2019: I Am Not Running For Any Office - Lai Mohammed

Date: 2018-08-10

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says his mission as new All Progressives Congress leader in Kwara is not to contest any elective position in 2019 but to rescue the state from hawks.

The minister, who disclosed this on Thursday in Ilorin at a meeting of Congress of Kwara Progressives, underscored the need to take the state from those who had milked it dry.

He said the recent defection from APC by the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and his followers had presented auspicious opportunity for the people to liberate the state from those who had held it to ransom.

Mohammed said: "What an auspicious time for all of us! Never before, have we had a great opportunity like we have now to take our state back from the rapacious few, who have held the state by the jugular and prevented it from meeting the hopes and aspirations of its people.

"From my consultations with key stakeholders so far, I can say, categorically, that Kwarans have all resolved to take their destiny into their own hands and take back what rightly belongs to them. "This is unprecedented in the history of our state, and we must not waste this opportunity. "On my own part, I can say here, without equivocating, that I won't be running for any office during the forthcoming elections. "For me, it is not about any clamour for office. It is about working with all like minds for the greater benefit of our people."

The minister underscored the need for the people to be united and shelve their personal ambition to rescue the state.

He said: "I can tell you that if we all remain united, we can't and we won't lose the looming battle for the survival of our dear state. "All that is required is for us all to subordinate our individual ambitions to the collective efforts to wrest our state from the hegemony of one man and his cohorts."

The minister called the attention of the people to the fact that the battle ahead would be tough because "one with power will ever give it up easily".

Mohammed, however, encouraged them that "the power of the people supersedes all powers" and the mission to rescue Kwara from grinding poverty and make it a better place for all, is achievable.

He said: "The fightback has already begun, in the form of blackmail and fake news.

"They say I do not like Ilorin people. But what they do not know is that no amount of cheap blackmail will deter us.

"The people of Ilorin should know who their friends are. I do not hate the good people of Ilorin." To justify his claim, the minister recalled that in 2011, he supported, on his platform, an indigene of Ilorin to run for the governorship of the state.

Mohammed said: "Even when my kinsmen were not happy with my decision, I was undeterred. "Even when the PDP sponsored someone from my own constituency, I insisted on the Ilorin candidate as a matter of principle, upon the conviction that that was what we needed to do at the time to effect the necessary change."

Mohammed also recalled that as a minister, he was instrumental to the appointment of an Ilorin man, Modibbo Kawu as the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission.

He said: "In a related development, when Prof. Raheem Oba, an Ilorin man, sought a second term at the Federal Character Commission, we know those who worked against him.

"They will do this and many more acts of blackmail to divide us, to driver a wedge between us. Don't let us succumb to their antics."

The minister reassured the people that in the new dispensation, every person in Kwara would have a voice and the resources of the state would be used for the development of the state and its people.

He said: "Never again will our people be turned to panhandlers, never again will our people be made to eat crumbs from the master's table.

"We must become the masters of our own destiny." Earlier, Alhaji Ayodele Shittu, the convener of the meeting and a former Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly said the people of Kwara were tired of the Saraki's political leadership and yearning for change.

He reiterated the commitment of the stakeholders to support the new leadership of Mohammed and rescue the state from bondage.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports the meeting was attended by: Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, the state's APC Caretaker Chairman; Bashir Bolarinwa, Labour Party Chairman; Mumuni Onagu, former Nigerian Bar Association Chairman in the state; Salman Jawando, among others.

Source

 


Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Elese Of Igbaja     Emir Of Ilorin     Iliasu     Raymond Olaitan     Makama Of Ilorin     Raimi Iyanda     Sunday Otokiti     Arinola Lawal     Shehu Alimi Foundation For Peace And Development     Alabi Lawal     Centre For Digital Economy     Zubair Folorunsho Erubu     Theophilus Oyebiyi     Ahmed Shuaib Buranga     Usman Alkali Baba     Kayode Alabi     Wole Oke     Afin Descendants Union Of Odo-Owa     Razaq Ayobami Akanbi     Oba David Oyerinola Adedunmoye     Isiaka Danmeromu     Amada Jidda     Issa Manzuma     Rotimi Oyedepo     Yusuf Olaolu Ali     Segun Abifarin     Akanbi-Oke     Suleman Abubakar     Wahab Agbaje     Roseline Oni Aremu     Ayoade Akinnibosun     CCT     Adeniyi Ojo     Kwara Polytechnic     ARMTI     Mike Omotosho     Adamu B. Yaqubu     Towobola Abdulrahman Toyin     Hajj     Ishaq Oloyede     Elekoyangan     Demola Banu     Lotus Bank     Abubakar Lah     Kuliyan Geri     General Hospital     Oluronke Adeyemi     Solomon Edoja     Yusuf Abdulraheem     Osinbajo     Yusuf Abdulwahab     Shettima Of Ilorin     Chief Imam Of Lafiagi     Alikinla     Emmanuel Bello     Share     Micheal Imoudu     Forgo Battery Company Limited     Sa\'adu Salau     Facemasks     Hijab     Dar-Al-Handasah Consultants     AbdulRasaq Abdulmajeed Alaro     Tanke Road     Orire     Alimi Abdulrazaq     07039448763     Abdulwahab Oba     Abatemi-Usman     Saka Isau     KWATMA     Ibraheem Abdullateef     Vasolar Consortium     Abdulkadir Bolakale Sakariyah     Salihu Alhaji Musa     Ben Duntoye     Danladi    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Sobi Specialist Hospital     Abubakar B.M     Ballah     Orisa Bridge     Ajikobi     Abdulrasaq Alaro     Yoonus Lawal     Saad Omo Iya     Tunji Arosanyin     Haliru Dantoro     Baboko Primary School     Olaitan Buraimoh     Alloy Chukwuemeka     Oyin-Zubair     Cornelius Adebayo     Sardauna Of Ilorin     Mope Dasuki Belgore     Nurudeen Mohammed     Muhammad-Mustapha Suleiman     Oloje     Sunday Popo-Ola     Jimoh Akani     Abdulsalam Firdaous Amosa     Olugbense     Quareeb Islamic Association     Elerin Of Adanla Irese     Special Agro-Industrial Hub     Danladi     Offa Poly     Ibrahim Mashood     Vasolar Consultoria     Shuaibu Yaman     Yahaya Dumoye     Oluronke Adeyemi     Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi     A.E. Afolabi     Hamid Bobboyi     Aro Yahaya     Toyin Olayinka Tejidini     AIT Ilorin     Abegunde Goke     A.G.F Abdulrasaq     Afolabi-Oshatimehin     Kamaldeen Ajibade     Kola Adesina     Chemiroy Nigeria Limited     Kwara United     Osinbajo     Ajibola Saliu Ajia     Isin     Emir Of Yashikira     Mukhtar Shagaya     Gbenga Olawepo     Henry Olaosebikan     Bolaji Nagode     Ridwan Agboola     Mutawali Of Ilorin     Isiaka AbdulRazaq     Medinat Folorunsho Salman     Abdulkarim Adisa     Salihu Yahaya     Olayinka Oladapo Jogunola     Tafida     Neuropsychiatric Hospital     Kwara Restoration Project     Waheed Ibrahim     Kwara 2019     Afusat Nike Ibrahim     Atiku     SSA Youth Engagement     AbdulRasaq Abdulmajeed Alaro     Bola Ahmed Tinubu     Eleyele     Bola Magaji     Maigidasanma     Government Girls’ Day Secondary School Pakata     NULGE