By Chief Otunola Adebayo Awoniyi
There are moments in the history of a people when silence is no longer an option. Kwara State today is at that defining moment. As we approach the 2027 general elections, the choice before us is not about mere political slogans, but about the survival, dignity and future of our dear state. This is why I am unequivocal in my declaration: for the total liberation of Kwarans from fear, hunger and misgovernance, we must massively support Engr. Sulaiman Bolakale Kawu and his running mate, Rev. Cornelius Oluwasegun Fawenu.
The emergence of Engr. Kale Kawu as the consensus governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, following extensive consultations led by our leader, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, CON, and the selfless withdrawal of other eminently qualified aspirants, is a clear sign that the PDP is united, focused and ready to rescue Kwara. That spirit of sacrifice that produced him is the same spirit Kwara needs to heal.
THE GOLDEN ERA: 2003 TO 2019 – A PERIOD OF MASS PROSPERITY
For those who have forgotten, and for the young ones who were too young to understand, we must remind ourselves of what Kwara enjoyed from 2003 to 2019 under the visionary leadership of Sen. Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, CON, as Executive Governor from 2003 to 2011, and his successor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, from 2011 to 2019.
That 16-year period was an era of mass prosperity and deliberate development in Kwara State. It was not a government of propaganda; it was a government of projects and people.
Under Dr. Bukola Saraki, Kwara witnessed unprecedented institutional transformation. It was Saraki who established the Kwara State University, Malete, KWASU, to ensure inclusive educational access for the people of Kwara State. He established the International Aviation College, Ilorin, which trained pilots from across Africa. He established the Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre, which made Kwara a medical tourism destination. He built the Kwara Football Academy, the Metropolitan Square, the ultra-modern State Secretariat, International Vocational Centre in Ajase-Ipo, the Cargo Terminal, and repositioned the civil service.
Crucially, Saraki established the famous Shonga Farms Holdings in Edu Local Government, where commercial agriculture was revolutionized and over 3,000 youths were employed, and he attracted Shoprite Mall to Ilorin, the first of its kind in the North-Central, which opened up Ilorin to modern retail economy and created hundreds of jobs. These were not audio projects; they were visible, job-creating investments.
He introduced Nigeria’s first Conditional Cash Transfer and Community Health Insurance Scheme for the poor, which was later adopted by the Federal Government. He empowered our youth, created jobs, and ensured salaries and pensions were paid as and when due. Our traditional rulers were respected with adequate welfare, empowered and consulted. Governance was inclusive.
Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed sustained and deepened that prosperity. Under his leadership, Kwara became a model for infrastructural renewal. He completed KWASU campuses, built the famous Diamond Underpass at Geri Alimi, constructed over 40 major roads across Kwara Central, South and North, including the Arandun-Esie-Omu-Aran-Oro Road, the Offa-Ira Road, and the Share-Patigi Road. He launched the Light-Up Kwara project that illuminated our towns at night and boosted the nightlife economy.
Under Ahmed, the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, KW-IRS, was reformed and became number one in the North-Central, allowing the state to pay salaries without depending solely on federal allocation. The KWABES youth empowerment programme, the SME support fund, the renovation of over 400 schools, the equipping of General Hospitals, and the Harmony Holdings that created thousands of jobs all happened during that era.
Market women enjoyed soft loans. Artisans enjoyed patronage. Farmers enjoyed fertilizer and tractor subsidies. Students enjoyed bursary and scholarship. Life was truly abundant for Kwarans.
Sadly, since 2019, that era of mass prosperity has been replaced by an era of mass suffering, hunger, insecurity and educational retrogression.
THE SECURITY COLLAPSE AND EDUCATIONAL RETROGRESSION
No example explains the urgent need for liberation more than what has happened to our highly revered traditional institution and our educational institutions, especially in Kwara South and Kwara North.
In the past, the stool of an Oba and Emir was sacred. Today, under the watch of the APC administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, our Obas and Emirs have become targets for bandits and kidnappers, who abduct them for huge ransoms contributed by poor communities.
Reports from credible media and security sources indicate that several traditional rulers have been kidnapped, and tragically, three of them have died in these unfortunate bandit-related circumstances, with a fourth dying shortly after regaining freedom.
These include:
1. His Royal Highness, Oba Olusegun Aremu-Cole, the Olukoro of Koro-Ekiti in Ekiti Local Government Area. He was brutally killed in his palace in February 2024 by gunmen who invaded his residence at night, while his wife and one other person were abducted.
2. The Baale of Ogbayo in Oke-Ode, Ifelodun Local Government. He was killed in his palace in September 2025 after gunmen invaded the community at dawn.
3. His Royal Highness, Oba Salman Olátúnjí Aweda, the Oba of Olayinka Community in Ifelodun Local Government. He was abducted alongside his wife and another resident in early 2026, and reports indicate he died while in captivity after a huge ransom was demanded.
4. His Royal Highness, the Olugbesi of Igbesi in Ifelodun Local Government Area, Oba Moses Oyinloye Iwedunmoye I. After spending days in the den of kidnappers, he was released following the payment of a huge ransom reportedly contributed by Kwara South indigenes. Tragically, he died a few days after his release from captivity as a result of trauma and brief illness suffered in the kidnappers’ den, despite being rushed to the hospital by his family. His son, Prince Olasunkanmi, confirmed his passage.
Other monarchs have suffered similar ordeals but survived by the mercy of God after huge ransoms were paid by Kwara South indigenes themselves, without government support. They include the Ojibara of Bayagan-Ile, Oba Kamilu Salami, who was abducted on his farm and held for 25 days, and the Oniwo of Afin, Oba Simeon Olaonipekun, who was kidnapped on New Year’s Eve in 2025.
Even in Kwara North, the insecurity reached the palace. The wives and children of the Emir of Yashikira in Baruten Local Government Area, Alhaji Umar Seriki Usman, were abducted when terrorists attacked the town and set parts of the palace ablaze. Three of his wives and four children, alongside aides, were taken into the forest for months until they regained their freedom recently, after the community endured months of anguish and protests in Kaiama and Abuja. A sacred emirate was desecrated. This never happened during the 2003-2019 era of mass prosperity.
Today, over 30 traditional rulers in southern Kwara have reportedly fled their palaces and are now taking refuge in Ilorin, Offa, Osogbo and Lagos, leaving behind ghost communities, abandoned farms, shut schools and collapsed markets.
To add salt to injury, the educational gains of Kwara South have been deliberately eroded. The Kwara State School of Nursing, Oke-Ode, which was established to bring health education closer to the people of Kwara South and create jobs in the area, has been relocated to Ilorin by the present administration, thereby robbing Oke-Ode and Ifelodun of economic activities and denying rural students access.
Similarly, the KWASU satellite campuses in Osi and Ilesha-Baruba, which were envisioned by Dr. Bukola Saraki to bring university education to the doorsteps of Kwara South and Kwara North and stimulate host communities, can no longer function optimally. The campuses are starved of funding, staff and infrastructure, leaving students and host communities frustrated.
If our Obas are no longer safe in their palaces, and our schools are being moved away from us, what is left for Kwara South and Kwara North?
THE TURBANING THAT EXPOSED THE TRUTH
The clearest proof that the present government has lost touch with its own people was displayed recently at the turbaning of His Excellency, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq as the Sardauna of Ilorin by the Emir of Ilorin.
No one can deny that there was an influx of dignitaries from outside Kwara, politicians, contractors and praise-singers who flew into Ilorin to grace the occasion and pay homage. The state government rolled out the drums and made it look like a carnival of endorsements.
But unfortunately, his people at home weren’t with him. The real Kwarans – the market women, the artisans, the Okada riders, the farmers from Kwara South and Kwara North, the youth whose future has been mortgaged – were absent. They stayed away. The streets did not rejoice. The genuine grassroots, who are supposed to be the pride of any leader, were not there to celebrate their governor.
When a governor is turbaned with pomp, but his people lament at home over insecurity, hunger, relocation of their school, and comatose campuses, it shows a disconnect between government and the governed. It shows that the title is empty without the people’s endorsement.
That turbaning ceremony, with all its influx of outside dignitaries but absence of home-based joy, is a metaphor for the AbdulRazaq administration – celebrated outside, rejected inside.
This is why Kwarans are yearning for liberation.
WHO IS KALE KAWU AND WHY HE IS THE ANSWER?
Engr. Sulaiman Bolakale Kawu, the Daniyan of Ilorin, is a man who was an integral part of that golden era of prosperity. A seasoned engineer, a retired top civil servant who rose by merit, and a grassroots mobilizer, he understands how government works and how prosperity was created between 2003 and 2019.
He is not a foreign politician imported during elections. He is a homegrown Kwaran who knows every nook and cranny of this state.
He is coming not to experiment, but to restore Kwara to prosperity.
THE PERFECT BALANCE: REV. CORNELIUS FAWENU
To complement him, Engr. Kawu, after extensive consultations, chose Rev. Cornelius Oluwasegun Fawenu as his running mate.
Rev. Fawenu, Presiding Pastor of Oasis of Wisdom Bible Church, Ilorin, is a respected educationist, peace-builder and community development champion from Kwara South. He had earlier aspired for the Kwara South Senatorial seat but sacrificed it for party unity.
His selection restores the Muslim-Christian balance that made Kwara peaceful and inclusive from 2003-2019; it gives Kwara South, which has borne the brunt of insecurity where our Obas were kidnapped and killed, and educational marginalization where its institutions are relocated or abandoned, a strong voice; and it brings moral integrity to the ticket.
CONCLUSION
From 2003 to 2019 under Saraki and Ahmed, we had mass prosperity, Shonga Farms, Shoprite Mall, functional KWASU campuses, a School of Nursing in Oke-Ode, and respected traditional stools. Today, we have mass suffering, relocated institutions, comatose satellite campuses, Obas fleeing their palaces, and wives and children of the Emir of Yashikira abducted, and a governor who is celebrated by outsiders but abandoned by his own people at home, even on the day of his turbaning as Sardauna.
2027 is our opportunity to liberate ourselves.
Let every Kwaran rise and massively support Engr. Sulaiman Bolakale Kawu and Rev. Cornelius Oluwasegun Fawenu. For Kwarans’ liberation, let us vote Kawu-Fawenu!
Chief Otunola Adebayo Awoniyi, the National Coordinator of The Kwara State Grassroots Movement writes from Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.