Information Minister Says Sentiment Will Not Swing Favaor In Kwara Polls  

Yemisi Izuora 

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has declared that 

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.