The deputy Senate leader and senator representing Kwara South senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Lola Ashiru, has said that zoning arrangements will not be considered in the 2027 governorship race in the state.
Ashiru stated this during an interview with newsmen in his Offa country home.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker insisted that the governorship position would be contested among all the three zones in the state come 2027.
“Zoning arrangements had never been a consideration in selection of governorship candidates in the state.Governorship is never zoned in Kwara State. Anybody who’ll want to become a governor must be prepared to work hard and campaign hard to convince people for people to vote for him or her.
“While I sympathize with the Kwara north that it’s been long time aside from the time of Governor Sha’aba Lafiagi who’s from the Kwara north. Lafiagi was not given governorship of Kwara State on zoning. He fought, worked hard and campaigned for it. He bargained for it. You can’t tell me to vote for you if you don’t come to me. And I’ll ask you what is there for my community.
“Any of the governorship aspirants that comes to me, I’ll ask him what’s on the table for my community. This is about negotiation, bargain, politics. Positions are never zoned. There’s no where we’ve zoned position of governorship.
“Even the last election that was won by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, it was not zoned to Ilorin. It was contested by almost all politicians that were ready to contest. All the zones contested. And because the people see AbdulRazaq as person that can deliver dividends of democracy, they all agregated towards him and voted for him. So also was his second term. It was not a zoned ticket. It was contested and he won because he was more prepared than others.
“When you look at the time of Lawal, his governorship was contested too and so on and so forth. So, what I’m saying is that we’re not in a regime of zoning because we want the best in any case. We want people who are well prepared and equipped to serve the people.
“Hopefully, candidates would have to come, convince us, bargain with us, come to table with us and tell us what you want to offer to people of Kwara State and come to Offa and tell us what you have to offer to the people of Kwara South,” Ashiru stated.
Ashiru, who said that Governor Abdulrazaq had done well at spreading dividends of democracy to all parts of the state, added that Kwara south district deserves more.
The deputy Senate Leader, who said that he saw nothing wrong or bad in any politician campaigning for 2027 now, added that he would, however, not involve himself in that.
