Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said this year’s election in Kwara State will not be determined by playing the regional or religious cards, but by issues of good governance and the improvement on the social well-being of the people.
The Minister, who
made the remarks in Ilorin on Thursday, at a sensitization forum for
APC Women Leaders across the 16 Local Governments in Kwara, said
because of their desperation to retain power, the political oligarchs
in the state have now resorted to playing the regional and religious
cards to hoodwink the people.
“In
this season of politics, everything goes. We are therefore calling on
our people to beware of those who are trying to sell snake oil to
them. The issues we are concerned with here in Kwara have to do with
good governance and better life for our people. Our problem is not
ethnicity, it is not religion, it is not even gender.
''These elections
will not be determined on the basis of ethnicity, religion or gender.
The main issues here have to do with how our state has been governed
in the past 50 years, 40 of which have been dominated by them. What
has happened to the commonwealth, which has been cornered by them at
the expense of the people. Where are the roads and other
infrastructures to justify the huge resources that have accrued to
the state? If you follow a path for so long, and it leads you
nowhere, won't you try another path? These are the issues,” he
said.
Alhaji Mohammed
dismissed as absolute lie the claim that some people want to take
Kwara to the Southwest Geo-Political Zone.
“I
can speak for myself. I am a bona fide and proud Kwara citizen. My
father and mother are from here. No question about that. Our
gubernatorial candidate is unquestionably a proud Kwaran, from right
here in Ilorin, and there are no questions about his origins. So who
is the stranger here?” he queried.
The Minister
recalled that at the recent launch of the PDP campaigns in Kwara
State, the party bigwigs claimed that President Buhari was the cause
of the under-development in the state, while ignoring the fact that
the Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa road, which they took to Bode Saadu where they
launched their campaign, was rehabilitated by the Buhari
administration.
“That
road was impassable during the time of the PDP, the same party they
are now touting as the one with the magic wand,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed, who
challenged the PDP government in Kwara to account for the several
bailouts funds they have received from the Federal Government, said
the state government could not pay workers salaries despite receiving
bailouts and Paris Club refund.
He said the
oligarchs who are doling out their personal funds to help offset
workers' salaries in Kwara are actually returning some of the
commonwealth they have looted, hence their questionable benevolence
should earn them nothing but public opprobrium.
The Minister tasked
the women, whom he said are the closest to the grassroots, to go out
and counter the many lies of the PDP,
In her paper on the
roles of women in politics, a Senior Lecturer of Mass Communication
at the University of Ilorin, Dr. Sa’adat Beki, said it’s
imperative for women to join politics in order to ensure that things
are done properly.
On her part, Mrs.
Tawa Yusuf, who delivered a paper on behalf of the General Manager of
Sobi FM, Mrs. Mairo Mustapha, on the expectations of Kwara women in
the 2019 elections, charged the women to promote the “O to ge”
(enough is enough) slogan from the home-front to ensure that all APC
candidates are elected at the polls.
APC stalwarts who
attended the occasion include the party chairman, Hon. Bashir
Bolarinwa; APC Women Leader Ramat Abolaji Okin, Chief Wole Oke,
Senator Ahmed Mohammed and former Speaker Benjamin Issa.
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