By Abdullahi Mohammed
More gubernatorial aspirants on Tuesday picked their nomination forms at the All Progressives Congress,APC national secretariat in Abuja .The new entrants into the race are: Yakubu Mohammed, prof. Clarence Olatunji Olafemi, Hajia Hadiza Ibrahim and Mr Ejeh Abutu.
Speaking at the event one of the founders and former director of Newswatch magazine who is an aspirant, Alhaji Yakubu Mohammed said , ” I have volunteered to run for the governorship of Kogi state believing that I have the capacity and the will power . And sense of balance to give sense of belonging to every component in Kogi state because I believed that all the issue we talk about is problem of leadership. Our problem is squarely leadership” he lamented.
He hailed the other aspirants as well. “I think collectively we realise we have a state called Kogi state. That is the mission and vision is with the four of us but unfortunately Kogi state has not been the state which we all dream of and so we need change. Well unfortunately among the four of us, we cannot all be governor of Kogi state at the same time. And my sister Hajia Hadiza who is sitting down here has the capacity and my brother prof. Olatunji who is former speaker and one time acting governor of Kogi state has the capacity and will power to turn Kogi state around hoping that at the end of the day the three of them will come together to reach consensus that all of us will be happy about” ,he said.
The only female aspirant among them Hajia Hadiza Ibrahim affirmed her interest in the race by saying ” as you can see I am one out of the three, the only woman among the men. And the change that the APC is looking for is a real change . If you look at the Kogi state from the inception of the state I am not condemning the governors ,they tried but not their best . And for that reason and because of the perturbing issues, there are alot to do and I feel like as a woman, mother and a wife ,it is time for real change to move Kogi state forward” .
She said further , “I came here this morning to pick a nomination form. That is, I want to be part of the race . If you look ,at least about 8 to 10 men have picked nomination forms.. ”
Also speaking at the secretariat, another aspirant, professor Clarence Olatunji Olafemi said ” I know where the shoes pitches in Kogi state. We don’t have time because of the situation in Kogi state . We should stop putting round pegs in square holes .When you asked a carpenter to climb a pole wire to fix light and if he is electrocuted you should not complain but blame the person who sent him there .
“So the Kogites should elect people with experience”, he stated.
On Monday,former Governor Abubakar Audu was at the secretariat where he picked his nomination form.
