The governorship candidates of the New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP and Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Kwara State, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem and Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi have vowed to focus on education and agriculture respectively in a bid to restore the glory of the state.
The duo who promised not to tamper with public funds and make themselves accessible to the electorate if elected spoke at the gubernatorial debate of the state council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) tagged “Conversation 2023” and held at the NUJ Press Centre, Offa Road, GRA, Ilorin the state capital, North Central Nigeria.
While Abdulraheem, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, held the view that education could be employed to solve 90 percent of the societal problems, Abdullahi said the time is ripe to embark on an agriculture revolution.
The NNPP governorship flag-bearer observed that investment in education is the nation’s key wealth and must be in the right quality and quantity.
He noted that the misguided individuals committing banditry, kidnapping and terrorism got ensnared due to a lack of attention to the right education.
Abdulraheem, who is also a one-time Executive Chairman of the Federal Character Commission FCC, added that he would take a holistic look into the state education and teachers engaged to tutor prospective students if elected in next year’s polls.
“Education has had a very strong influence on my life as a teacher. Lack of attention to education is a major problem. Therefore, education will be my priority when given the mandate.
“Education is the key to unlocking the key wealth of the nation. If you have an education, 90 percent of the nation’s problem is solved. And also I will take serious measures to put education in the right place. An educated nation cannot be deceived to do something that will harm its people”, he said.
The NNPP governorship candidate also identified mismanagement and misuse of resources as the bane of the nation, saying that the citizens must be inquisitive about how the available little resources had been utilised.
His PDP counterpart said his administration would prioritise an agriculture revolution through which thousands of unemployed youths could be meaningfully engaged.
Abdullahi, the NNPP gubernatorial candidate told the gathering that the state was blessed with untapped natural resources but only takes a leader with vision and passion for development to ascertain the hidden treasure.
He stated that the health sector should also be improved upon because it is key to having healthy citizens.
The PDP governorship candidate said, “Creation of jobs is very central if we want to take Kwara to a greater height. We are going to enrich the people and bring prosperity to Kwara. This has been our focus long time ago”.
Dominica Nwabufo
