When Politicians Peel Cassava, Election is NearBy

By Yusuf Musbau Dare, Coordinator Youths council, Ilorin East.

By now, most Kwarans would have seen that comical photo of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq in Asa LGA peeling a cassava tuber like an actor rehearsing for a role he no longer remembers. But the cassava is not the problem, the problem is the politician pretending to peel it.

For many who saw the images, the reaction was a mixture of amusement and disbelief. The reasons are not far-fetched. The AbdulRazaq of that photo is not the AbdulRazaq Kwarans have endured for the last five years. That AbdulRazaq doesn’t peel cassava. He peels the skin of Challenge Phone Repairs Shop owners and leaves them in the lurch; he peels the skin of Igbo and other businesses with crazy multiple taxation without a blink. That’s the AbdulRazak they know.

The AbdulRazak that conjures up in their head is the one that has abandoned the rural folks for 5 straight years, but seen regularly stepping off private chartered jets or peering from the tinted window of a bulletproof Hilux than one rubbing shoulders with market women in Asa or navigating potholes in Edu.

But it’s election season again. And like a bad actor craving audience applause, the governor has returned to stage, props in hand, cassava in frame, PR camera rolling. They know it’s déjà vu.

Rewind to the early days of his tenure, when fresh off the Otoge movement, he pulled off a spectacular performance of modesty. Backpack to the airport in commercial flights, or riding with Okada riders in Ilorin. The whole underdog gimmick. Back then, the people bought it, albeit innocently. Sebi they’ve just succeeded in lying their way into Ahmadu Bello Way. Therefore, anything that’s not Saraki, no matter how pretentiously odiferous, smelled like fresh air.

Now, with murmurs growing louder about his ambition for the Kwara Central senatorial seat in 2027, AbdulRazaq has dusted off his stage costume. The same man who ghosted the grassroots is now crawling back with cassava and forced smiles, hoping the people don’t remember who vanished after the last curtain call.

But they do. Ask the small businesses bulldozed under the guise of “urban renewal,” with no compensation. Ask the rural dwellers whose roads have become death traps, while the governor pumps money into surface-dressing the GRA roads. Ask the civil servants juggling multiple side hustles to survive.

He thinks he can rebrand again. That all it takes is one cassava tuber, one feigned laugh with a village elder, and the people will swoon.

But the people have changed. They’re not the wide-eyed hopefuls of 2019. They’ve lived through the promises, the pretence, the silence, the distance, and now the return of performance politics. They know the difference between genuine humility and calculated theatrics. And if elections were held today, even his most loyal spin-doctors would find it hard to photoshop a win.

This sudden grassroots pilgrimage is not about service, it’s about survival. It’s not about the people, it’s about positioning. The governor knows he can’t afford to lose touch completely, especially if he’s going to challenge a sitting senator whose popularity is anchored on humanism rather than fascism.

The emperor has peeled his cassava, but the people can now see that his simplicity is synthetic. So, to the people of Kwara: BEWARE. The peeling of cassava is not for your stomach, it’s for your sympathy. And if you fall for it again, the shame is not his, it’s yours, because, I would expect that after five years of being battered and shattered by this Governor, the time for gimmicks should be expired already.

Yusuf Musbau Dare
Coordinator, Youths council, Ilorin East.