Good day to you all.

This is a very important day for me. This is a day I have decided to come out as one of you to summon you on a journey that will redefine the course of our lives.This is not the beginning of the journey; we have already come a long way. At this stage, we have only reached a very significant juncture, where we mus tbegin to redirect our collective movement as indigenes of Kwara State from a path that has only yielded so much for the opportunistic few and deprived most of us of so much. We must begin to find the promises that this lovely state had once held for all of us.

I have been around long enough in politics. I was a lawmaker and part of a vibrant House of Representatives, where I represented the good people of Ilorin-West and Asa Local Governments. I was at the Senate on behalf of the great people of the Kwara Central Senatorial District. Three years ago, I sought your support to be elected as governor of our dear state. I cannot thank you enough for all these opportunities you have given me to contribute to the upliftment of the state and improve the lives of the people. I deeply appreciate your support during the last governorship election, where we garnered over 70,000 clean votes. I am particularly thrilled by the courage you showed in the face of the numerous challenges we encountered in the last elections, even when I could protect neither you nor your votes. I am forever indebted to you.

You have continued to demonstrate unflinching commitment to our collective cause even after the elections. The fact that we are now stronger in number and spread across the state is only due to your abiding faith in not only me, but also in our desire to chart a cause for common good. Our grassroots support is second to none in its uniqueness. It is voluntary. It is driven by recognition of our sincere and honest intentions. I have no doubt that our successes so far are due to your dedication, courage, and belief. We have come this far; we cannot relent at this stage. We will continue to stay strong with renewed passion and focus. This is the only way we can show our appreciation to hundreds of thousand of people who believe in us.

I am emboldened by the events of the last three years. Three years may not be so much a long time, but it has been long enough for me to learn very important lessons. During this period, I have interacted more and intimately with thousands of Kwarans from different towns and villages. I have closely related with people of varied status. I have related with the very poor, the common people, the educated and the uneducated, the workers, the unemployed, the old and the young people. I have interacted with the traditional rulers, the community and religious leaders. I have lived everyday of my life as an Ilorin woman and as a Kwaran. I have had my happy moments. I derive my utmost joy when I have you, especially the common people around me. 

I have had my low moments.Unfortunately, this has been more pronounced because each day, I see despair and helplessness from people who are ordinarily hardworking, honest, and courageous. I hear tales that are heart rendering. I see how we are being stripped of our dignity just so that we may earn our rights to live and do the basic things of life for our children, our families, our friends, our communities, and ourselves. I have seen how women, especially mothers struggle daily just to give their children the very basic necessities of life. I have seen how difficult it has been for them. I have seen men working so hard with little to show for their efforts. I have seen how our youths are losing faith in their own future and are now driven to the edge, losing focus and have stopped believing in themselves and their own abilities. I have seen the aged abandoned, with no hope of help and support from those we have put in charge. I have seen how our communities’ morality and values are collapsing in the face of acute poverty and want. We are on a journey to a destination that cannot bring us any good. It is a destination that is patently wrong and contradicts who we are. This cannot be our destiny.

I am particularly worried with the level of despair among the youths. We are all playing with our future if we cannot create conducive avenues for the youths to positively deploy their creativity, passion, and energies. Parents are struggling to raise their children, with no apparent support from those in charge of our resources, and the community and the state offer no help to ensure the youths are provided for.

Thousands of youth roam about with no hope. Those who are educated are left to wander about with excellent academic degrees with no hope of jobs. Those who have skills for trades and crafts cannot convert their skills to asset. They are left unattended to. The bricklayers, the mechanics, the vulganizers, the battery chargers, the electricians, the painters, the tailors, the hair dressers etc are not able to use their skills to defend their integrity. We have rendered them inconsequential in our plans. In fact, we have no plans for them. There are no new ideas. We have continued with our knee-jerk approach to governance in Kwara State.

The situation is so bad that many people have abandoned the trades they spent several years to learn. Okada and Keke Napep provide these people daily source of income even if it means abandoning their original trades and crafts. Some are being given letters for jobs that do not exist.

We are happy seeing them begging to eat. We do not care that they are entitled to a decent life. They should be able to take care of themselves and their families.They deserve the chance like everyone else to become great. They deserve to be governors, senators and presidents like anyone else. They deserve to be doctors,lawyers, and engineers or whatever they choose to become without selling their pride to us.

They deserve a decent home. They deserve a decent environment. They deserve respect.We seem to have forgotten that we are not better than them. We are who we are because they give us support. But we have continued to fail them. We cannot even give them support so that they can have the chance to live and be happy. 

I have asked myself a lot of questions. Along with many concerned Kwarans, we have been seeking answers. How did we get to this stage just within a decade and half? Why are we losing our values of dignity, hard work, selflessness,self-belief, and pride? Why are we allowing ourselves to be humiliated just so that we can have crumbs from our commonwealth? Why are we not saying no to leaders who are far too removed from us; who cannot feel our pains; who do not share our concerns? Why are the community leaders not rising up to our defense?Why does it appear that we all can be bought for peanuts?

You do not have to be poor to feel the pains of the common man. You only need to have the fear of God. You only need to have humility. You only need to have humanity. You must be capable of listening so that you can hear when people are crying. You must be paying attention so that you can see when the youths are losing focus and are making the wrong choices in life. You do not have to be a councillor, chairman, honourable member, or governor to know this is not the way to go. You cannot see yourself as superior to the people you seek to lead.You cannot believe you are better than the man who has not been given a chance.When you do these, then you can no longer claim to see hunger and anger in the faces of the people. You cannot claim to still hear when they cry. No matter what position you occupy in your community, in your place of work, or in government, you have lost the right to lead the people.

You must begin to ask yourself the hard questions: when these youths are left to rot and their values are debased, what happens to your so-called privileged children? What society are they going to live in? How are you going to face your God when this vanity comes to an end?

This is not a political campaign. Far from it. This is a wake up call. I am directing this to all Kwarans, wherever we may be, whatever positions we may occupy, whatever political parties we may belong. I am directing my cries to the traditional rulers all over Kwara State. I am calling on community leaders and religious leaders. We must fight back. We cannot fight the hunger of the stomach when the poverty of our minds is getting stronger. So, we must fight and defeat the poverty of our minds.

The Kwara my father brought me up to know is not this one. The one he knew and brought me up to believe is a state of diverse people who are very courageous and hardworking. I know the Kwara of the Igbominas whose enterprise and self-belief made them a force in the trade and commerce of Lagos all through the 20th century.

I know the Kwara of the Ekiti people who can proudly fend for themselves through ages without subjecting their personal pride to insults. The Ekiti people o fKwara have always been proud as producers of food that was enough to feed themselves and the rest of the state. 

I know the Kwara of the Ilorin man in his self-consciousness. The Ilorin man would rather go hungry than allow anyone no matter how highly placed offer him an insult-coated favour. I know the Kwara of the Nupes and the Barubas who have mastered the art of survival with dignity long before Nigeria came to be.

So,how did we allow our values to be trampled upon so that some few people who are not better than us can become local champions, riding the cars they did not work for and living in houses they do not deserve, while the majority who are equal stakeholders in Kwara are expected to scavenge to survive?

It is time for us to reclaim our pride. I therefore call on all Kwarans to come together to put a stop to this charade. I call especially on politicians like me to put ambitions under wrap while we strengthen our party. We must be single-minded. We must put the interests of the people before our individual ambitions. I am encouraged by the recent developments in PDP across the state.This is the spirit we need as we move together in unity.

It is my pleasure to welcome our brothers and sisters who have remained steadfast in their desire to remain free, who are coming en masse into our party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). I want to assure you that PDP remains a united party in Kwara State under a collective leadership. Everyone is a stakeholder.No single man or woman shall be superior to the rest of us. No individual shall appropriate the collective commonwealth to satisfy personal desires and ego.

The majority of the people of Kwara State remain in PDP. We must therefore show our strength. We must begin to pull together and give our support to President Goodluck Jonathan. We have always fared better when we are part of the centre.It is clear that the reason for defection by a loud few is because of their personal and selfish reasons. It is not about Kwarans, majority of whom remain solidly committed to our party and the national leadership. We owe the people of Kwara full benefits of loyalty to the Federal Government. Our individual ambition must not be a hindrance.

So we must give full support to the new national chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.We must cooperate with the new PDP caretaker committee in the state as we prepare for congresses to put in place formidable structures all across the state.

I urge all our members to turn out for registration as we begin the process of harmonizing all PDP groups in the state.Our strength lies in our unity. Collectively, we will rescue our state and Kwarans from the politics of the privileged few and we will establish a politics that cater to everyone’s needs.

Long live Kwara. Long Live PDP. Long Live the President. Long Live Nigeria.