At the moment, i would have to say it is the Saraki's

With a veteran father, a daughter in the senate, connections in all the right places and a son running things as a governor, they are set

Is thuggery, intimidation and killing you idea of being powerful?

Stupid Nigerians will never stop celebrating stupidity and evil.

bilymuse:

Brash
Kwara is a village , underdeveloped , filled with illiterates. Saraki is the only politician of note from the state, that is why he tread the political landscape unchallenged. He plays amala politics and treated the people with utter disgust and contempt by ruling the state as a extension of his private company.

Shame on kwarans and all the apostles of amala politics.

Stats:
His state (kwara) standing his high, his regional ( north) standing low, and national standing ( Nigeria) low. Saraki is not in contention for the top political grandmaster slot.

bilymuse:

Brash
Kwara is a village , underdeveloped , filled with illiterates. Saraki is the only politician of note from the state, that is why he tread the political landscape unchallenged. He plays amala politics and treated the people with utter disgust and contempt by ruling the state as a extension of his private company.

Shame on kwarans and all the apostles of amala politics.

Stats:
His state (kwara) standing his high, his regional ( north) standing low, and national standing ( Nigeria) low. Saraki is not in contention for the top political grandmaster slot.

nuzo:

Is thuggery, intimidation and killing you idea of being powerful?

Stupid Nigerians will never stop celebrating stupidity and evil.

bilymuse:

Nuzo
Even in the developed democracy, violence , intimidation and killing exist in their politics. The degree varies , this is true everywhere iin the world.

ife-eco-06:

I give it to Saraki too:

Reasons:
-Son as Governor. Not just any Governor, the most powerful Governor today! Former Chairman of Northern Governors forum, later All Governors forum, played a great role in installing Yar'adua as President. He remote-controlled the last PDP national convention. Journalists will tell you this

-Daughter as Senator: Arguably the most powerful female-senator.Recurring nominee for Senate President. Anti-Third term, yet Obasanjo couldn't do anything to her

-SGBN: If Societe Generale bank was owned by another person, the person would have been languishing in jail now. But EFCC dare not move near Saraki, even as he didn't support Third term

-Chairman of Northern Union: For Saraki, a Yoruba, to be commanding events in the north is no mean feat.
-Have Saraki in your party and count Kwara and Kogi as your states even before election!!!

nuzo:

@BigB1

For the second or third time in your entire posts in Nairaland, you made sense in the second paragragh.

ife-eco-06:

The Top 3, as far I believe:

1, Saraki
2, Tinubu
3, Kalu

Big B1:

Just because you're the king of boys in your village doesn't make you the Most Powerful Politician in Nigeria; therefore, at this time Saraki will not be selected among this group. May be in few years, but for now the most powerful in Nigeria are:
IBB
David Mark
Yar'Adua

Furthermore, thuggery, intimidation and killing absolutely doesn't represent power; substantial power is invisible (can not be seen or touched by anyone).
For better understanding, you can go ahead and use Saddam and Osama as a case study. There is a reason why one was captured in just few months while the other one is still chilling out somewhere.

youngies:

The highlighted parts refers.

Please I find it difficult to reconcile your referring to the Sarakis as Yorubas, when they have done everything humanly possible to distant themselves from being labelled as yorubas.

The elder Saraki once said in an interview while trying desprately to prove that Kwara is a northern State and mostly inhabitated by northerners, I quote "I accept that there are a few yoruba compounds in Kwara. . . " This doesn't sound to me like yoruba politician speaking.

The point of EFCC not moving against the Sarakis even though they did not support TTA is simply laughable. They are countless politicians with alot of excess baggage who publicly on a daily denounced TTA and EFCC never looked their way.

Granted the Sarakis are powerful but far from being the MOST powerful politicians in Nigeria. The scale of measurement needs to be callibrated, the S.I unit known and the minimum standard set before you can start bringing them to the table.

IBB is still highly powerful, but Obasanjo was able to clip his wing.

Please remove Mark from that list. He doesn't have any influence other than the official power vested on him as Senate President. Unknown Young Alhaji fought him to finish in his senatorial district and he almost lost his seat.

Big B1:

Make no mistake about it; eventhough OBJ was in-charge, but IBB was fully in-control during that period.
And FYI: OBJ knew clearly that the only real friend he had when he was in power was IBB. Forget the sycophants, they come and they go. Only the real soldiers remain regardless of the circumstance.

OBJ also recognized during this same period that there were lines he mustn't cross and believe it or not, he did not cross these lines.

There were nothing that took place at this period that IBB did not know about, at least 2 months in advance.

Absolutely, there were no wings to be clipped

Do you know about Politics at all? Yes, there is no denying the fact that IBBwas one of those that installed OBJ in 1999, but things fell apart before the end of OBJ's second term. OBJ wanted to run 2007 election under PDP's umbrella, but OBJ rather gave the ticket to Yar'adua. OBJ bluntly told him to step down or pursue his ambition in another party. IBB was disappointed, but knew only PDP could win him the election.

Do you know about Politics at all? Yes, there is no denying the fact that IBBwas one of those that installed OBJ in 1999, but things fell apart before the end of OBJ's second term. OBJ wanted to run 2007 election under PDP's umbrella, but OBJ rather gave the ticket to Yar'adua. OBJ bluntly told him to step down or pursue his ambition in another party. IBB was disappointed, but knew only PDP could win him the election.

An Hausa/Fulani can definitely not be bearing OLUSOLA, BUKOLA or GBEMISOLA. All those statements are merely political, as Politicians do.

Dis Guy:

True, its all a game really, the yoruba states definately wont see ilorin as another tribe and the hausa states wont either so they winning on both sides!

I agree that Kwara State is something of a peculiar State in that the level of illiteracy and ignorance makes them camparable or worse than what I saw when was in Bauchi for a course in 1990

-SGBN: If Societe Generale bank was owned by another person, the person would have been languishing in jail now. But EFCC dare not move near Saraki, even as he didn't support Third term