By Abdulazeez Kayode
Love it or hate it, for one to achieve something good, particularly, in the journey of life, one should prepare for the worst from those that will come out in full force to castigate, persecute and prosecute you. They would go all ways to ridicule and spread rumours about you but a focussed person will not grieve nor fear, rather, they will see it as a way of strengthening their arsenal to forge ahead.
This illustration perfectly describes what is happening in Nigeria politics, especially Kwara. Its always surprising seeing people taking it hard on Hon. Mashood Mustapha for showing interest in becoming the next Governor of Kwara state come 2019.
Therefore, taking them through MM’s sojourn in life may not be out of place. The peace-loving-man, MM, started nurturing his ambition to be impactful in life right from his early days and he has been consistent without losing focus, even for once.
The affable humanist called MM is today becoming one of most impactful citizens Kwara has ever produced. MM is a foresighted person who had foreseen what life holds for him; he has been guiding his dream very jealously and as such, becoming a positive life-changer not only in his constituency, but Kwara state at large.
On discovering that so many people are living in abject poverty with extreme hunger to such an extent that people were finding it difficult to eat thrice daily, MM made a spirited resolution to make himself available to serve the interest of the people by not giving them food alone but empowering them on how to fend for themselves.
The care-giver had for long been nurturing how to reach more people in life as he got to know that if someone really wants to have meaningful impact in the society, the best way to go about it is to be actively involved in machinery that determines the day to day activities of citizens and policy formulation. That’s one of the key factor responsible for MM’s gubernatorial ambition.
His debut in politics started as Special Adviser to the current Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki when he was the Governor of Kwara State. For his outstanding performance as SA to the then governor Bukola Saraki, MM’s capacity to deliver on any given assignment was confirmed and he was later promoted to the rank of Commissioner in order to accelerate his administration in achieving some set goals in Ministry of Lands and Housing and Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The amiable son of the Wali of Ilorin was one of the shining lights that made Bukola Saraki-led administration achieve tremendously as Governor throughout his eight years as Kwara Governor. Dr. Bukola Saraki discovered that someone like MM is a good material that needed to be encouraged, most especially his courageous attitude to face issues boldly. That was the reason he declared his full support for him to represent the State at the National Assembly as a member of the Federal House of Representatives where boldness, courage, intelligence, and ability to deliver matters a lot.
Hon. MM, started distinguishing himself from his Campaign strategy and mobilization as an aspirant vying to represent Ilorin West/Asa federal constituency. He came up with unique strategies that has not been matched till date. MM’s street credibility and his generosity always attracted people to him. MM’s campaign train was marvellous to the extent that Dr. Bukola Saraki merged his campaign team with MM, and it went smoothly for both of them. The slogan (Gbowole) started from hefty support given to MM by the people, most especially the masses that were ready to follow his campaign train voluntarily. Kwarans are eagerly waiting to witness such supercool campaign again.
MM was declared winner by Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) amidst celebration and jubilation and he immediately switched to action with fabulous dividends of democracy from Federal House of Representative to his constituency in terms of employment opportunities, Empowerment, and community development projects. People were given appointments in the following parastatals of federal government courtesy of MM: NESREA, NIMASA, NTA, NNPC, UITH, FIRS, NETCO, NTI and many more. Also, many people were empowered in various ways: distribution of tricycles, Motorcycles, block moulding machines, grinding machines, freezers, shewing machines, etc.
He also embarked on community development projects like primary healthcare centre in Egbejila and Temidire respectively, construction of irrigation dam at Elega/Igbokedu in Otte, provisions of many transformers, construction of many motorized boreholes and many other programmes and projects, just to mention few.
In 2015 when Dr. Bukola Saraki seriously needed someone with tested capacity to spearhead Buhari/Osinbajo campaign in Kwara State, MM was given the assignment as Campaign Coordinator and he delivered Kwara to Buhari/Osinbajo.
Today, without an iota of doubt, Kwarans are in dire need of that person whose antecedents has spoken well of him, a brilliant and intelligent man like Hon. Moshood Mustapha who has the capacity to take Kwara to the next level of socioeconomic growth and development and more importantly, where all Kwarans will be stakeholders in Kwara’s project!
Abdulazeez is a Media aide to Hon Moshood Mustapha
