MM, THE OTOGE HERO @57

My Friend, Associate and dear brother, Hon. Moshood Mustapha, is 57 today. He sneaked into Ilorin last night for a midnight birthday rendezvous with his jubilant political family. He was back in Abuja today after an early morning special anniversary prayer at his residence.

MM's life of giving dominated the testimonies last night But for me, his political skill is his most remarkable gift that I wish to share here. Two instances stand out.

The first: there is so much noise about the architects and champions of Otoge. MM is not getting his dues in this regard yet, without his incredible courage, the Kwara APC State Parallel Congress that became a watershed for political re-engineering in Kwara APC, culminatng in the involuntary exit of the established leadership from the party, probably won't happen.

When the leadership decided to suspend him from the party as a show of intimidation for aspiring to be governor in a manner that opposed annointing , I went to our friend and Governor, Hadji Abdulfattah Ahmed to not let that happen. I warned the governor that MM would react viciously to such contemptous act. But they went ahead and unwisely suspended MM. MM's response was swift and damning: he shut down the party secretariat in his Alanamu Ward which announced the teleguided suspension. MM was the solely responsible for payment of the annual rent for the secretariat for about 18 years then. He then proceeded to do the unthinkable in Kwara: divide the exco of a party led by the fearsome one, held a parallel Congress for his ward, expanded the daring moves to Ilorin West, the very political base of the fearsome one, and supported a similar thing in two other LGs in Central.

It was this MM foundation that we built on to do the parallel State Congress at Acer Centre.

MM was feted then, but those who took the over the reins of political power in APC had their own perfidious containment agenda against him.

And that brings the second instance of his political sophistication. Before the PDP defectors came, MM and Mallam SY Abdullahi were the front runners in the APC guber race. As DG of MM campaign , I was sure our extensive ground work would see us to the finish line as winners.

The PDP people came and weaponized the race but MM and SY were still two of the three serious contenders. Direct or indirect primary, we in MM Group believed firmly that MM was the one to beat.

But midway into the primary contest, they disqualified MM. If they offered any reason for the disqualification it won't be a good one but they didn't even offer any. They just went on radio( The Radio) to announce that they had muscled out a frontrunner who had won convincingly in my ward, was winning in my local government and was doing very well in other places. But he had to be stopped before he became unstoppable.

The warlike mood among the angry faithfuls in MM house that night was concerning. But MM displayed an astonishing calm that night. . He told the people not to let anyone use them to derail the APC change agenda in Kwara. He would react formally to the mindless disqualification, he promised.

MM assembled a team of seasoned lawyers, SANs all, to take the matter up. But before they would file any case in court, he displayed his political wisdom again. He called off the legal challenge. Why? First, a legal challenge, desirable as it was, would play into the false narratives that MM was a mole in APC , planted to serve the political interest of the fearsome one. Two, since MM's case was solid, he would win in court but APC would not field a guber candidate because the period for the contest would have been over, going by INEC timetable.
So, MM averted the Zamfara scenario In Kwara. He is not getting credit for it but that makes him my hero for the Otoge movement.

Last night, MM vigorously canvassed support for Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and his Administration. That's the Otoge spirit.
Happy Birthday, Oluomo.

Oloriewe Raheem Adedoyin

We don't know him....



Who is he??