Saliu Mustapha, by looks, appears quiet and decent. But behind that gentle face is a man given to too much lies, deceit and hypocrisy. He is someone who says A and does B. And while many do not know this hitherto hidden character trait of Mustapha, his desperation to win the 2023 elections as the Senator representing Kwara Central is now beginning to unravel him and show his true colours.
Bolstered by his Turaki title, Saliu Mustapha had, even before emerging the senatorial candidate of his party, APC, boasted severally that the moment he secures the ticket, only the Emir of Ilorin would be strong enough to stop him from winning the main election. He claimed to be an institution in Kwara politics and deliberately promoted the propaganda that Dr. Bukola Saraki turned down PDP Kwara Central senatorial ticket because he was afraid of losing to him. But while giving the impression of someone certain of victory and carrying on like a ‘Senator in waiting,’ the same Mustapha is busy moving around in the thick of the night to beg and pledge to individuals in Ilorin, the same set of people he considers unfit to defeat him even if they contest against him themselves.
The other day, after joining to disparage and belittle the same Saraki, he quietly went to visit the man in the middle of the night a day after the Durbar, pleading with him to support his aspiration based on the fact that they are both traditional title holders in the Emirate. And when Saraki turned him down, he left with his tails in between his legs but went to town with the news of a Bukola Saraki endorsement. I challenge Mustapha to swear with the Holy Quran that this did not happen.
Aside his late night visits to Saraki, the hypocritical Mustapha has also continued to pay nocturnal visits to several PDP elders in Ilorin, assuring them that he has no business with AA and promising to decamp to PDP after the elections if they would mobilize for him to win. And it is in a bid to convince the elders of his genuineness that he has made former PDP guys like Yinka Ajanaku, Tunji Buhari, Hassan Gegele, Bamidele Aluko and others the face of his campaign. Mustapha thinks he is playing politics with his deceptions, but in reality he is showing his true character as an indecent and unprincipled person.