Kwara Assembly: Speaker Yakubu Danladi Goes On The Offensive, Reshuffles Standing Committees

Easygoing and even-tempered Hon Yakubu Salihu Danladi, who is the Speaker of Kwara State House of Assembly, has gone on the offensive against members of the parliament who are not in support of his candidacy for governor ahead of the 2027 gubernatorial election.

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Sources say the Speaker plans to run for governor in 2027 when Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq would be completing his constitutionally allowed two terms of eight years.

 Though Speaker Danladi enjoys the support of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, he however takes no chances, and he has made the House of Assembly a well-fortified territory. There has been no room for ‘uprising’ in any form or shape.

 ‘Plenary sessions are only held when he is around to preside over and take charge. He knows that the governor may look the other way and express readiness to work with anyone if he gets removed.

He almost lost the opportunity to return as Speaker in 2023 as the governor did not go all out in respect of his support for him, he had somewhat shown that members of the parliament should be at liberty to choose their leader until a last-minute assertive action by Dr Alimi Abdulrazaq’ a source told Team@orientactualmags.com .

Kwara State APC bigwigs who have had their names mentioned as guber aspirants include Speaker Danladi, Senator Saliu Mustapha, Senator Sadiq Umar, and Alhaji Yahaya Seriki

 Speaker Yakubu Salihu Danladi has surfaced as a leading guber aspirant in the state APC apparently because he is believed to enjoy the support of ‘Government House’, while majority of the state lawmakers have also made themselves available as foot soldiers who are promoting his ‘candidacy’.

 The last APC local government primary elections also served as a platform to boost the Speaker’s governorship bid as his loyalists emerged as APC chairmanship candidates in the whole Kwara North and a few outside Kwara North including Irepodun local government.

Senator Sadiq Umar, who represents Kwara North, had after the LG primary elections returned to the parliament chamber in Abuja with ‘legislative fortitude’.

Speaker Danladi has this week taken a step that many considered as going on the offensive against two among the state lawmakers who had dared him and openly endorsed the candidacies of his main ‘rivals’.

The Speaker has carried out a minor reshuffle of the ‘Standing Committees’ and although it affected more than two people, many were quick to leap to conclusions that Hon Razaq Owolabi and Hon Yisa Gideon were ‘punished’ because they had endorsed Senator Saliu Mustapha and Alhaji Yahaya Seriki’s candidacies respectively.

A source told Team@orientactualmags.com that although the Speaker may have used the opportunity to reward his loyalists, she however argued forcibly that there was nothing unusual about what he has done.

‘I don’t believe it was done to punish anybody, he only carried out a minor reshuffle of the standing committees to accommodate new members and make the standing committees feature the two new ministries that were recently created by the state government, the Ministry of Livestock Development and Ministry of Transportation.

 Hon Yisa Gideon was the Chairman, Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, and a segment was taken away from what he was handling

Hon Tundun Babatunde Alanamu , who represents Ajikobi/Alanamu state constituency, headed the Committee on Business, Innovation and Technology and Women Development but she is to now oversee the Committee on Agriculture. Nobody is talking about that, and she knows that it is just a normal thing, there is no permanent appointment, a governor reshuffles cabinet, a president does that too, no one should try to heat up the polity because of such a thing.

Hon Mariam Aladi attended an event held by a group promoting Alhaji Yahaya Seriki’s candidacy in Ilorin on Friday, if those people had been dealt with because of the Speaker’s gubernatorial bid would she have graced such an event? It was done purely to reenergize the committees, no undercurrents’ she submitted.

Another source however asserted that the Speaker had only reshuffled the standing committees to establish control over his ‘territory’, adding that those who were affected and the time of the action made it abundantly clear that it was a ‘punitive measure’ against perceived ‘political enemies’.

‘Hon Razaq, who had served as Chairman, House Committee on Health and Environment since 2019, was suddenly given a Grade C committee, Energy. while Hon Yisa Gideon lost a segment of his committee.

For those who are using creation of new ministries as an alibi, Hon. Mohammed Baba Salihu of Okuta/Yashikira Constituency, heads Committee on Education and Tertiary Education, are they not two different ministries? The truth is that the Speaker has only wielded the big stick’ the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Interestingly, Hon Razaq Owolabi is Speaker Danladi’s in-law, his wife’s mother is the Speaker’s half-sibling.

This had come when the Speaker had just escaped from being badly scathed in a chieftaincy matter ‘on the home front’.

It had to do with two villages that the Emir of Gwanara reigns over; Kontubaru and Gorobani .

88–year–old Alhaji  Abdullahi Sabi Idris, a  former Permanent Secretary, who retired in 1982, is the Emir of Gwanara.

 It was learned that Kontubaru and Gorobani villages are though two distinct communities, they had however at their present settlement agreed to have one village chief and this practice had gotten sustained for years now until recent developments.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that the village chief died last year, and he had before his death reportedly anointed a man from Kontubaru, Mr. Belgore as his successor.

However, after his death, Belgore , who was an aspirant to the throne, surprisingly lost out.

Although five out of the seven kingmakers had reportedly voted for Belgore while two supported Idi Iyandro from Gorobani , the local government chairman at the instance of the Speaker eventually had appointment letter presented to Idi Iyandro to the consternation of Kontubaru people .

This naturally led to agitations by the Kontubaru people who declared that being a distinct community, they would like to break with the past and have their own chief, a request the Emir of Gwanara granted and Belgore was presented as their candidate.

Idi Iyandro, who saw this as a development that will reduce his influence, however, opposed such a move .

He had reportedly spent a lot of money on the chieftaincy matter including selling his cashew farm to the Speaker’s brother.

Idi Iyandro later took a legal action against the Emir of Gwanara and Belgore and filed a lawsuit in the Area Court, Ilorin.

Many were however quick to submit that ‘the voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s’.

Idi Iyandro filed a notice of discontinuance but surprisingly relaunched the legal battle a few days later.

This had given birth to angry reactions and first-class monarchs in the local government, who were incensed at this development, were said to have gotten in touch with Speaker Danladi to express their displeasure.

The Speaker quickly washed his hands of the matter and withdrew to his cocoon, Idi Iyandro also got the signs, and the case came to a natural end-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you