By Tajudeen Kareem

The debate over who should fly the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State in 2027 has understandably reopened old questions of equity, rotation and senatorial balance.

Those concerns are legitimate. Kwara North, in particular, has a moral and political case when it speaks of inclusion and fairness. But a ruling party that wants to retain power cannot afford to reduce a governorship contest to geography alone.  In the end, elections are won by candidates who can unify the party, excite the grassroots, protect existing gains and persuade voters across all three senatorial districts. That is why Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa, BOB, deserves serious consideration, not as a sectional entitlement, but as a tested political hand with a record that intersects party organisation, public service and electoral struggle.

The starting point should be the rules of the APC itself. The party constitution places internal democracy at the heart of its objectives, provides for governorship candidates to emerge through direct or indirect primaries, and allows consensus only through a ratified democratic process. It also says nomination guidelines should take account of geo-political spread and rotation of offices.

In plain terms, fairness matters, but no provision automatically disqualifies a qualified aspirant because of his zone. The party’s own framework therefore supports an open, credible contest in which merit, acceptability and electability should weigh heavily.

That framework is important because Bolarinwa is not just another ambitious politician trying to attach himself to the APC’s success. He was formerly the Kwara APC state chairman, a former councillor, a former local government chairman and a former member of the House of Representatives. In 2022, he served as chairman of the Governing Board of the National Broadcasting Commission.

This combination matters. It means he has operated at the grassroots, in the legislature, in party administration and in federal-level institutional leadership. In a state where political management is often as important as policy vision, that breadth of experience is not a minor qualification; it is a governing asset. In 2027, Kwara does not deserve a governor who has no pedigree, no discernible education, no political track record and no stakes at the grassroots.  Not Again!

More importantly, Bolarinwa’s case is tied to the most consequential political shift in modern Kwara history: the collapse of the old order in 2019. The facts of that election remain striking. APC’s AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq won the governorship with 331,546 votes, while PDP’s Razak Atunwa polled 114,754. APC also won all three Senate seats, all six House of Representatives seats and all 24 House of Assembly seats in the state. That was not an ordinary victory. It was a political earthquake.

Bolarinwa as one of the key figures around the ‘Otoge’ movement and the opposition organisation that helped bring APC to power in Kwara. Whatever disagreements may exist about who did what within that coalition, no serious reading of recent Kwara politics can dismiss his place in the success of the ‘Otoge’ revolution!

And because APC is now the governing party in Kwara, succession cannot be treated as a symbolic exercise. The party’s challenge in 2027 will not simply be to reward sentiment; it will be to preserve incumbency and avoid fragmentation. In 2023, Governor AbdulRazaq was re-elected with 273,424 votes against PDP’s 155,490 and moreso the APC won convincingly all 16 local government areas in the state.

That outcome showed that the APC coalition still had statewide strength. The next candidate must therefore be someone who can defend that spread, not shrink it. The test is simple: who can hold the base, expand the coalition, and prevent avoidable internal bitterness? Bolarinwa’s supporters argue that he is one of the few aspirants with the political memory, organisational relationships and party credentials to do exactly that. Whether one agrees entirely or not, the argument is serious and cannot be brushed aside.

This is also why the current attempt in some circles to frame the race as though competence and zoning are mutually exclusive is unhelpful. They are not. A party may legitimately consider balance, but it must still ask who can govern and who can win. Even within the current debate, anti-zoning voices have not argued that equity is meaningless; they have argued that the office should not be closed in advance against qualified contenders.

Kwara South leaders and other stakeholders have publicly insisted that there is no binding constitutional provision that reserves the office for any district and that competence must remain central to the conversation. That is not a declaration of war against any zone. It is a call for political realism.

Bolarinwa’s candidacy, then, should be assessed on the strength of what he brings to the table. He has a visible history in local governance. He has legislative exposure. He has led a state party structure. He has held federal board responsibility. He is credited as a mobiliser with grassroots reach, and as a former APC chairman and key ‘Otoge’ figure who has joined the 2027 race.

He is also attracting organised support from APC-aligned blocs such as the Like Minds group in Ifelodun and the Kwara Legacy Group, both of which have publicly made the case that his experience and sacrifices warrant serious consideration.

Endorsements do not settle elections, of course, but they do show that his aspiration is not imaginary and that he is already a factor within the political conversation.

The strongest argument for Bolarinwa is therefore neither emotional nor tribal. It is strategic. APC in Kwara should not enter 2027 by narrowing its own options before the real contest begins. A party that overthrew a political dynasty in 2019 and defended its mandate in 2023 should be wise enough to understand that its next candidate must emerge from a process that is transparent, merit-driven and politically expansive. If that process is truly fair, Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa has enough experience, enough party history and enough electoral relevance to stand among the leading contenders.

He should not be waved aside because of where he comes from. He should be judged by whether he can unite APC, defend its record and win Kwara. On the evidence available, that is a case he is entitled to make.

*Kareem is the Chief Consultant/CEO of Proedge Limited, Corporate Communication