2027: Why I’m most qualified for the job- Ladi Hassan  **How I will transform kwara, make it one of the richest in Nigeria if elected **Will tackle hunger, insecurity, promote agriculture, create employment and boost trade and commerce **** Will Resuscitate abandoned employment–generating projects/ schemes *** Will be people’s governor ***How I will defeat Gov Abdulrazaq’s annointed successor ***kwarans Should not vote because of money, they should vote for credibility, integrity, experience

As the build-up to the 2027 general elections gathers momentum, the political atmosphere in Kwara State is beginning to take shape, particularly around the governorship race. Among those seeking to fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a seasoned politician and former Chief of Staff in the state, Alhaji Ladi Hassan. Having previously contested for the governorship seat in 2019, Hassan is back in the race, driven by what he describes as a deep passion to serve and rescue Kwarans from worsening socio-economic conditions.

 In this exclusive interview with National Pilot, he speaks on his renewed ambition, the state of affairs in Kwara, the PDP’s internal dynamics, and his strategy to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming election.

By Omowumi Omotosho

National Pilot : 2027 is approaching for general election. In Kwara here, the major instance is the Gubernatorial election. You are contesting under the People’s Democratic Party. In 2019, you also ran for governorship, which was not successful. What is driving you to want to throw your hat into the ring again this time around? What are your fears? What are your optimism? How do you perceive your chances of making it this time around?

Ladi Hassan: I ran in 2019 for the position of governor of Kwara State. It wasn’t successful. This time around, I’m showing interest again because of the passion I have to serve the people of Kwara State. I’m determined to render my service to the people of Kwara State. I’m concerned and I’m worried about the state of poverty in Kwara State. I live here. I was born here. I was raised here in Kwara State. I see my people wallowing in abject poverty. I see my people suffering and smiling, I see my people in hunger. I see my people looking desperately for what to eat.

Common food,they can’t get to eat. And when you cannot satisfy the basic need of life, then it’s a big challenge. Those are the things that have given me the courage to see what I can put in my own little way so that the people of Kwara State can be emancipated from this suffering. There is hunger everywhere.

The APC government has been in power for over six years, but we have not seen the difference. And things are getting worse every day. There is inflation everywhere. The government is not doing anything to alleviate the situation.

And most of the people governing us, like you heard the other time, we have not really had people who are deeply rooted in our society to govern us. If you are part of the people, you’d be worried, you’d be concerned about how to make their life better. So if you are part of a problem, you are part of a system, you will know how to address those issues. There will be no need for any cosmetics approach.

So we’re really going into the deep. I mean, the deep-rooted problem that has been facing our people. When you have not even moved beyond the subsistence level, how can you develop? We are still battling with hunger in the 21st century. It’s a serious thing. In Kwara, in Nigeria as a whole, it’s even worse here. We are still battling with subsistence needs. So how do you develop? When you are still addressing the basic needs of life. You have not even gone beyond the first one, Food. When you have not even left food, how will you get to shelter? How will you get to other higher needs? So those are the things that have made me say I am committed. It’s not that anyone is calling me to come and be governor. No! I am not those kinds of people that say, people are begging them. People are appealing to them. I want to serve the people of Kwara.

I am part of the poverty. So I know where the shoe pinches. I know where Kwarans are feeling it, and the government is not addressing it. Instead they are doing cosmetics and building Kwara Hotel and spending billions on it. Is that going to bring food to the people’s table? That’s what theyhave been doing. By the grace of God, when I get there, Kwarans will be relieved of a lot of things. No adequate care, No hygiene. People still defecate everywhere. Our lives have not improved. It’s getting worse day in, day out. So we need an homegrown person who really knows the problem. And by the grace of God, if I have the opportunity, Kwarans will see the difference.

National pilot: When you came out for the governorship election in 2019, the process of emerging as candidate did not favour you. What gave you the confidence that it will favour you this time around?

Ladi Hassan: You know, in the last primary election, one of the problems we had was that there were complaints. There were complaints that the process was not fair. Many of us were asked to step down. It’s not that we are at the poll and we are defeated. If you go to the poll and you are defeated, you have very little complaint. If you know the process is fair, you will not have much complaint. Most of us were asked to step down, which we did. A lot of other candidates were not happy. It was alleged that some of them worked against the party which I don’t know about. I didn’t work against the party. I’m very sure. Even though I wasn’t happy, I still had some courage. I worked for the party in my ward, in my local government, and ensured that we won. As God had it, we did not win.

This time around, leadership has promised that there is going to be a free and fair primary. These are the things that have given me courage.

At the time, I went to the PDP State Secretariat, the State Chairman also said the same thing. Candidates will be given a level playing field.

Once you have a free and fair primary, people will be satisfied. If you win, you say Alhamdulillah. If you didn’t win, you wish the person that has emerged good luck and work for the person. This is one of the things that has given me the courage that we will have a free and fair primary. I’m not taking anything for granted, even though I’m very close to the leadership.There’s nobody that’s as good as me in terms of working with the leadership and followership.

I’m not taking anything for granted. I have that belief and courage that we are going to have a free and fair primary election.

Once that is done, everybody will key in because if a popular candidate emerges, everybody will feel free and they will also contribute. The majority have their way, the minority have their say. There will be no issue.

National Pilot: It is not always easy to defeat the incumbent of a ruling party as well as it is customary for the departing governor to choose his candidate. What gives you the confidence that you will defeat the annointed successor of Governor Abdulrazaq at poll if you emerge as your party’s candidate?

Ladi Hassan: By the grace of God, if I am given the ticket, I have the experience of governorship, being close to power. I have that privilege, I have that honor, I have worked very closely with the leadership.

This is not going to be the first time we are facing an incumbent. In the year 2003, we faced incumbent governor Mohamed Lawal.

I was part of the people, part of the team that won that election. Once you know what you are doing, particularly with this government not doing well, so it’s a plus for us. We are not going to rely on that though. We are going back on aggressive campaign, and we also flaunting our credentials, particularly if I have the opportunity. I’m bringing experience to the table. I have been part of the team that won the election in the past. I have also been part of the team that lost. So, we share this experience. I will share this experience with our team, and by the grace of God, we are going to win the election.

Facing an incumbent is not really an issue. It is our own issue to know what we are doing. If a candidate is good and acceptable, people will rally around him. And luckily, somebody like me, I have a very good network of friends, of contacts across the state. I am very familiar with a lot of them, with due respect, because I have worked with them in the past. I have friends, I have colleagues. I have schooled, not only within my own local government, I have schooled in other local governments. So, I have a network of friends who can help to prepare me for victory by the grace of God.

National Pilot: In your own opinion, what is the biggest challenge an average Kwaran is facing right now? And if you emerge as governor, how will you address this problem?

Ladi Hassan: The biggest challenge is that people are hungry. My intention is to see how I can make people increase their purchasing power. Put something in their pockets. Not necessarily additional money, but increase their earning capacity. For instance, I remember when His Excellency Bukola Saraki came into power, one of the first things we did was to organize a back-to-farm program. That is, we encourage the youth to start doing farming. So those are the kind of things I’m going to bring back. That program has died. The successive governments did not improve on it. So programs like back-to-farm, I’ll bring it back. We used to have something like a Malete youth farm. That one is dead too. I’ll bring it back. It may not be Malete again. We were also doing bee farming. We had some youth taught how to keep bees. And we were making little income. We also had fish farming. All these things have died. These were good ventures, small scale ventures in those days. So you put it on a commercial basis. And other small scale businesses, enterprises. So that by the time you get the people busy, those in agriculture, those in enterprise, then you move on to processing. When you have all this harvest and the rest of it, you put some people there to do processing of this foodstuff and the rest of it. So you go to the next stage of agriculture. All these things, because you have to increase the purchasing power of the people. Let them be richer. Let them have money in their hands. You know? This will address a lot of issues.

Then the women. How do you empower our women? Should they just be following us up and down? No. I have intention to do mass literacy at every corner and in the compounds. I will start a school where you put women to learn basic education. Mathematics, Arithmetic or whatever you call it and English, make them to read and write, this will improve what they are doing in the market and you give them stipends so that they don’t lose anything by not going to the market. So, as you are taking care of the men, i mean of the youths, you’re taking care of the women too, so that whatever they learn in this mass classes, it will also help them in their trades. I have a lot of experience, having worked as Chief of staff to governor Bukola Saraki where he initiated a lot of landmark projects that put Kwara on a global map. We had white farmers, we had a Kwara furniture that created a lot of employment, we supported the cashew nuts factory in Ogbondoroko, and there was innovation that made electricity to be available for at least 20 hours. We have Kwara football academy, we have the cargo terminal. We have another policy on education ” every child counts” a lot of laudable things he did, unfortunately most of these projects are not flourishing, some are due to the non-interest shown by the successive governments. We have this technical college in Ajase- Ipo which is not also not functioning well as it should be, diagnostic Centre which also has become a sorry sight now.

That’s the advantage of continuity and advantage when you have like i said the government of Dr Bukola Saraki, i was involved for eight years in that administration even before he came in, I was part of the planners of how to run that administration. I remember we had a retreat at Eko hotel in 2003 before swearing-in, so I was part of that retreat that was where we designed most of the projects. So it is unfortunate that successive administrations have not done much on some of these projects. So, if i’m by the grace of God elected, we have to go back into some of those projects. For instance, the diagnostic center was a very lofty project which is going down. I remember when I was commissioner ( for Health), it was my time that the place was commissioned and unfortunately that place is going down now. So, we will revive the place and some other aspects too, we’ll take them one after the other.

National Pilot: Governor Abduldraman AbdulRasaq has been in the office for six years how will you rate his performance ?

Ladi Hassan: I would say he’s poor, he will not get a pass mark because the government is a one-man government. You see, two heads are better than one. When you have cabinet members that you don’t use and also you don’t have experienced people in the cabinet, there is no way you can deliver a result-oriented governance. I’m not against young people getting appointment, but you have to mix young people with experience.

When Bukola Saraki was governor we had young men in his cabinet. He himself was a young man and we also have elderly men in the council, people like a chief J.B Ayeni. The man was about 60 or 70 years then, he was part of the cabinet . We have other older people. It was a mixture of old and young. So you have a mixture of experience. We don’t have that one now, they hardly have regular council meeting. Literally, the governor does the job so it’s a one-man work.

So, Kwarans should look very well, we have some people now coming around, they want to be governor, they have never even been counselor, ordinary counselor, even P.A they have not done, and they want to be governor. How can you do that with zero experience in governance and you want to be governor where is that one done? So, that kind of problem is what we are facing now. This governor, didn’t have any public service experience, he didn’t have any administrative experience, so when you have that kind of problem you’ll be doing trial and error. I have been P.A, S.A, commissioner, chief of staff chairman board, even before I came into politics, I had other experiences. I work in the bank, i work in commercial bank i work in merchant bank, i’ve been a lecturer, i’ve been a teacher, a primary school teacher, at secondary school, so virtually yes I have this experience everywhere that you need to have to be a successful governor. Because governance is an administration, you are going there to administer, you are going there to solve problem, you are going there to look at issues that will make the state grow from strength to strength. When you don’t have all these multiple experiences, you’ll be doing trial and error the first two three years.

If i win my party ticket and become the state governor even before swearing-in, I will have my cabinet in place in consultation with party leadership. Look at Trump, when Donald Trump won the second time he had named all his cabinet members before he was sworn in, that’s how it should be for an experienced person like me, I will not wait till swearing-in before releasing my cabinet names.

National Pilot: Among those aspiring to succeed governor Abdulrasaq, you are one of the most experienced, if not the most experienced you’ve occupied many top offices in the government, which office will you say you’ve made the biggest impact.

Ladi Hassan: well, I cannot say a particular office but what I know is that in every office I occupied, I try as much as possible to impact positively on the people. It is the people that will say I did better in this one than the other one but i know as much as possible in every office that i’m privileged to occupy, I tried as much as possible to do my very best. When I was chief of staff, I tried as much as possible to be impactful on the people and serving as commissioner even gave me further exposure because you have to be dealing directly with people outside. So, in all of the offices I served,I know i did my very best to impact positively on the people. As a result, I i don’t want to say in this one i did better. As Chief of staff, I was a clearing house for his excellency ,the governor. I was in charge of his program, to facilitate his activities, his meetings, all the things he does. It’s like a gatekeeper, which I did as much as possible. And as commissioner, we had a shortage of doctors at that time. I made sure that we had a lot of doctors employed. And a lot of nurses, I’m sure, were also employed. We carried out a lot of innovations in our hospitals. We built doctors’ quarters. We did so much of rollback malaria program. We also ensure stability, made sure our doctors and nurses did not go on strike. There was industrial harmony while I was there. So, just like I said, I tried as much as possible to put in my best. So, it is the people that will say, you did better in this one than this one.

National pilot: We have three major zones: Kwara Central, Kwara North and Kwara South, each one with its own peculiar challenge, peculiar problem. You are supposed to be conversant with their problems. What would you say are the major challenges Kwara North is facing? And if elected governor, you’re going to address? What about Kwara South? What are they battling? What are their expectations? What about Kwara Central? Do you have answer to all these? Are you aware of the challenges they are battling?

Ladi Hassan: In Kwara State, we are all facing the same basic problems. In Kwara North, it’s more acute, in terms of infrastructure. The road infrastructure in particular. So, we have to do a lot of work. The major problem in Kwara North is the roads, they need a lot of roads, which is very expensive. But, notwithstanding, we’ll address it, by the grace of God. For example, if you want to go to Baruten, you have to go through Oyo State. Same thing, if you want to go to Kaima. We have to look at those ones and how to address them. The problem of Kwara South is majorly, road infrastructure, but of recent times, there is another problem that has been added, the issue of insecurity. You have bandits coming from outside the state now. On the insecurity, maybe we have to find a local solution to some of these problems. Like we have in the neighboring southwest states. We have some local arrangements, We can call it maybe local policing, or vigilante, or whatever. We have to empower those categories of people. The road infrastructure is everywhere. It’s just that it’s only in the center that it’s not that big.

In Asa local government area, they don’t have good roads. Asa is in the central. The road infrastructure has a higher deficit in Kwara North, followed by Kwara South, and Central. So, all this, we have to tackle. We used to have rural agencies in Kwara South in the past. I don’t know what the government is doing with it now.

National Pilot: Kwara State is not be said to be among the richest states in Nigeria. It is largely a civil service state. How do you plan to increase the revenue so that you’ll be able to carry all this impactful projects?

Ladi Hassan: Aside Federal allocation, you have to increase your earning power. When you increase your earning power, when people have more money, you generate more income, a multiplier effect. When money goes around, as money goes around, more people are exposed to earning. And you pay little to taxes and the rest of it. And we have a Kwara Internal Revenue which Governor AbdulFatai established which is doing well. This government, they will never mention it. And they are making a lot of money from it. So you make people more proactive at the informal sector. You can increase your tax net to cover this informal sector. And by the time you increase your enterprise, you make your people more productive. You earn more money from it. And you can also have some partnership with some agencies, some foreign investors. Kwara State is blessed with a lot of resources and if properly harnessed, we would enrich the state and even make the state one of the richest in Nigeria. We have in Bacita, where we could be producing sugar. In Patigi and the rest, we could be feeding the whole country with just rice. It may not be too much, we have limestone deposits somewhere. Even in the area of tourism, we have waterfalls somewhere. We have a lot of mineral resources all over the place. Even gold.

National Pilot: So what are you going to do about some of these resources to further enrich the state and also create a lot of employment for the people?

Ladi Hassan: Like I said, management experience is very key. Experience is very key. They are not new to me. When I was in government, a lot of them passed through my table to get to His Excellency. Especially when I was Chief of Staff, because I worked directly with the governor.

So all this is not new to me. My experience is very key. You must be able to harness all these resources. You must be able to harness and make them productive. You don’t just lie down and follow like that. We have a Ministry of infrastructure and Solid Minerals. If the governor knows what he is doing, he will be able to check the Ministry and give the best targets. I remember, there were issues around this village at the boundary between Irepodun and Ifelodun. There were issues of gold deposit and some other mineral deposit. All these things are left in the hands of some unscrupulous private people to do whatever they like. So they must be licensed. They must be profiled. You must know what they are doing. And you must see how government can facilitate their development, monitor their progress and facilitate their development. By then you, government too, can get their own benefits or income.

National pilot: If you emerge as the governor of Kwara state what would you do differently than what the present administration is doing presently?

Ladi Hassan: If I emerge , if I am governor by the grace of God, I will be a people’s governor. I will embark on people-oriented programs, I will sit down with my community, I will sit down with my leaders of the state, I will fashion a common ground. What is our problem? How do we address these problems? I won’t be a one-man government. I will be a people’s governor. I will be a people-oriented public governor. I will see how we can solve our problems together. I will carry everybody along.

Sometimes, this governor, you cannot even predict him. Nobody can say, this is what he is going to do tomorrow. Because he doesn’t discuss. I will discuss, I will sit down with the people, what’s our problem? The one I’ve identified for now is hunger, which is undisputable. So, we don’t need to sit down with anybody to know that people are hungry. Other issues, we will discuss them.

National pilot: Most of the projects being executed or being done by this government are white elephants. So, if you emerge as governor, what are you going to do about most of these projects? Are you going to abandon them?

Ladi Hassan: We can’t abandon any projects because resources have already been committed. So, I cannot abandon, I will never abandon any projects, even if the project is 30 years old. I won’t abandon it because money has already been invested. You can divest if you don’t want to go ahead. Maybe you get some private hands to take over it. You can even divest at a discount if that will save more money for the state from committing further money. But I won’t abandon any projects. Except if I see that such projects will cause further drain to the government’s funds, and I don’t see anything positive coming out from it. Particularly if such projects are run by government, then I can ask for private investors to come in and the government can hands off and ensure that whatever government can get from it will get it and move on.

National Pilot: Your advice for Kwarans ahead of the 2027 election?

My advice to the Kwarans is that they should look for the best.

They should look for good candidates. They should not vote because of money. I’ve said this several times. They should not vote for money. They should vote for credibility. They should vote for integrity. They should vote for experience. People who have done it before, somebody who can run the state successfully, those are the things they should look for. They shouldn’t vote for money. They shouldn’t vote based on ethnicity. They should vote for who can do the job. Those are the things I would advise Kwarans to look at. They should not look at it because somebody is bringing money. Look at somebody who has the experience, has the integrity, has the capacity, has the knowledge to run the state. Because that is what will people pay off in the long run.