2027 Kwara Guber: Ladi Hassan Warns Against Vote Buying, Urges Kwarans To Vote Wisely
Ahead of the 2027 Kwara State gubernatorial election, a prominent politician in the state, Alhaji Ladi Hassan has warned residents of the State of Harmony against vote buying urging them to vote for their conscience while adding that the upcoming guber polls will provide an opportunity for the people of the state to ask important questions before choosing their next governor.
He noted that elections are held at periodic intervals in order to give people the opportunity to correct their mistakes and vote wisely.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Alhaji Ladi Hassan ,who said this while appearing as a guest on Taiwo Adeyemi’s ‘E ba wa dasi’ programme on Diamond FM, Ilorin on Tuesday, also warned that the money collected by voters on the Election Day will only last them for a while and they will be made to ‘pay the price’ for four years.
‘Someone, who can’t feed his wife is given N10,000 to vote for a bad candidate and he will do so but would be made to pay the price for the next four years. So, people can see now that it is wrong to do such a thing and that it is not in their interest, if anyone brings money in 2027 nobody should collect it. If anyone brings money, and you allow it to influence your decision, you will spend the N10,000 within one week, but they will be in power for four years, and you will go hungry for four years’ he said.
Talking about the issue of half-salary known in common parlance as ‘geri gedi’, he submitted that circumstances beyond control made this happen during a PDP administration in the state.
‘I have told you that it is mere propaganda, there was nothing like deliberate payment of half-salary, it is a lie, there was the issue of pension arrears debt, I remember vividly that we had to take a loan from the bank to clear the pension arrears debt and we paid it bit by bit, I mean the debt that we inherited which was not a little amount of money and we began to clear it. The APP government owed a lot of money, there was a lot of pension arrears debt, and we reached an agreement with the labour union leaders, Comrade Ayeoribe was the then chairman, we sat down with them and we talked, and we began paying this bit by bit. On the issue of payment of half-salary there was nothing like that, at that time I had the privilege to be the chairman of SUBEB. We didn’t owe a kobo.
You see, what happened was that there was reduction in the federal allocation and the only thing the government could do was to find a way to manage the situation. Those who are workers at the state level were not affected, it was only the local government workers that were affected and the state government was even augmenting the local government allocations’ he said.
Alhaji Ladi Hassan, a PDP gubernatorial aspirant, also said his decision to join the 2027 Kwara State guber race was well-thought-out while calling it ‘call of duty’.
‘I have the desire from my heart to become the governor of Kwara State, to serve the people of Kwara State, no one asked me to join the guber race, it is my heart desires, and I know that the love for Kwara State is in my heart, I have been on the planet earth for more than five decades and I have gained enough experience and I have knowledge and the needed wisdom and understanding to serve as governor of Kwara State. And it’s someone who has the knowledge and wisdom and understanding of what it takes to run the affairs of Kwara State that should emerge as our next governor.
People are suffering now because those who are there do not have the needed experience, they do not really know us and our needs.
As for me, my primary school was in Ilorin and secondary school in Omu Aran and I was at the School of Basic Studies in Kwara Tech. In 1982, I graduated from the University of Lagos with a second class upper degree.
. All kwarans at the University of Lagos that we were together then, we know each other, we were not more than twenty at all levels, so, I have the needed experience to run Kwara State, when I get there I’ll not wait for anything I will just hit the ground running’ he submitted while also clarifying that he is not seeking Kwara State PDP guber nomination as a stepping stone to senate nomination. .
‘There’s nothing like that, as I said earlier, I’ve been a member of PDP for quite some time now, it is getting to twenty five years, I have been there, it is not like I haven’t been disappointed, but I still stayed, so, disappointment is very common in politics, it is not because of a senate bid, if I want senate nomination, I will go for it. But because of the fact that I have gotten the needed experience in private and public sectors, I consider running for governor as call of duty.
As I noted earlier, I have really been concerned about the problems we are facing in Kwara State because the way the present APC-led government is ruling our people has shown that they are not part of us’ he added.
The guber hopeful also said Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki made ‘right comments’ when he submitted recently that PDP is ready to reclaim Kwara State in 2027.
‘His Excellency, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki said we are ready to take over government in Kwara State, it is really true, because all kwarans can see that APC people are liars, they are liars because when we were in government they deceived the people and lied that Dr Bukola follows monthly allocation from Abuja, and that when he is returning to FCT, he will collect the money. Now, it’s over six years, is Dr Bukola still collecting monthly allocation? So, it was a big lie told to the people and the people know, they know that this government promotes nothing but lies, because there’s hunger in the land, there’s no food, people are walking aimlessly, there’s no job for the youths. Women are jobless, married women have become wives at other places. The young people have become something else, they are into yahoo yahoo because the government is not serious, the government that doesn’t have a direction, that doesn’t know how to run the affairs of a state’ he said.
Alhaji Ladi Hassan also urged the people of the state to prioritize competence rather than ‘zoning’, submitting that changing the ‘governance narrative’ should be uppermost in people’s minds.
‘Ahead of the 2023 gubernatorial primary election in the PDP, our leader, Dr Bukola Saraki said nobody should join the race from any other senatorial district, that only Kwara north people should do so, even me, I wanted to join the race, but we were told not to throw hat in the ring. So, we gave Kwara north the opportunity to contest the gubernatorial election, but the Kwara northerners didn’t vote for their candidate, and we can’t force them. If they felt marginalized, what about their home front? So, we gave them an opportunity in our party to pick someone but what was the outcome?
Someone who wants to join governorship race must be prepared for it, it is not that someone should just play an ethnic card, that I’m from this group, that I’m from Ilorin or I’m from a group or that I’m from Ibadan, no.
Competence is important, you must show that you’re good enough and that you know what it takes to serve as governor.
We cannot just say because someone is from somewhere , he or she should get party nomination, what if the person is not ready for the job? The person will just be pushed there and the people will pay the price.
Nobody has said that Kwara north people should not contest, any good candidate from Kwara north in PDP should join the race, our leader hasn’t said anything about it, our state Chairman hasn’t said Kwara north should not join the race, no, nobody has said that. Anyone who feels he can do it , should join the race, there will be a level playing field for all, anybody who wants to do it whether south or north should join the race nobody has said it is mandatory and compulsory that the nomination should be from Kwara central, it is an open field as long as you’re competent and qualified.
What is important is who will do an excellent job? All of us should join the race and the party will go with the one they want, if we leave the party level, we will move to the people, they will choose the one they want, even in our constitution it didn’t say it is mandatory that a candidate should be from a particular place. It is about who can change the governance narrative and improve the lives of the people. We are all one family’ he submitted -Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
