‘Saraki Political Family’ Still Politically Relevant-Ladi Hassan
Alhaji Oladimeji Hassan, a technocrat who became a politician more than two decades ago, is one of the prominent members of the Saraki Political Family.
An indigene of Ilorin, Alhaji Oladimeji Hassan, who is easy -going, at different times, served as Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, Special Assistant on Inter- Governmental Affairs, Chief of Staff , and Commissioner for Health during the Dr Bukola Saraki administration
Team@orientactualmags.com sat down with the amiable politician at his Ilorin residence for an in-depth conversation and he assessed the economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration while also commenting on the outcomes of the 2019 and 2023 General Elections in Kwara State.
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Alhaji Ladi Hassan, who asserted that the Saraki Political Family still matters in Nigerian politics, also added that its ‘political virility’ remains intact.
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Assessing the Nigerian political system and also talking about having democracy in the country since 1999, are we progressing, are we learning, and are there challenges? What are the areas of improvements?
As far as the Nigerian political system is concerned, we have been witnessing a decline almost daily since 2015 you will be surprised that the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo ,as bad as some people may think it was then, it is still the best so far ,because Yar adua , may his soul rest in peace, didn’t have much time to perform but when Jonathan came, people were criticizing his administration but if you rate Obasanjo, you rate Yar adua and you rate Jonathan the others have experienced a steady decline in terms of performance, and one of the reasons why Jonathan was voted out was that he was not performing that was why some of us in the PDP then joined others to form the APC thinking that we can put things right but unfortunately we have been going from bad to worse and like I said, Nigeria has not had it this bad since 2015 from Buhari’s time to the current Tinubu administration ,if you look at the indices ,look at the economy indices ,look at the electoral system nothing to write home about because if you look at the percentage of voter turnout , it is declining, when democracy is booming, when people are enjoying democracy you will see that turnout percentage will increase, unfortunately we have experienced a decline and that shows you how bad the government is, a government that benefited from the electoral system reforms introduced under Jega , APC benefited greatly from the electoral system reforms but unfortunately the same APC that benefited from good electoral system reforms is making electoral system worse now more or less they are doing it like a selection process and they will do everything to win an election, whether in dishonest ways or by whatever means and they will ask you to go to court and when you get to court what do you gain from the court, no assurance that you are going to reclaim your mandate, look at what they did in Edo State recently, it was an open robbery ,if you watch Channels TV that day ,the TV station in question was already releasing election results, they’ve released up to 80 something percent of the results and PDP was leading ,INEC suddenly stopped to make it available on Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and when they came back, they said APC has won ,what kind of electoral system is that? They choose who they want to win an election, they ask you to go to court, so, it is very very unfortunate.
If Jonathan had not allowed a fair electoral system, APC wouldn’t have gotten into power no matter what they may have done.
Jonathan was magnanimous, he allowed the electoral system to be fair, he allowed things to go on normally and that was how APC got there, now APC got there and it began to dismantle the system and spoil things ,this one that is there at INEC now, who is called Mahmud Yakub is even worse than Maurice Iwu.
So, what we can say about it, we just hope that things get better, the most important thing is to let ‘my vote count’ , they should make an average Nigerian get convinced and assured that the government will let ‘my vote count’.
If a party loses, it should wait for another time but the idea of winning at all cost is wrong ,when you know that you have not won ,look at what happened during the last local government elections in Kwara State, was that an election? There was nothing like counting of votes, the election results were written, virtually everywhere PDP won because we have our results from the polling stations then they went to announce different election results, is that democracy? Is that how we will continue to do things? And it was because the government at the center is not providing good leadership, if the government at the center is serious about election, others will be serious, the states will take it seriously.
Once they see what is being done at the federal level , the states will also do things right.
As far as the political system is concerned, we are not getting it right, ,the government at the center should provide the leadership, if government at the center provides leadership, the states will follow suit but when you have a government at the center that is not serious, things will not improve.
Everything is about politics, see how they are running government, everything has been politicized, ordinarily, once election is over, you face governance seriously, everything is being politicized.
Look at the kind of cabinet they have ,look at Ghana, just look at the kind of election that was held in Ghana recently, very transparent the next day after the election ,the next day in 16hours,12hours the election results were ready but in Nigeria, you can’t get it ,they will deliberately frustrate you and not release election results , they will take permission from Abuja before they release election results, where are we heading to? So, let the people in charge do things right, if the electoral system is effective, if ‘vote counts’ , people will come out to vote but because people are discouraged and they do not have trust in the electoral system that is why they do not come out to vote.
I hope and pray that the president who had before becoming our leader called himself a democrat should show that he is really a democrat we know what he was doing when he was in the opposition, he has gotten there now through the support of the people but he is doing something different.
He had led demonstrations, and protests raising different accusations, see what he is doing now, he is doing the opposite and if we look at the economy indices too it is getting to a very bad level ,we can’t get a bag of rice these days with ease.
When they came into power, a bag of rice was N15,000, N20,000 maximum but now we are buying it for N80,000,N90,000,where are we leading the country to? We can’t cook a meal for N1,000, so, we don’t have a middle class anymore , now, it is either you are rich or you are poor ,you can’t pay electricity bills, you can’t pay your children school fees ,you can’t pay for medical bills what reforms are they talking about? They don’t know what they are doing, what reforms are you introducing? You don’t have to kill the people because you are carrying out reforms, you don’t have to kill the people, it is common sense, look at the pump price of petrol ,why are you basing it on international price what you need to do is very simple, just get the number of quantity that Nigerians consume and ask the NNPC to sell in naira whatever Nigerians consume, police your borders and make sure you have enough for local consumption, and sell at a price that will be convenient for your people, because Nigeria is your industrial base and you must energize it.
By doing this, people will go to farm and all kind of things and the economy will pick up but you said you are basing your price on international price what is the meaning of that? Are we spending dollars in Nigeria? We are not spending dollars here ,get the quantity you want to use for your local consumption and know the one you are going to release to refineries ,police your borders so that the one for consumption doesn’t go out but they cannot do it because they are corrupt people they don’t know how to police the borders.
They are corrupt people, they are not serious , they came and say they are floating dollars what’s the meaning of that? You can eliminate the black market system nobody is stopping you from doing that .
Though Iam not really a fan of Peter Obi but one of the things he was saying was that we need to make the country productive in respect of economy and change from consumption to production but if you want to change to production how do you do this when all the factors of production are now high? How will you produce, if you produce, it will be garbage in, garbage out, what you put as input are coming out as output, if things involved in your input are already expensive, what comes out of it is going to be expensive how will you have a productive economy? Just look at it now, we cannot consume what we are producing because we can’t afford it, it is simple economy, I don’t know where they are getting their own facts but as far as I am concerned, the APC administration is nothing to write home about since 2015 because things have been going from bad to worse in the country.
You raised two important issues including the recent local government elections in Kwara State but I want to call your attention to the fact that even in states that are controlled by the PDP, the same allegations have been made?
Yeah, I mentioned it earlier, I said it is because no example have been seen at the federal level, if the government at the federal level shows a positive and good example, the states will follow suit, we are having a federal system, but at the same time it is more or less a unitary thing only federal system by name but more or less a unitary system in action, if the federal government does it well let see if the states won’t follow suit, when the federal government was serious about local government autonomy they know what to do and it is about showing good example in that area ,let the federal government show good example in respect of elections, let the president allow INEC to conduct free and fair elections and see whether the states will not do the same thing but when INEC blatantly corrupts our electoral system and ask you to go to court what do you expect the states to do?
But advising an aggrieved person to take a legal action is not a bad idea?
If you go to court, will you get justice there? You can’t get that, look at what happen these days, we have seen so many things, recall how some of our governors were following the president around when they had election cases many of the PDP governors did that before they got judicial victories despite the fact that they do not belong to the same party.
They were apparently afraid that the federal government may turn the table against them, they were afraid.
Has this not affected people’s confidence in the judiciary?
Of course the judiciary is a no -go area, the people’s confidence in the judiciary is at its lower ebb ,maybe this present Chief Justice who is trying to put things right and build trust in the judiciary will do it, let us hope she will be able to do it with regard to election cases even non-election cases too, look at what is happening , so many things are happening and those kind of things normally shake the foundation of trust ,because when the most senior judges I mean the most senior justices or whatever they call them are being accused of wrongdoings, even many senior judges are being accused, there are some cases I mean political cases that there are certain judges who normally determine those cases, there was a time that people do say jocularly that the Federal High Court is Wike’s court, so, it is that bad.
Government should not allow things to go bad to that level ,because they are alleging that many of these judges will just decide to sit down in one place and do whatever they like, we are praying for the CJN so that she can make things right because they say judiciary is the last hope of the common man I don’t know how true is that in Nigeria for now but I pray that it comes true ,look at the case of Uzodinma he came 4th, how can 4th get catapulted into 1st? It is just like you took an exam, you came 4th and they now say they have disqualified the person who came 1st and that it is you who came 4th who is now the winner.
Or it is like you are running a race, somebody took the 1st position ,another came 2nd , another came 3rd and if we say the person who came 1st is disqualified then the 2nd position should take the place but in our own case it is the 4th position, how rational is that ?
But what happened was that they added the votes that INEC had earlier rejected and that was what increased the votes Uzodinma got?
How can they add votes? Is it the court that will add votes? That’s what we are saying about this our INEC , is it the court that should be adding votes? These days, when you win an election you are not sure whether they are going to allow you enjoy your mandate or not because they can just wake up one day and say one thing or the other ,they can just take away your mandate from you ,so, that was why many of our PDP governors were afraid, look at what happened in Kano they almost seized the mandate from the NNPP same in Plateau State because the tension was so high they would have changed it ,tensions were high and they may have been afraid that it may cause problems in the country, they almost overturned those cases and look at the last election cases in Plateau State, there were cases already decided by the Supreme Court but the judges just took a surprise decision that made members of the house of assembly and national assembly in the state lose their seats because the court of appeal was the last appellate court ,look at such a judgment, cases that were already decided by the Supreme Court, so, where are we going in this country?
If that of the governorship had ended at the appeal court, the governor wouldn’t have been there today the same thing would have happened to him.
The same thing they did while in ACN they have been doing it, I mean getting governorship seats through the court.
I was about calling your attention to the fact that Dr Goodluck Jonathan was the president when the judges were sacking the PDP governors?
Like I said earlier, President Jonathan is an easygoing person, he is open- minded, he is a peace -loving man, you can’t try that with Chief Obasanjo, you will not try it but they were just doing anything they like and Jonathan will just leave them alone it was when they were trying to do the same thing in Sokoto that people stood up and said ‘no, you can’t continue this’, ,they had done it in Edo, they had done it in Osun, Ekiti .
Dr Chris Ngige was removed as governor under Chief Obasanjo?
Yes, yes, because the presidency through Dr Andy Uba wanted him out of power.
We can’t continue to allow all those things to happen where the court will just remove people anyhow ,you win an election you are not sure whether your mandate will be protected or not, I am not saying all the cases were bad because some are genuine but democracy should be advanced more than that ,you should win genuinely if you loss genuinely you leave it, if you win genuinely, good, once it is demonstrated that you have won fairly, everybody will accept the outcome.
For example, after the last elections in Kwara, we didn’t complain we didn’t go to court even though we had some complaints but it wasn’t serious enough for us to challenge the mandate and we left it, there were some cases that it was glaring and clear that PDP won but in those places they will just say ‘let us increase the votes’.
What we are saying is that let people believe in the electoral system that’s how we can say we are making progress in respect of democracy but when you just sit down and write election results you just decide that ‘’okay, I want to give this one, I want to allow this one , I want to deal with this one’ that’s why it is affecting PDP because many of the governors are afraid that they may not allow them enjoy their mandates so, for how long are we going to continue doing this .
The president has continued to tell Nigerians that the economic pains are temporary that they should endure while noting that he has introduced the new policies to safe our coming generations?
I don’t know about that, but for how long will this continue? Is it when everybody has died? For how long should we continue to endure?
The reforms that were not planned, the reforms that are not based on plans there are no yardsticks, there are no references, there are no targets ,for instance , in planning, you must have a bench mark that ‘okay, within this period and this period this is what I am going to achieve this is our target’.
No medium term, no short term, no long term you just want people to endure, endure till when? There must be a bench mark ‘okay, we are going to suffer for 1 year, we are going to suffer for 2years the 3rd year there will be growth or the 4th year there will be growth’’ but we don’t have all those things, endure till when?
An economy policy that has no plans, no target ,no derivables so, how long do you want people to endure? So, I don’t see any hope, what hope is there? This one is a dashed hope, so, you want people to endure ,there must be a bench mark 1 year, .2years , 3years, that is what we expect.
When you listen to radio programmes, you see how people cry every day ,listen to radio programmes especially the call-in programmes you will hear people begging, lamenting and saying ‘president, please, don’t kill us, we are dying every day’. I listen to radio programmes regularly , you hear people begging the president ‘please don’t kill us, we are dying this petrol price is too high, food prices too, we can’t buy things for our children ,let your reforms have human face’, it is only those in government that are enjoying no middle class anymore ,the middle class is gone because you are either rich or poor
You are a principal stakeholder in the Saraki political group, some have said it is no longer in existence, some have asserted that it is no longer politically relevant, what is your take?
The Saraki political family is firmly on ground because the doctrine in which the political system was established is based on welfarism and family ties, friendly ties those are the things the political family has been based on, so, it cannot just die like that, it will continue to exist. The late Dr Olusola Saraki laid the needed strong foundation and all we need to do is to wet and oil it.
But people said ‘o to ge’ to the political family in 2019?
Yes, the ‘o to ge’ was a political conspiracy and it was a testing moment for us and the people have now seen the difference what we did within the 16 years that we governed, you can even add Admiral Lawal to it because the Saraki political family brought him, so, that’s 20years.
So, o to ge was based on political conspiracy, but people have now seen the difference they saw what Saraki did during his governorship from 2003 to 2011 that 8 years witnessed infrastructural development in Kwara State, it is unrivaled, no government has performed like that since1999 when we began to have civilian administrations.
No governor has done as much as Bukola Saraki , so, the political family centers on welfarism , we share common ties ,we share our joy and our pains we share it together, it is never done anywhere in Nigeria.
I don’t know maybe it happened during the days of Aminu Kano or Adedibu I don’t know but in Kwara State here, the political family is unique, we care for each other, and that’s why we have been able to sustain ourselves together despite the fact we are not in government because we share our pains together, we support ourselves both financially and emotionally, so, it is based on welfarism , that is why we have been able to keep people together not many people can do that even if you look at the pre- 1999 era after the military took over when Baba Saraki was alive, he was not in government for so many years but he was able to keep the people together, we always go to his house, we will dance, we will interact, people will enjoy themselves some will stay there overnight and musicians will entertain people, those who are there will eat, drink and play together and do all kind of things so, it is a family affair.
The Saraki political family is one and it is strong , we have a close-knit relationship and that was why it was easy for us to move from one party to another because we do move as a group sometime party doesn’t make a difference to the Saraki political family we are always united we take care of ourselves, what concerns you concerns me, what concerns A concerns B, look at when the matriarch of Saraki family died, look at the quality of the people coming to visit the family in Lagos , and Ilorin to offer their condolences ,the president himself sent his wife as representative many governors , former presidents and former governors were there ,many dignitaries from home and abroad were there and this shows you how important the political family is, we are not just there as a family, it is not just about followership alone it is about friendship , it is about creating a network all over the world, so, it is not easy to make people stay together but we thank God that we have been able to do it because just like I said your problem is my problem once you are part of the group ,even when we are in government if you need N10,000 , I will give you and now that we are not in government if you need N10,000 and I say ‘manage this N2,000 or N3,000 people will collect it happily because we know that when you have , you will give, so, that is how we support each other.
Are you saying the political family is still relevant politically?
Yes, it is still strong and its virility is intact, it is relevant very relevant .
But we have had two general elections now and the political family did not even produce a local government councilor in the state?
It doesn’t matter, things like that can happen, you can’t win elections all the time, in some instances, dynamics may not favor you and you know that we lost in 2019 because of so many factors including some lies and propaganda that were promoted by the then opposition party, so, now that people have realized that it was nothing but lies ,remember that some of them will say ‘Bukola follows allocations to Kwara , once Fatai collects allocations in Abuja, Bukola takes the next flight and arrives in Ilorin’ ,where is the money they are sharing now? Dr Bukola Saraki has been flying and visiting places in the country since he left government six years ago is it the money that they claimed he was taking from the allocations that he has been using to finance his trips?
For almost 6 years now he has been funding his obligations , he has been funding the political system, nobody is giving him a kobo is it the money from Abuja that he spends? Those were the kind of lies that they put together and said ‘otoge’ and you know that human beings are gullible and when you keep on lying sometimes lies become truth but people are now seeing the difference, they have seen the difference between Abdulrahman government, the present APC administration and the previous Saraki government, they have seen the difference, when you tell people they will say they have seen it, those who had believed those lies are now saying something different they say ‘those good old days are far better than what we are seeing now’ ,so , this has given us hope that power will soon come back to us by the grace of God.
We are not resting on our oars, we are trying as much as possible to keep ourselves together and also win some new converts because politics is dynamic you have to open your legs you have to extend your horizon ,let people buy into your ideals, let people buy into your philosophy that is how to handle things.
That is why we are still together and relevant ,if you look at the crowd of people that attended Dr Saraki’s last birthday, you can’t see that kind of gathering if the person is not relevant.
When Alhaji Kayode Maja died ,all of us were there ,that’s how we do things together ,we celebrate ourselves, we celebrate our highs and we celebrate our lows ,so, when it is good we all share it when it is the other side too we sympathize with each other and come together ,so, those are the things that keep us together as a family , actually this is the time you will know those who are really loyal to the system, those who are not loyal to the system are the ones who cannot persevere, they are the people moving up and down even after they have benefited so much from the system, they are the people thinking that they should go outside the system but what have they gotten where they are now? There is nothing to show for their disloyal act, they can’t get as much as what they got in our system, they can’t be minister where they are, they can’t be commissioner they can’t even be political adviser they can’t become special adviser they can’t get all they had benefited from the Saraki political family, so, the facts are there to speak for itself and like I said the other time, Kwarans have seen the difference between our government and other one they’ve tried since 2019 in terms of infrastructure, look at what Saraki did, look at the aviation college, even the airport what we used to have was one small tower that was not more than 3 -bedroom , one shed that was used as tower back then, Saraki built the current terminal and the state later got refunded by the federal government, many roads were opened up and when you talk about urbanization efforts, many cities were opened up, Ilorin was opened up, ditto Offa, and some other places .
If you say it’s a political family why is it that some people are leaving?
I have said it earlier that human beings are insatiable, you can’t just please some people even if you give them your last food.
You think they don’t have plausible reasons for leaving?
No plausible reason other than greed, they don’t have tenable reasons and some just left maybe because of minor misunderstanding which would have been resolved easily if the leaders have been informed.
You can’t get everything 100% or get considered for political office every time because only one person can be governor only one person can be senator , it is only one person per senatorial zone and for the house of representatives, it is a member for each federal constituency , so, it is just one person for a particular position ,so , when some of them don’t get it , they get annoyed and they say they are walking away they have forgotten the positions they had gotten in the past, even myself it is not everything I wanted that I have gotten but that is not enough for me to say I am leaving the party some of them met me in the party so many of them.
But there are some of them that are of the opinion that they were considered for appointments because they are qualified for such positions?
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Who is qualified for what? Are they qualified more than me? I became a graduate before many of them, so, what is the basis for saying they are more qualified?
Politics is not run like that , everybody is qualified we have minimum requirements and it is even WASC certificate , so, what is their qualifications? Because they have degrees? Are they the only people who have degrees? So many people have degrees and some of us are even more qualified than them and they were placed ahead of us we didn’t quarrel we might make our grievances known, we might complain but we didn’t rock the boat and say we are leaving. That is not enough for you to say you are leaving because some people were made to lose the opportunity when you got considered for appointments.
They got the appointments because they are qualified?
Not because they are qualified it maybe for other reasons, some people were persuaded to wait for other time and allow them get the elective or appointive positions they had gotten, if they don’t now get it they want to pull down the house, the time you got it, the time they gave you why didn’t you pull down the house? Some will get today, some will get tomorrow because like I said it is only one person that can occupy a particular position at a time, so, if you don’t get it, wait for another time ,if you have a grievance you can make it known.
Do you have a machinery in place to address grievances ?
Yes, of course, we have a leadership structure on ground that we can speak to, we have the party structure.
But some have said it is a one- man show?
Don’t mind them, it is the same one- man show as they now call it that benefited them before now.
Has it really been a ‘one man show’ ?
No, that is their opinion but I don’t think that is the case.
Why?
Only one person can lead, 10 people cannot lead at the same time, there’s a pyramid even in companies, in organizations there’s usually a pyramid , in the flow of administration there is the channel of authority and control because if it is rudderless . there cannot be progress, so, what is important is you will allow leadership to lead and you followers will also make your own contributions and have your say , you will have your own contribution no matter how small because it is a political system ,in politics you can’t get everything all the time because there are thousands of you that are qualified in terms of qualifications everybody is qualified and the qualifications for elective positions in Nigeria is just ordinary school certificate, so, who is not qualified?
Some believe that they are sellable candidates with CVs that are somewhat ‘intimidating’?
No CV is intimidating in politics because we are not running a company, we are running a political system and the constitution does not prioritize what you are talking about ,the constitution gives school certificate as minimum qualifications even for someone who wants to run for president.
If you want to get nominated by the party for president, governorship, senate ,reps , house of assembly positions and you are saying you are the most qualified who is not qualified?
More than 1,000 people are qualified that’s the reason I don’t agree with the idea of qualified candidates any way, it is not like we sat for an exam ,if you say ‘okay ,let sit for exam now’ and you score better than others then you can complain but there was nothing like , no one sat for an exam, so, what makes you think that you are qualified than others this same system has been operative in the past they didn’t complain , we were getting it right when they gave things to them but now when they don’t get what they wanted they complain and grumble that things are not being done right.
Are there plans to get in touch with some of them to ensure that they return to the political family ?
Yes, of course, we don’t want anybody to go away no matter the situation ,like I said some have left because of minor misunderstanding which can be resolved ,there’s no big deal in most of the issues many of them had, we are already having meetings with some of them to discuss ,and you know when there are challenges, people will come up with flimsy excuses, people react to flimsy excuses, if we are the one in government they will not leave, even if we had won at the center in the last General Election and lost at the state they won’t leave because they will know there’s hope at least if they do not get something in the state, the leader will get something for them at the federal level even if its ordinary board member or board chairman they will get it ,they will not leave ,if we had won either at the state or at the federal level they would have stayed with us no matter how tight or unfavourable the situation is because they will have hope.
But now that they see that we don’t have government at the center and at the state , they come up with flimsy excuses ‘oga didn’t call me ,oga didn’t pick up my calls’ ‘oga didn’t reply my sms’, those are minor excuses ,it is understandable and these are solvable issues , we are talking to them and I do tell some of them to come back to the house ,because Saraki political family is a house where many of them were raised politically, I even saw one of my old friends recently and I told him that ‘you are taking too long to come back to the house oo’ I don’t want to mention his name but he is a lawyer and he said ‘okay, Iam coming soon’ , so, that’s it, once you are part of the political family you get attached to it emotionally. hopefully very soon some of them will come back .
You mean the Saraki political family is still the best in Kwara State?
Which other political family is available for now? Most of them are fragmented none of them is really well -established.
But we have the ruling APC with a strong structure?
They do not have the kind of structure that we are talking about.
They have an established structure under the governor’s leadership?
They are fragmented, and a lot of them have left him, look at what is happening in the party, APC was a coalition of Saraki’s opponents, the present governor brought his own group. Professor Oba Abu brought his own group, Moshood Mustapha brought his own group, Akogun brought his own group, so many groups they all came together where are all of them today? Many of them have left him some left for SDP ,some left for NNPP.
APC also got people from PDP too?
Yes
Many PDP leaders have left for APC?
I have told you why some of them left, some of them will come back because they know it is their home I am sure of that
How sure are you?
By the Grace of God, we are already talking to them they will come back ,they are ‘Omo Saraki’ , they are coming back because many left because of minor issues that can be resolved.
Can you tell us about yourself?
Iam Oladimeji Hassan and people call me ‘Ladi Hassan’, I have been with the Saraki Political Family for decades now ,I joined the family from the time when we were in the banking sector in Lagos, I mean SGBN and we came back to Ilorin with Dr Bukola Saraki ahead of the 2003 Kwara State governorship election and I moved from Personal Assistant in the bank to Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, Special Assistant on Inter- Governmental Affairs, Chief of Staff , Commissioner of Health during his governorship, so, I have held different positions and I thank God for the various opportunities that I have had ,I thank God for the political structure, I thank God for the opportunities, I pray that we continue to grow from strength to strength for the benefit of the people of Kwara State, it is not for ourselves alone it is for the people of Kwara State to benefit ,to move Kwara State forward, so that we can continue to remain eminent among the states in the country.
I was born in 1960, I had most of my early school days here in Kwara , my primary school was between 1966 and 1972, it was then called ITC Demonstration School .
I attended Government Secondary School, Omu-Aran, Irepodun local government, Kwara State, and I left there for the School of Basic Studies in 1977 it was then called Kwara Tech but now known as Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.
I was there between 1977 and 1979 and I later gained admission to the University of Lagos ,where I studied Business Administration and I graduated with a second class upper degree in 1982.
I also received a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Ilorin in1989.
I had Kaduna State Polytechnic as my Primary Place of Assignment during the mandatory one-year NYSC programme in 1983 .
I returned to the State of Harmony to lecture at the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin and I was there until 1989 when I joined the banking sector in Lagos, the Nigerian Merchant Bank , I was there up till 1994 when I moved to the mortgage bank, and I later stood on my own and did consultancy services up till 2001 when I joined the SGBN, we moved to Ilorin with Dr Bukola Saraki ahead of the 2003 Kwara State governorship election , I was his Personal Assistant.
I later served as Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, Special Assistant on Inter- Governmental Affairs, Chief of Staff , Commissioner of Health during his governorship.
I also served as Chairman of the Federal Medical Center, Abuja, I resigned from the position in question when we moved to APC in 2013,I was also the Chairman of KWSUBEB between 2016 and 2017.
I later served as Mandate Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Abuja, from where I left to join the 2019 Kwara State gubernatorial race-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 08035023079, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
