Across Kwara, and now beyond it, one question reverberates: Why has Senator Saliu Mustapha, Kwara Central, remained measured, deliberate, and unprovoked while being openly confronted and undermined by his own party leader in the state?
Let it be said plainly, Restraint is not weakness. Silence is not surrender.
The Senator has declined personal attacks, media wars, and acts that would fracture the APC. That is strategy, not timidity. A tiger does not roar at every provocation; it advances with purpose. Power under control is a strength.
At stake is victory, not theatre. The greatest gift to the opposition is a public feud between two APC leaders. By refusing the bait, Senator Mustapha denies adversaries the narrative of a divided house. The lesson of 2019 endures: Kwara rewarded unity, and punished division.
By conviction, he listens more than he speaks, and he guards that discipline. Wisdom is forged in listening. Leaders who hear before they speak rarely err. There is a season for silence, a season for counsel, a season for speech, and a season for action. He knows the difference, and he will not mistake one for the other.
To those urging him to “fight and burn the party down”: To what end? Had he placed personal ambition above party unity and public peace, the same voices would accuse him of opening the door to the opposition. Moreover, as the Turaki Ngeri of Ilorin, he bears a sacred charge: to be an ambassador of peace at all times.
For months, your voices have carried on the morning airwaves. He has felt the heat of youth, and the steadiness of elders. Your message is clear: impatience with drift, hunger for peace, and demand for a Kwara that works. Your grievances are legitimate. Your expectations are just.
As one of you, he stands with you, shoulder to shoulder, unflinching.
Kwara is not the estate of any one person. From Baruten to Ekiti, from Offa to Patigi and back to the central, Kwara belongs to all of us. Our diversity is not a fault line; it is our foundation. He has asked repeatedly what his offense is, but they refuse to state because there was none.
He remains the most formidable and electable with a network that cuts across ethnic, religious and party boundaries. If that is his offense, then he has no apology to offer anyone.
Political parties are instruments, not idols. APC conveyed all here; Kwara is the destination. To demolish the house because one room leaks is folly. To endure a leaking roof is cowardice. We will repair the roof. We will not raze the home.
O To Ge was never a moment. It was a movement, power belongs to the people. The people rose once. The people can rise again, not with stones, but with ballots; not with rage, but with vigilance; not with chaos, but with vision.
We will not discard the child with the bathwater. We will refine our purpose, recalibrate our leadership, and reclaim our destiny.
“The resurgence of the opposition and APC’s introspection confirm one truth: Kwarans are awake. An awakened people cannot be lulled to sleep. Yet let our eyes stay open even when brimming. Let us not, in the heat of justified anger, make choices we will regret in the cool of reason. Let ‘Omoluabi’ define leaders and led alike”. He recently stated in one of our conversations.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda is set to reverse decades of decay. Meet that resolve with prayer and steadiness. In Kwara Central, we have matched rhetoric with results: expansive scholarships to free minds; tractors and implements for farmers; roads and classrooms for access; solar installations and transformers for light; SME support for enterprise. The security challenges we face are national in scale, but not beyond us. We will meet them, together.
Senator Mustapha’s door is open to all. No party label, no ethnic line, no creed can bar access to your Senator. Argue ideas, not insults. Compete in service, not slander. Pray for Kwara. Do not curse her.
Division is a trap. The road ahead demands steel, not sentiment; resolve, not rancour. The affable Senator remains unbroken, unbowed and unwavering in service to you, and to the sacred cause of humanity.
Abdullateef Ishowo,
Director of Media to Senator Saliu Mustapha, Kwara Central.
