OPINION - Senate Presidency: This is our chance in Kwara. By Kayode Oyin-Zubair

Date: 2015-04-19

In 1979, Providence presented to our dear state - Kwara the opportunity of leading the Senate of the second republic and the cap was hovering over the late Dr. Olusola Saraki of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Saraki eventually wore the cap and became the senate leader.

Senator Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, another son of the soil was a member of the senate at that time but rode on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) to the upper chamber of the legislative house. As the scramble for the exalted seat in the house started, C.O. Adebayo pitched his tent with his brother, Olusola Saraki even with their clear differential political leanings. Adebayo was proud of doing that and thanked God his brother made it.

You will recall that the former senate leader paid Adebayo back in the 1983 governorship election when he threw his weight behind him to become the governor of Kwara State.

Providence again beckons on Dr. Bukola Saraki to lead the 8th Senate, now as the senate president. Would any son or daughter of Kwara despise this cause?

The chief campaigner of Saraki senate presidency today is Lai Mohammed who holds that this is our chance in the state of harmony, he also believes this window will afford us the opportunity of contributing to nation building while our own is in the saddle.

Mohammed unlike Adebayo belongs to the same political party with Saraki. Mohammed unknown to many has a long standing relationship with the Saraki family. In 2003, before Senator Saraki joined the governorship race, political pundits held that the patriarch of the Saraki family was going to support Alhaji Lai Mohammed who was running on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). I was a coordinator of the Lai Mohammed Campaign Organization (LAMCO) in Ifelodun local government area.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State in 2002 and Lai Mohammed was his chief of staff (de facto deputy governor); when the late Oloye approached Asiwaju for an intervention on a Kwara matter. Lai Mohammed took it upon himself and honored the late pillar of Kwara politics. Little wonder through out his campaign in 2003 and later as the spokesman for MRD/MDD, ACD, AC, ACN and now, he never hurled attack on the Saraki family which many of the unreliable characters within us found unacceptable.

Lai Mohammed is urbane, humble and sincere. At the launch of his book - Witness to History, in Lagos in 2013, Asiwaju exclaimed that he would have protested should Lai Mohammed failed to allow him to present the book. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's president-elect wrote the foreword to that book. Asiwaju didn't fail to expose the character of Lai Mohammed in his brief speech.

"Lai, you are intelligent, Lai you are smart, Lai you are an honest man. You are only being modest by saying you are a witness to history. You are the history. Lai is ACN, and ACN is Lai." It was about the time ACN was winding up and we had returned our certificate to INEC.

This is the man who believes in the socio-economic well being of his people and had pursued same with vigor over time. He is one man that believes in the Will of the Almighty God on every issue of life. He is a devout Muslim; some of his followers dare to address him as Alfa because he had on many occasions declined to behave like the average Nigeria politician.

As some may not know, Senator Saraki and Alhaji Lai Mohammed are on the same page on every issue as it affect our party since the merger was consummated. The senate presidency can't be an exemption. The cynics will be shocked to the marrow in the nearest future when Kwara finally carry the ace. To be concluded.

Kayode Oyin-Zubair, is the Head of Programs (Mandate 2015) and Secretary Kwara Unity Forum (KUF), political group of Lai Mohammed.

 

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Women Radio     Nigerian Correctional Service     Babatunde Ajeigbe     Abdulrauf Yusuf     Oloje     Charcoal     Abubakar Aliagan     Seed Technologies     Yekeen Alabi     Borgu     Budo-Egba     Shehu Adaramaja     Zaratu Umar     Abdulmajeed Wahab     Abdulmalik Bashir Mopelola Risikatullahi     Salman Alada     Centre For Community Empowerment And Poverty Eradication     Wole Oke     Ayodele Olaosebikan     Irepodun     GAMA     Oniye     Isaac Gbenle     Al-Ilory     Mufti Of Ilorin     Dan Masanin     Salake     Bolakale Ayo     Manzuma     Government High School (GHS), Adeta     Abdulhakeem Adelaja Amao     Joana Nnazua Kolo     Hajj     Tafida     Michael Nzekwe     Ibrahim Abikan     Saka Abimbola Isau     Wale Oladepo     Tsaragi     RTEAN     Kayode Laro     Lanre Aremu     Alabi Lawal     Ayegbeni     Salaudeen Oyewale     Isiaka Oniwa     Isau     Folorunsho Alao     Kwara Polytechnic     Abdulrasaq Alaro     Medview Airlines     Waziri Yakubu Gobir     Yusuf Abdulwahab     Funmilayo Mohammed     Ilorin Metro Park     LABTOP     Kola Adesina     Elections     Onikijipa     Abdullahi Saadudeen Alikinla     08001000100     Oluronke Adeyemi     Sulyman Atolagbe Alege     Oba Abdulraheem     Kpotum Mohammed Baba     Jeunkunu-Malete-Bani     Muideen Olaniyi Alalade     Neuropsychiatric Hospital     Najim Yaasin     Abubakar Abdullahi Bata     AbdulRahman Saad     Salihu Ajibola Ajia     Alaiye     Tope Daramola     Yahaya Muhammad     Abdulganiyu AbdulAzeez     Abdulquowiyu Olododo    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Yusuf A. Usman     Siraj Oyewale     Alimi Abdulrazaq     Shoprite     Onilupeju Of Ilupeju     Sun Qing Rong     Shola Odetundun     Hamid Bobboyi     Wahab Femi Agbaje     Tope Daramola     Goodluck Jonathan     Rebecca Olanrewaju     Idris Amosa Oladipo Saidu     Abubakar Ndakene     TETFUND     Najim Yaasin     Abdulwaheed Musa     Kwara Poly     Ahmed Shuaib Buranga     Akeem Olatunji     Fareedah Dankaka     Bilikis Oladimeji     Bond     Ibraheem Adeola Katibi     Sulyman Abdulkareem     NIPOGA     Razaq Ayobami Akanbi     Roseline Oni Aremu     Ladi Hassan     Adedayo Yusuf Abdulkareem     International Public Sector Accounting Standards     Ilorin Amusement Park     Ilorin Emirate     Issa Baba     Olatunde Olukoya     Michael Nzekwe     Baruten     Riskat Opakunle     Taofik Abdulkareem     Tosho Yaqub     Dele Momodu     Kamaldeen Kehinde     Marufat Oladosu     Dogara     Joseph Yemi Ajayi     Nigeria Foundation For Artificial Intelligence     Niyi Osundare     Afolayan     Centre For Peace And Strategic Studies     Abdullah Janet Amudat     Muritala Awodun     Tunji Oyawoye     AbdulQowiy Olododo     Salihu Yahaya     Idowu Laro     T And K FOODS     Chief Of Staff     Alabi Olayemi Abdulrazak     Rasaq Jimoh     Kwara State Printing And Publishing Corporation     Abdulahi Abubakar Bata     Bolakale Ayo     Sango-UITH Road     Jide Ashonibare     Senate     Ilesha-Baruba     Ibrahim Jawondo     Abdulraheem Olesin     Kwarareports.com     Idowu Aremu     Suleiman Idris     Oniwa     CACOVID     Kayode Zubair     Abdul-Rahoof Bello     Jaigbade Alao     Paul Odama