Various political youth groups in Kwara State has requested President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the nomination of Youth Minister in the state.
The groups comprises of The Kwara State Progressive Forum, All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), Forum of APC Kwara Central Young Stakeholders, Kwara Progressive Ladies in Politics (KPLP), Kwara Youth Agenda (KYA), Kwara Emerging Progressive Frontiers (KEPF) and Youths’ Alliance for Tinubu (YAT), Kwara State Chapter.
In a media conference on Friday in Ilorin the state capital, Comrade Tunde Salau on behalf of the youth groups said, having lost the APC National Chairmanship position to the North West, a zone that also has the largest number of ministerial positions in the cabinet, the North Central deserves to be compensated.
He said Kwara deserves a special consideration owing to the near 100% performance in the election that brought the President into office.
According to him, the kind of love and ovation Mr. President received in Kwara during his endorsement tour remains second to none in the nation.
Kwara was also able to successfully deliver the then APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with a landslide margin. The same applied to our elected National Assembly members; Senate and House of Representatives which include three Senators with two on return ticket and one first-timer, also all six House of Representatives members with three on return ticket and others being first timers.
The group also appealed to the president that the appointees from the state should be individuals who have merit, loyalty and shown strong commitment to the party.
On both counts (politics and competence), Kwara is well qualified. Speaking of quality and ideal candidate, we make bold to present a worthy ambassador of Kwara youth, one who has been a founding member of the party and made significant contributions to its growth in the person of Mohamed Funsho Abdullahi, he said.
Tunde Salau said Abdullahi has stayed true to his progressive ideals, variously serving the party in various capacities, starting as the Kwara State Coordinator of the APYF between 2016 and 2018, then becoming the North Central Coordinator of the same group as well as the Chairman of the Coordinators’ Forum until 2021. He has served as the National Publicity Secretary of The Progressive Forum (TPF) till date.
“In the mainstream party activities, Abdullahi was Secretary of the Ondo State Senatorial Primary Committee in 2022, while he recently served as the Deputy Director of the directorate of youth mobilization for North Central in the 2023 presidential campaigns. Aside his well known contributions to the development and progress of the APC, he is also not a pushover in terms of competence. Having bagged a Masters degree from the prestigious University of Manchester in England, he has worked variously in both the private and public sectors for over a decade and half. As a civic advocate and youth development practitioner, he is indeed well suited for the role of the minister for youth affairs. His capacity to motivate and inspire the youth demography has in fact been recognized by the Regional Leadership Center of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a United States Government initiative, which in 2019 admitted him as a mentor in their Accra RLC. In December, 2020, Abdullahi was also appointed by the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari to serve as a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the preparation of the Medium Term National Development Plan 2021 – 2025 for Nigeria”.
He expressed confident that Abdullahi has all it takes to effectively man the youth ministry.
At just 41, he is within the age brackets that imbue him with the right attitude to effectively connect with the youth, and he is not too young to also relate with the elders Android other senior appointees. He is a perfect bridge between the young and the old, and therefore a suitable candidate to occupy the position of minister of youth affairs, he added.
The group therefore appealed to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq CON and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR to give the young and versatile Kwaran the second ministerial slot that the State deserves.
We the progressive youths of the APC across board in Kwara State are solidly behind the nomination of Mohamed Funsho Abdullahi and we again appeal to the President to kindly look into our submission. We have the absolute conviction that Abdullahi will do the President and Nigerian youths proud, he added.
