WHY WE ARE ENDORSING THE CANDIDATE OF THE ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS, HON. AHMED USMAN ODODO
Gentlemen of the Press.
1.We have invited you here today to intimate you of our resolutions after series of meetings, consultations and engagements with our members across the state.
As an organised body, we do not take hasty decisions as our decisions will have a lot of effects on thousands of our supporters across the state. Therefore, we took our time to examine the candidates in the contest and have arrived at a decision which we believe is in the best interest of our dear state.
2.To start with, we wish to commend the Executive Governor of Kogi State, His Excellency, Alh Yahaya Bello, CON, for his giant strides in the state. His equitable distribution of landmark projects, his poverty-reduction policies and his huge success at uniting the state through his detribalized approach to governance have distinguished him as the best Governor to have ever led our state.
He has built ensuring legacies of development, unity and progress. We are proud of him and what he has done to steer our state to the path of greatness and national consciousness.
3.On the forthcoming Governorship Poll in the state, our forum has resolved to support the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the fact that he is a product of a system that has put Kogi on the map of development. Among the candidates jostling for the number one seat, he is the most qualified, the most experienced, the most prepared and the best man for the job. Apart from his message of consolidation and continuity, Hon. Ahmed Usman Ododo possesses character traits of a great leader. He is accessible, humble, brilliant and devoid of the negative drama that have dotted the histories of his competitors.
4.As former lawmakers, we are proud of the symbiotic relationship between the two Assemblies that worked with Governor Yahaya Bello. A good number of Laws were passed that have helped to provoke development in our dear state. The Local Government Audit Law was excellently implemented by the former Auditor General for Local Government and now the candidate of the APC, Hon. Ahmed Usman Ododo. For those of us who understand statecraft, we saw how the implementation was able to improve transparency and accountability in that tier of government. Ahmed Usman Ododo is greatly equipped to press the pedals of development forward when he succeeds our hugely successful Governor.
5.The difference between us and the usurpers, who caved in to the naira power of ethnic jingoists is that we cut across the state. This is one of the gains of the Yahaya Bello Administration. We no longer pander to the flames of ethnicity, but to the bunch of unity that we have become as a people and as a state.
6.Apart from the capacity, competence, capability, brilliance and readiness of Ahmed Usman Ododo for the task ahead, it is also pertinent to note that the Ajaokuta Steel resurgence is at the centre of the economic recovery plan of the Tinubu Presidency. Our state supported the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and will continue to support him to succeed. We cannot afford to elect a mediocre into Lugard House who will be opposed to the economic plan that will make Nigeria a true giant of Africa. Kogi is too central to Nigeria to be in the hand of the opposition, not when Governor Yahaya Bello has led the ruling party into dominant victories since 2015. We will vote to keep Kogi at the centre of political reckoning in Nigeria.
7.We call on the Independent National Electoral Commission to immediately activate relevant sections of the Electoral Law against candidates fanning ethnic divisions and stoking atomic politics. Kogi State has remained very peaceful since the advent of the GYB administration and cannot afford to lose it now to desperate politicians dropping names after disrespecting the same names. Their only hope is violence.
They are out to disunite the state and take us back to the dark days of ethnocentric politics. We reject their satanic ambitions and all they stand for. We will stand for unity, progress, development and security of lives and property. We will stand for Ododo Ahmed Usman.
8.We hereby unanimously declare the support of former legislators to the candidacy of the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Usman Ododo. Our members are resolved to work hard throughout the state to deliver him resoundingly on November 11, 2023. We have no doubt that we will celebrate our victory and the future of our dear state will be guaranteed.
9.It is our desire that the revolution currently ongoing in education, health, agriculture, youth and women empowerment as well as infrastructure will continue when we elect the man who understands the development wand of the current administration.
10.We are for consolidation. We are for continuity. We are for Ododo. We are for a united and prosperous Kogi State. God bless our dear state.
The chairman of the Forum, Hon.Alhassan Salisu Adakeke,read the speech.
