Kwara Guber: No aspirant can surpass Ladi Hassan’s record in welfarism – Ilobu

Alhaji AbdulYekini Ilobu is a stalwart of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State. In this interview with KAYODE ADEOTI, Ilobu, who is the Campaign Director General of Alhaji Ladi Hassan for the gubernatorial election in the state speaks on the plans of his principal to combat poverty in the state among other issues. Excerpts:

Since Alhaji Ladi Hassan declared his political ambition to run for the gubernatorial seat in the state, you’ve been so supportive of his ambition, how do you see his chances in the race?

No doubt Alhaji Ladi Hassan is one of those contesting for the gubernatorial seat in the state under the platform of People Democratic Party. He has been a very good person, a grassroot to the core and he has been in politics for long. In fact, Ladi Hassan has been with our leader, Dr Bukola Saraki since 2001 when he was preparing for governorship election. The two of them have been together since the day of Societe General Bank, he was a Special Assistant to Saraki then. Also, Ladi Hassan has held many positions in the state, he was the Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs from May 2003 to 2007. Afterwards, he moved to the Government House as the Chief of Staff and to the Ministry of Health as Commissioner. He was a member, Board of Directors of Harmony Holdings, he was chairman of the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja and the immediate past Administrative Secretary under the Social Welfare. His antecedents in politics, he shows that he is a ‘Sarakit’ to the core. Ladi Hassan possesses three qualities which politician must have, first is his accessibility. A politician must be reachable at all times, anytime people want to see him, he must make himself available because the ingredient of any politician is people. Also, he has a listening ears coupled with his cool headed nature. From 2011 to 2015, Ladi Hassan did not have any appointment and that does not make him leave the party nor his leader but he remained hopeful and loyal to the structure. All these qualities put together have proved that he is material for the job. If he gets this ticket, he will do well and that is why I’m supporting him.

Looking at the large number of those who are vying for the guber ticket with their experiences in politics, do you think the game will favour your principal? 

The number of aspirants we have now is not the largest. I was the state secretary of the party in 2011, the number of aspirants we had then was about 13 and the total number of the contenders in PDP now is just 10. Among them all, Ladi Hassan has an edge. There is no one who doesn’t know him in the society today though some of these aspirants too are well known but in terms of impacting lives, none of them can beat Ladi Hassan’s records. Ladi Hassan has gone for screening in Nazarawa, those he has helped volunteered and contributed money to hire a bus and followed him.  When we went to visit the caucus of the party at Irepodun Local Government, there was a man there who confessed that what Ladi Hassan has done for him and some other council members at large is enough to support him. In almost all the places we went to, they were all singing good testimonies of him.

Following the directive of the leadership of the PDP that the most popular aspirant will get the party ticket, do you think Ladi Hassan is the most popular, and could his candidature face whoever emerges from the ruling party as flagbearer? 

If your look at the antecedent of Kwara, it is a peculiar state, it has been with Baba Olusola Saraki dynasty for long. When this man died, his son inherited the dynasty and we followed him. If our candidate gets the ticket, by the special grace of God, whoever the ruling government present, we will defeat him. We have people with us, also, the game will not be one man affairs anymore but the party. We have the influence of Saraki on ground, his impacts in this state cannot be quantified, I agree that there will be some challenges we will have to fix. Few years back, oil price dropped and allocation that comes to states also dropped greatly. But with God on our side, we will win.

To many people the promises your candidate reeled out in a recent press conference he held appeared too beautiful to believe, do you think all of those things he set to achieve if elected governor are not mere political statement?  

It will never be and I will state the reason. For somebody who has MBA in Business Administration and who had gone through different positions before, he will bring all his experiences to bear to run the government. He has also said that he is going to run government of the people. He said he will always include people in decision making as well as dialoguing. To eradicate poverty is not hard for someone who has the knowledge. For instance, some people do not need millions to set up their businesses, if elected the governor, he could set up a small scale credit facilities where N50,000 could be given out to traders to boost their businesses. With this, many lives will be better for it.

Some politicians are hell-bent Kwara North producing  the next governor of the state…? 

The leader and the party members have spoken that anyone that has interest should obtain the form. And three persons from Kwara North; Shaaba Lafiagi, Zakare Muhammed, Bahago Patigi have signified interests. If eventually one of these persons gets the ticket, it is fine and good. Before the primaries, I hope things will be settled and whoever gets the ticket will be supported by the party. On the allegation that some monarchs are denouncing PDP in Kwara North, it is not true. The monarchs are our fathers and they can’t do such. Baba Saraki had respect for the royal institution, the same goes to the party members.

Looking at the outcome of the Osun State Governorship election, what does it portend to the chances of your party in the forthcoming general poll? 

If you look at the crowd that came out during the campaign rally about three days ago in Osun, one will be sure that PDP will perform excellently in the poll. The Senate President is the head of that campaign team and he was on ground to ensure that things went well. The candidate himself is a popular man, another reason that will make people support PDP is the issue of salary. The outgoing governor of the APC is owing overwhelming salary arrears, the major key of governance is salary, no government can expect the best from its people when salaries are unpaid. All these put together gave us victory. On the contrary, if APC had won, we would accepted the fate, but we would ensure that the election was free and fair.

Going by the experience of your principal in Banking and Commerce, how do you think this will impact on the economy of the state especially that of the local government councils that are battling with the salary payment? 

The person that will succeed Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed must have economic and financial background who knows the problems of the state. Ladi Hassan is the only aspirant that fit this bill. We have three tiers of government, Federal, State and Local Governments, the Local government who were been owned salaries are the SUBEB workers, their problems emanated from the drop in federal allocation. But if Alhaji Ladi Hassan gets the ticket and eventually wins the election, he knows how to tackle issue going by his wealth of experience in economy and by the grace of God, he will settle all the outstandings. His vision is to eradicate poverty in the state.

With the preparations of the electoral body, political parties and the electorate for the poll…? 

We have a structure and we have a leader. By the special grace of God, I’m Muslim and Prophet Muhammed (SWA) is our leader, he gives instructions to his people and we follow it. Saraki is our leader, during the reign of his father, Dr. Olusola Saraki, he gave out instruction which we followed, on many occasion, he had told us not to encourage violence during election and we adhered to it. This attribute of leadership is what his son inherited and that is what he is using to guide us. That is why in Kwara State, you cannot record any violence during election. We’re appealing to Buhari led government to ensure that the forthcoming election is as peaceful as that of 2015.

Your message for the electorate? 

Electorate in Kwara are our people, father, mother and friends. They should please come out to cast their votes for PDP, we need continuity. The projects of our leader when he was the governor of the state were what the present administration built on. We also need unity and development. We want anyone that will succeed governor Ahmed to bring industries into the state, we realy need to develop in that area.