The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has no preferred for any of its governorship aspirants in Kwara state, just as he announced that all the 13 governorship aspirants of the party in the state will go through primaries.
Speaking at a parley where APC governorship aspirants spoke on their programmes in Ilorin on Wednesday, the minister, who is also the leader of the APC in Kwara State, said, there is no predetermined candidate and that whoever emerges will do so through a rigorous, transparent process. “So let’s all keep an open mind”, he said.
The minister also affirmed that the state has the highest number of APC governorship aspirants in the whole country.
The APC governorship aspirants in the state include Ambassador Yahaya Seriki, Alhaji Hakeem Lawal, Professor Oba Abdulraheem, Mallam Modibo Kawu, Kayode Abdulwahab, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, and Hon. Moshood Mustapha.
Others are Alhaji Lukman Mustapha, Alhaji Yahaya Gobir, Alhaji Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman, Tajudeen Audu, and Dele Belgore (SAN).
The political parley at Savannah Resorts, Ilorin, included all the 13 APC governorship aspirants who had time to speak on their programmes.
“This parley is one of a kind, perhaps unprecedented in the history of our dear state. It signposts our determination to conduct a transparent and hitch-free primaries, to do things differently from the past so that we can move our state forward and raise the living standards of our people. After all, governance is all about the people.
“This parley is particularly important because of the level of interest that has been shown in the governorship ticket of our great party. Kwara APC has the highest number of governorship aspirants under this dispensation. All eyes are on Kwara, so we must get it right, especially as we are sure to occupy the seat of power in this state, come 2019.
“What we are saying is simple: Let all the aspirants present their vision and mission to our party stakeholders, in an open, transparent and organized manner. If you become the governor of Kwara state under the APC flag, what can the long-suffering people of our dear state
expect from you? How do you intend to ensure that the government serves the people rather than just one man?
“How can what has become a one-man rule be transmuted to majority rule for the betterment of the people? The answers to these and other questions will give us an insight into your plan of action for the state”, he said.
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed (R) and Kwara State APC Chairman, Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa (L) at the parley.
Also speaking, state chair of APC, Hon Bashir Bolarinwa, said that governance in the state needs total overhauling, adding that Kwara state had not been so blessed in the choice of its chief executives.
“Everything about governance in the state is due for total overhauling, and this we will do for the betterment of the good people of the state.
“We are gradually closing the page of an era that has deliberately held the state back, an era in which the loyalty of public holders is to one man must be served. The result of such undemocratic system is lack of infrastructure, depreciation in living standards and lack of respect for human lives and high-handedness in the corridors of power.
“Never again will our state be held down by the whims and caprices of one man. The old order, which can only nurture mediocre and bring unpatriotic elements to the corridors of power must give way to a genuinely democratic elements,” he said.
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