Saraki’s political model killing Kwara, says Abdulrazaq

THE Kwara State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has said the current political model in the state stifles development and impoverishes the people.

Abdulrazaq spoke yesterday in Lagos at a media briefing cum reception in his honour.

Dignitaries at the event include House of Representatives member Tunji Olawuyi, Muhammad Dele Belgore (SAN), Kunle Suleiman, Senator Khairat Gwadabe, former Information Commissioner Raheem Adedoyin, former House of Assembly member Saheed Popoola, ace musicians Wasiu Sodiq, Ibrahim Labaeka, top politician Musibau Eshinrogunjo and popular actor Saheed Balogun.

The APC candidate said the current political model controlled by Senate President Bukoka Saraki had impoverished the people.

He said: “It has no answer to the challenges faced by our people. Nothing is happening anywhere in terms of development.”

Abdulrazaq challenged the Saraki dynasty to showcase what it achieved in the last 16 years in its campaign rather than the current intimidation, name-calling and the doling out of money to the electorate.

The APC flagbearer, who addressed the gathering in Yoruba, said the authorities in Kwara were using state machineries to intimidate the APC and prevent it from campaigning.

He said: “Those who have been there in the last 16 years did not do anything; we have not seen what they have done. As a result, they have nothing to campaign with. That is why they are preventing us from campaigning too.

“They are arming our youths, who are destroying our billboards and attacking us everywhere we go. They say they have banned campaigns in Kwara State. But we would not be intimidated. As the Yoruba say, O To Ge! (enough is enough). We will continue to campaign.”

Abdulrazaq promised that, if voted to power, the APC has programmes that would create jobs for the teeming youth.

The APC candidate said he is from a private sector background and that he would not wait for federal allocations to implement his programmes but would work towards shoring up the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), which currently stands at N2 billion monthly.

He said Lagos State, which has an IGR of N34 billion monthly, does not depend on federal allocations to implement its budget.

Abdulrazaq said the Kwara APC adopted O To Ge! or enough is enough, as its campaign slogan because it believes it is high time the state turned a new leave in education, health, infrastructure, enterprise, among other vital sectors.

He said there was a cordial relationship between him and other former aspirants in the party’s primary because everyone recognised the fact that only one person would win a contest.

The APC candidate noted that the presence of one of the contestants, Mr. Dele Belgore, at the reception attested to the fact that he carried them along in his campaign.

The event was organised by Kwarans in Lagos, an ad hoc amalgam body of all indigenes of the state in Lagos and its environs.

It was attended by top businessmen and women, musicians, academicians, politicians and artisans from the state.

Belgore urged all APC supporters to mobilise their friends, families and communities to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari, Abdulrazaq and other APC candidates.