Salihu Danladi: Strong at home, seeking reach
Read full report here: The show-off race: How Kwara big guys tried to outplay one another during APC convention in Abuja
Salihu Danladi represents perhaps one of the most locally grounded candidates among the frontrunners and according to several informed sources, he is the preferred candidate of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
As Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly and one of the leading governorship aspirants, projecting power in Abuja was not optional for him, it was necessary. Yes, the governor will have a significant say, but history suggests that the final call on the ticket may still be influenced, if not determined, from Abuja.
Within Kwara, Danladi is anything but lightweight. He has built a strong grassroots structure across the state and remains one of the most prominent beneficiaries of the growing Kwara North zoning conversation. If that arrangement eventually materialises, he is firmly in the mix of those who stand to gain.
But his influence has limits. As many insiders quietly admit, much of his political strength tends to taper off once it crosses Ilorin International Airport. In Abuja, he is comparatively less known, with fewer entrenched alliances and limited long-standing relationships in Abuja.
That reality is not entirely surprising. Until 2019, he was a relatively young academic at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, with little political visibility. His emergence into the House of Assembly, and eventual rise to Speaker, was largely aided by zoning dynamics and timing.
Since then, he has grown into the role, consolidating influence across the state.
Today, he unarguably wields significant control within Kwara’s political space. Among party members and within the governor’s inner caucus, he is the ‘Controller-General’. In fact, he was said to have singlehandedly handpicked most of the party executives and delegates and even picked chairman and councilors for the party during the last local council election.
However, the governorship ticket is a different contest entirely. And as history has repeatedly shown, Abuja always has a say.
The convention, therefore, offered him a chance to compensate for what he lacks in elite connections with visible strength. His supporters showed up in numbers, energised and coordinated. Delegates aligned with him sang his praises, recorded videos, and flooded WhatsApp and Facebook with carefully curated clips to project his presence at the capital city.
He may not yet have the deep Abuja network of some of his rivals, but through his supporters, he ensured one thing, he would not be ignored. And if the Governor has submitted the Speaker’s name anywhere in Abuja as his preferred candidate, the convention show-off just made the work easier.
In a contest where perception can be as powerful as access, he has used the convention to announce, loudly, that he is in the race, and that his structure at home can travel.
