Kwara 2027: Experience, Intellect, Integrity — My Offer to Kwara – Prof. Ali Ahmad

 Kwara 2027: Experience, Intellect, Integrity — My Offer to Kwara – Prof. Ali Ahmad

By Idris Alooma  

Some leaders chase the spotlight. Prof. Ali Ahmad is chasing solutions — bringing law, learning, and listening back to Kwara politics.

Born on November 23, 1965, and fondly called “Ali Dodo” across Kwara, he carries the calm of a scholar and the grit of a grassroots man. As the Yoruba say, _“Àgbà kìí wà lọ́jà kórí ọmọ tuntun wọ́”_ — the elder does not sit idle in the market while the child’s head is bent. For Ahmad, governance is not theatre; it is stewardship.

Trained in the fine halls of George Washington University Law School and tempered in courtrooms from Nigeria to New York City, he is a constitutional lawyer who has taught at Bayero University, Emory University School of Law, University of Ilorin, Baze University, and now serves as Professor of Law at the University of Abuja. Knowledge, he insists, must leave the classroom and mend the street. As John Dewey reminded us, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Ahmad has lived that line, lecturing and legislating with equal ease.

His public life reads like a deliberate apprenticeship. In 2005 he was Special Assistant to Governor Bukola Saraki. By 2011 he was in the 7th House of Representatives for Ilorin East/Ilorin South, and from 2015 to 2019 he presided as Speaker of the 8th Kwara State House of Assembly. That Assembly, under his gavel, earned a name for transparency and pro-people laws. Earlier, in 2012, he joined the Governing Council of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies. He was also Secretary to the committees that birthed Kwara State University, Malete, in 2009. As the saying goes, _“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”_ Ahmad has built institutions, not just résumés.

The lawmaker in him is most visible in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, which he sponsored and saw passed — a statute that brought Nigeria’s criminal process closer to fairness and speed. Yet he is no stranger to the hard choices of politics. He defected from PDP to APC in 2013, returned to PDP in July 2018, and that same year stepped down from the PDP governorship primaries for party cohesion. _“A big tree does not grow in a day,”_ he seems to say by his actions. In 2023 he directed the Kwara PDP Gubernatorial Campaign Council, and now looks to 2027 as a governorship aspirant.

When we sat with him recently, Ahmad described himself simply: “I am a Kwaran who is not a Kwaran in diaspora who comes home really.” The line lands like a proverb. It is his way of saying he never left the people. He remembers 2019 as a year Kwara was “on a good road for progress.” Today, he argues, the road has narrowed. “So many people that want to contest for governor are not experienced,” he said. “If I, as an experienced person, want to govern Kwara, it is so that an apprentice will not become Kwara governor in 2027.” The sentiment echoes Shakespeare: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Ahmad believes governance should be earned, not gambled.

Security is where his voice hardens. “In 2019 we did not experience this,” he noted, pointing to today’s insecurity across Kwara and Nigeria. “Our security situation needs a surgical operation. Security is not about miracle or magic. It is about attention, planning, and execution.” He rejects sentiment as policy. _“You cannot cook soup with wishes.”_ If elected, he vows to rejig, restructure, and redefine security with modern technology, because, as he put it, “people have been shouting for long, but reality has dawned on us.”

Education is the other hill he is prepared to climb. Citing UNESCO’s benchmark of 15 to 20 percent of annual budgets for education, he emphasized he will give it more attention. “KWASU tuition fees are on the high side,” he said. “Primary and secondary schools need more attention.” His pledge is concrete: a quality portion of the budget ring-fenced for education, and strict attention to delivery. He said he knows the numbers: Kwara’s youth are nearly half the population, and women remain vulnerable. “The fees will reduce and we will empower the women,” he said. “If they have access to quality education, they will be able to get jobs when they finish.” The logic is old as Aristotle: “The fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”

On the economy, Ahmad’s critique is unsparing. He recalls the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida era when oil windfalls were warehoused for development, and contrasts it with today. “The president is giving our governors huge sums of money — some have over 10 billion naira per month. Where are the projects commensurate with the statutory allocation?” He dismisses structures that “will be difficult to complete” and promises “people’s choice projects” that also “bring money into the purse of the state.” He said his model is tourism, pointing to Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saudi Arabia. “In 2019 there were areas in Ilorin we boosted their economy by making the places lively 24/7,” he recalled. He explained he plans to develop tourist centres in all local government areas: “I am a Kwaran. I know where they are. I have the data.”

He is a critic of the APC government. He advocates for local government autonomy and inclusion of youth and marginalized groups — causes that have earned him loyal support from the Likeminds Support Group and Ali Ahmad Youth Brigade. Still, he is careful with the law. “I have confidence in the judiciary,” he said. “In court it is about evidence and proof beyond reasonable doubt.” His own Ilorin South case, he noted, is still at the Appeal Court. “Everyone knows us and they know the truth.”

Politics, to him, is retail, not rumour. “Anybody that wants to contest for governor will go out, consult, canvass, campaign,” he said. He is unshaken by a crowded PDP field: “People know me. In Kwara, PDP is popular; it showed in the last local government election. People know us, love us, have tested and trusted us.” He insists the next election “will be well manned so there won’t be rigging and harassment.” On national politics he is emphatic: “The person who will be president in Nigeria doesn’t concern us. We are focused on how we can become governor of Kwara. We are with the PDP National Working Committee that is recognised by the Appeal Court.”

As 2027 draws near, he said his agenda is plain: economic challenges and job creation, education and healthcare reform, transparency and accountability, insecurity and youth empowerment. _“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now,”_ says the proverb. Ahmad believes Kwara’s second best time is 2027. His final word to voters is practical: “I implore our electorate to go and get their Permanent Voter Cards. If the electorate have their PVCs, they can easily exercise their franchise and vote for me in order to make Kwara very great.” For a man of law who chose the gavel and the people, he said the campaign is not about crowns, but about consequences — and whether, as the Hausa say, _“Ruwa ba ya tsami banza”_ — water does not flow uphill without a cause.