Date: 2010-11-26

Kwara State Governor, Dr Bukola Saraki on Friday made a triumphant entry to Ilorin the State capital, amidst a mammoth crowd after the Adamu Ciroma-led committee announced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the consensus presidential candidate of PDP in the North.
 
Governor Saraki, whose plane touched down at about 12:05pm at the Ilorin International Airport in company of his wife, Barrister Toyin Saraki, thanked the entire people of the State for the rousing welcome accorded him after his state-wide presidential campaign tour of the country. 
 
Speaking with newsmen shortly after his return, Dr Saraki, who expressed confidence that the struggle of today is Nigeria of tomorrow, lamented that the challenges of Nigeria were similar to those of the State prior to 2003 when his administration came on board. 
 
His words: "We have been able to show Nigerians that the challenges of Nigeria were the same challenges that we had in Kwara State in 2003". 
 
"The challenges of no reliable power supply, the challenges of inadequate power supply, challenges of under-utilization of agricultural production and capacity, among others. These were the challenges that we met".
 
"Today, we are happy to say that in Kwara State in the last seven and half years, those challenges were no more but unfortunately, Nigeria is still battling with those challenges and we wanted to make the difference that we made in Kwara State in Nigeria". 
 
Saraki, who made reference to the problem of power supply which he described as a national problem in Nigeria today, however expressed delight that the problem of power supply was now a thing of the past in the State with the completion of Ganmo National Independent Power Project (NIPP). 
 
Speaking on his state-wide presidential campaign tour across the country, Dr Saraki said what he received during the campaign shows that Nigerians appreciated and recognized his ability to make a change in the country. 
 
Power the presidential aspirant said, belong to Almighty God alone and expressed delight that he has given out his best to the country, noting that "this is the direction Nigeria must go, it may not be today but the future has something about what Governor of Kwara is saying". 
 
"I believe we have made history for being the first candidate to run such an issue-based campaign. It was not a campaign based on personality; our campaign was based on policies and principles". 
 
"Any where we had been to, we let them understand that we had policy on fighting poverty, addressing agriculture as our main focus. We ran an issue-based campaign and I hope that we had set the pace; we let them understand that the purpose of seeking political office is about making impact in the lives of the people", the governor said. 
 
Dr Saraki thanked the entire people of the State for the rousing welcome, describing it as a great honour to any politician to come back home after a battle and for the people to say we are proud of you, we are proud to be associated with you and we believe in you and in the future. 
 
He thanked the people for believing in him and his ability and assured that with their support, he will be back. 
 
"I thank you all for your support and I want to confirm that I will continue to play my role wherever I found myself to ensure that I impact positively on the lives of my people", Saraki disclosed. 
 
Mas’ud Adebimpe
Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor
26/11/2010