Since news filtered in via the DG of NOA, Lanre Isa Onilu, that President Bola Tinubu has endorsed Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa (BOB) as the APC consensus candidate for the Kwara State gubernatorial election, some disgruntled APC leaders from Central have discredited his choice with the argument that the party will lose with a candidate from the South. Olukayode Thomas not only debunks these claims but also proposes alternatives for the South and North should the APC decide to pick a candidate from Central to succeed Abdulrahman Abdulrasak, who is from the same zone.
Introduction
It is the season of political correctness, when the majority of Kwarans abhor speaking truth to power because of stomach infrastructure and other crass reasons.
The following men and woman of honour — Issa Ezekiel Benjamin, a former Speaker of the Kwara House of Assembly (1999–2003); Adetiba-Olanrewaju Raphael Olalekan, a former Deputy Speaker; Mary Ebun Oyeleye, an APC elder; and Ladi Mustapha, a former APC State Legal Adviser — deserve flowers from Kwarans who cherish equity, fairness, and justice for the rare courage they have shown in speaking the truth at a time when being deceptive is lucrative and rewarding.
In an open letter to President Bola Tinubu published recently in a national newspaper, Benjamin and his colleagues not only exposed what they described as the falsehood that Kwara South is a political liability to the APC, but they also debunked the claims making the rounds that Kwara Central is the voting powerhouse of the APC in the state.
Deploying verifiable figures and data, they argued that Kwara South has been the strongest pillar of APC victories in Kwara State since 2015.
Figures don’t lie, Kwara South leads
Figures released by Benjamin and his colleagues, which have not been challenged by anyone in Kwara and beyond since being published in The Nation Newspapers of 5 May 2026, revealed that from 2015 through 2019 and 2023, Kwara South has been the most consistent driver of APC victories in Kwara State.
Kwara South Senatorial District has returned between 68 per cent and 70 per cent of the vote in each electoral cycle and provided the largest zonal margin in 2023. The zone also supplies the buffer that keeps APC above 60 per cent statewide.
According to the statistics, in 2015 APC won Kwara North with 94,200 votes (68.9 per cent of 136,700 valid votes cast), Kwara South with 96,800 votes (70.1 per cent of 138,100), and Kwara Central with 98,400 votes (71.2 per cent of 138,200).
In 2019, APC won Kwara North with 91,600 votes (66.2 per cent of 138,400), Kwara South with 93,500 votes (68.7 per cent of 136,100), and Kwara Central with 92,100 votes (66.8 per cent of 137,900).
In 2023, APC won Kwara North with 89,400 votes, or 62.1 per cent of the 143,900 valid votes cast; Kwara South with 98,700 votes, or 68.5 per cent of the 144,100 valid votes cast; and Kwara Central with 75,500 votes, representing 54.3 per cent of the 139,000 valid votes cast.
Benjamin and his colleagues posited that, based on these figures, the party’s 2027 strategy ought to follow the zonal data.
“And the data trend is clear: Kwara South has been the most stable, returning between 68% and 70% for APC across all three electoral cycles. But while the North drifted down gradually from 69% in 2015 to 62% in 2023, Kwara Central fell sharply from 71% in 2015 to 54% in 2023.”
