the four walls of a primary school not to talk of a university are today graduates.

Senator Saraki’s education foundation saw to it that the talents in the children that may have remained untapped for their own benefits and that of the society are alive. The senator has done no less in the area of her empowerment programmes.

Beneficiaries scattered across Kwara are living testimonies. Today, the beneficiaries can look back and thank God that they can earn a living and sustain their different families. Even in the area of religion, the senator  is proving that she is a promoter of peaceful co-existence. Not only is she sponsoring members of her religion on holy pilgrimage to Mecca, the gesture is also extended to Christians intending to go to Jerusalem on pilgrimage.

The activities of the senator give her out as a selfless woman; a woman of the people; a symbol of the future of Kwara. The endorsement of the Oloye for her to contest the 2011 election has put her on the path of building a Kwara of the people’s dream.

By Jimoh Galadima  from Ilorin