One of the Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara state, Prince Saheed Popoola has described as an exercise in futility, the seeming gang-up against the presidential ambition of the National Leader of the party Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2023 general election.
Hon Popoola, a member of Kwara State House of Assembly who also vied for the Speakership position at the commencement of the present administration also expressed his intention to contest for Kwara South senatorial seat being currently occupied by Senator Lola Ashiru, saying that he can perform better than him.
The former Offa local government chairman spoke with Journalists in Ilorin, the state capital at a programme organised by the state chapter of the Correspondents’ chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
Prince Popoola, also said that irrespective of anyone’s reason for antagonising the presidential ambition of the former governor of Lagos state, that he remains the unifying factor in APC.
He added that the recent visit by Hon Bashir Bolarinwa’s faction of the party to Tinubu was fruitful and purposeful.
Said he: “Yes, we visited Tinubu our leader, after he returned, from medical treatment abroad. Almost every APC member in Nigeria wanted to see him, and we sought his attention through, Prof Shuaib AbdulRaheem that, we the ‘APC Loyal’ in Kwara wanted to come and greet you and he granted our request, he received us well and chatted with us for over five hours.
“Let me say this, the only person that is bringing unity to APC today in Nigeria is Tinubu, and we are telling all those that are ganging-up against him that they will surely meet a brick wall, all of them, including those that he mentored and they, are now doing some unimaginable things behind him, their permutation is a disaster in-waiting, it is a time bomb in APC.”
The lawmaker said he had touched many lives as a politician and performed excellently well as a public office holder.
He disclosed that in 2023 “I will be contesting for Kwara South Senate seat and my reason is very simple.
“We are of the opinion that Offa deserves a second term, and I believe that I can do better than the current occupier.”
Hon Popoola, who is representing the Ojomu/Balogun Constituency of Offa in the state House of Assembly, said that state governors under the aegis of the Governors’ Forum are the enemies of Nigeria.
He said,”The almighty governors of Nigeria are our major problem in this country, they are too powerful and selfish. Look at what they are doing to the President on Electoral Amendment Bill.
” Unfortunately, we have not to know our enemies in this country, until we know that the ‘Governors Forum’ is the basis of our problems in Nigeria.
“Give autonomy to the Houses of Assembly, they said ‘no’ notwithstanding that a law had been passed, the president even said Executive Order 10 should be implemented, so that, the autonomy of House of Assembly and Judiciary can be implemented, they said No, for the past two years.
“So, when a governor says you cannot become a speaker, what can you do?”
Speaking earlier about his achievement as a lawmaker, Hon Popoola said that constituencies now look up to lawmakers to perform duties constitutionally meant to be performed by local government councils.
“All the local councils are now dead because the governors want it so.
“They are now bringing the same thing to APC and if care is not taken, what happened to APC in Anambra Governorship election might happen to the party across the country,” he said.
Vanguard News
