Field Danladi, lose Kwara – APC youth group warns

…Says it’s time for progressives

By Jude Opara

A youth group from Kwara state has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) not field Hon. Yakubu Danladi Salihu as its governorship candidate, if they hope to win the state in the forthcoming 2027 general elections.

Addressing newsmen at the National Secretariait of the party on Friday, leader of the Progressives Youth of the All Progressives Congress (PYAPC), Ogbeni Segun Adewara said the governor, Dr Abdulraman Abudulrazaq is foisting Danladi who is also the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly.

Adewara said the people want a candidate that will be generally acceptable to the electorate, adding that the only way the ruling party could win the the general elections.

“We are for the peace, for the progress, and we don’t want our house, APC, to fall. We want our sources come 2027. We don’t have anything against our governor, but what we are saying is that if we are going to choose a credible candidate, the present House of Assembly Speaker cannot give us a win come 2027.

“We still have many credible candidates, more than 20 of them, that they are for the masses. They are well-fearless. They have their thousands of masses that can give us champions. Fielding Yakubu Danladi means we are going to fail”.

On why they waited for the day the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) plans to give the code to the political parties to upload their list of candidates before complaining, the group explained that they have been protesting, especially by their elders who have warned of the consequences of fielding an unpopular candidate.

“Actually this is not the first time we’ll be here and as you can see we have our leaders that have taken a move and how can we allow those leaders alone to be doing it alone because things they are fighting, is for us. Many of our leaders are in their 70s, 80s so all their activity, all their effort is for us, we that we are coming up.

“So it should not be the case, we cannot allow them alone to be doing this. We have stayed, we have tried our possible best within Kwara, so we have to extend that effort down to Abuja to showcase what is going on in Kwara. During the 2019 election, we know what we’ll go through, especially we youth.

“All of us here, we are graduates, we are not novices. So with that, how can we allow the bridge we have crossed, the vomit that we have done with since, how can we allow or how can we go back to the Saraki dynasty. But if we keep how the national party or the APC gave us Danladi as our ideal candidate or kind of to present in 2027 election, that means Kwara is going back to where we are coming from”.

The youth leader further stated that Kwara state needs a saleable candidate, someone that has access to all sides, someone that is free with people.

“We need someone that can unite, unify all the groups in Kwara, be it Yoruba, be it Fulani, be it Hausa. We need someone that knows what is going on in the party. We need a progressive man. And as far as Kwara is concerned, we have a faction, we have a dynasties that have been head in Kwara, the Lawan dynasty, the Saraki dynasty.

“And as you can see, the present people that are holding things in Kwara now, they are the CPC bloc. We need a progressive that has been working with for many years, that can unite Kwara state. We have suffered enough”.

On the consequences of insisting on the candidacy of Danladi, the youth leader said; “Well, as far as the question is going to be, the next election in Kwara state, what we believe that if the demand is not met, it will be difficult for the party to win the general election, starting from the presidency, down to the senate down to the House of Reps and in addition, as far as the capacity we are concerned, that has been tested at the Speaker of the House, where he failed the entire youths in Kwara state. He was tested during the local government election, he failed at the same time, he concluded.