Princess Bilkisu Gambari, a former senatorial candidate in Kwara State has expressed great concerns over the poor living condition of the people of the state, particularly women in the rural areas.

Princess Bilkisu, daughter of the late Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Zulukaneni Gambari, and sister of the incumbent Emir, Alhaji Ibrahim Kolapo Gambari, in an interview in Ilorin lamented that majority of the people of Kwara is pathetically living below the poverty line.

The princess recently defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) an arm of the legacy parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) where she contested 2011 senatorial election for Kwara Central District. According to her, it was the passion to better the lot of the people in her senatorial district that lured her into partisan politics in the first instance .

Gambari said she was determined to embark on a massive empowerment programme to enhance the standard of living of the down trodden people in the Kwara Central senatorial district.

She said she had opened offices in the four local government areas that made up the Kwara Central Senatorial district where women and youths would register their names to benefit from developmental programmes which will a total of 12, 000 women and youths .

The princess added that prospective beneficiaries would have to fill a form indicating their areas of interests and skills.

Gambari said the empowerment would cover setting up of small businesses for women and youths, procurement of work tools like pepper grinding machines and freezers.

She added that some facilitators would be brought from Lagos and other places to teach the people in skill acquisition and how to make soap, candle, body cream, hair cream and perfumes.

According to her, after the skill acquisition, beneficiaries would be given some money to start off. Princess Gambari also said she would focus on how to educate the people to know their rights.

According to her, many people are ignorant of their rights in the society, adding that “if you don’t know your rights, there is no way you can demand for such rights.”

She lamented that people in the rural areas did not know that elected representatives are answerable to them and they can demand for the account of their stewardship anytime.

“Once the people know their fundamental rights as citizens of Kwara State, they will be able to check the excesses of those they elect into offices,” she added. Gambari, therefore, called on the people of the senatorial district to always support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as it is the party that would deliver them from the shackle of oppression of the state government.