The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Hussein

  • Osun by-election: Why I’m contesting, by Hussein

    Osun by-election: Why I’m contesting, by Hussein

    HE All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Osun West senatorial by-election, Senator Mudasiru Hussain, has explained why he wants to return to the National Assembly.

    The politician spoke at Iwo, the headquarters of the Osun West Senatorial District in Osun State.

    Hussain said the advancement of his senatorial zone and Osun State propelled his ambition.

    According to him, the APC has proved that it is the only party that can bail Nigeria out of social, political and economic hardship.

    Hussein earlier visited Ede South, Ede North, Egbedore local government areas, which are in the senatorial zone, to get support for his ambition to return to the Senate.

    The APC candidate, in 2015, relinquished his seat in the Senate for the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke, who died in April.

    Hussain became the party’s candidate following the withdrawal of the younger brother to the late senator, Mr. Ademola Adeleke.

    Hussain said the Rauf Aregbesola administration in Osun State had demonstrated good governance.

    He regretted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke’s party, allegedly caused Nigeria’s current predicament through its anti-people policies and its almost official kleptocratic tendencies.

    Hussein said: “The government of this party (APC) is the only party through which you have seen that good governance is possible. In our state alone, we have seen what this party represents through the mega-schools, the legacy roads, school feeding as well as other policies, which show that it is the people that matter.

    “On the other hand, you know what the PDP has taken us through in this country. We know that the PDP, having lost the control of Nigeria’s resources, has been running from pillar to post to regain relevance. Never will they find their feet on our soil again.”

    Those with Hussain at the rally included the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, House of Assembly Speaker Najeem Salam, Elder Peter Babalola, members of the House of Assembly from the zone and other political office holders.

  • Osun senatorial by-election: Youths back Hussein

    Osun senatorial by-election: Youths back Hussein

    A youths’ group, Ejigbo Progressive Youths Association (EPYA), has hailed the election of Senator Mudashiru Hussein as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Osun West Senatorial District’s by-election on July 8.

    In a statement yesterday in Osogbo, the state capital, by its National President, Comrade Rasaq Ojetunji and National Secretary, Comrade David Abiodun, EPYA described Hussein’s election as “historic, popular and appropriate”.

    It noted that APC could not have made a better choice, given the prevailing circumstances.

    The group hailed the state leadership of the APC for considering Hussein fit for the seat.

    It assured the party that the senator would live up to expectations, if elected.

    EPYA said Hussein’s nomination would ensure continuity, adding that he is not only a senator who once represented the district but one who voluntarily left the seat for the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke in 2015, on party’s advice.

    The group said Hussein remained friendly and loyal to the late Adeleke throughout his tenure.

    EPYA said: “Against that lofty backcloth, it is only fair and proper that Senator Hussein should be given the popular mandate to continue from where the late Adeleke left the stage.”

     

     

     

  • Hussein: a prize for loyalty

    Hussein: a prize for loyalty

    Journalist, politician and commentator Tunde Oladunjoye examines the fielding of Senator Mudashiru Hussein by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its candidate for the July 8 senatorial by-election in Osun West District.

    The above heading is suggestive of a ceremonial prize or instituted award. However, this article is not too far from it, as it is on reward for a humble political actor and party loyalist, Senator Hussein Oyetunde  Mudashiru.

    It was Sean Summons, who wrote that “there is something wrong with your character if opportunity controls your loyalty”. Perhaps this has always been in the subconsciousness of  Senator Hussein, a former Senator of the then Action Congress  Nigeria (ACN), who emerged as the senatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) at the just-concluded primaries of the party last Wednesday,where he was elected unopposed.

    Hussein is not a political starter, he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives for Oshodi-Isolo, Lagos, in 1999 representing the alliance for Democracy (AD), and was also reelected in 2003. He is also not new in public commentary, albeit political comments.

    For example, in February 2004,  Hussein said the House of Reps might invite President Olusegun Obasanjo to explain where he got N360million that was said to have been spent on demolishing all the toll gates in the country.

    Again in November 2004, Hussein, an apostle of politics without bitterness, stated that the rising numbers of military politicians in the nation’s polity would bring virile and stable democracy. In June 2005, Hussein called for the discovery of those behind the murder of one of the major financiers of the Oranmiyan group, Alhaji Hassan Olajokun, as essential to ensure Nigeria’s nascent democracy would survive.

    Not only that, in the past, the lanky senator had explained that  agitation for increase in resource control would be eliminated by the “Mineral Resources Commission Bill”, which would allow regions to take care of their resources. And of course, he was one of the most vociferous opponents of the rumoured third term bid of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006. According to him, the Nigerian constitution did not provide for a third term for President Olusegun Obasanjo or anybody for that matter.

    Politically, like a good player, Hussein has won some and lost some too. Standing for the Action Congress in the 2007 senate elections for Osun West, he was defeated by Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke. Hussein appealed the election decision, presenting evidence that included video clips showing ballot boxes being taken away by thugs and voters being threatened with dangerous weapons, but the tribunal did not consider this sufficient to overturn the result.

    In the April 2011 senate elections for Osun West, fate smiled on him as he scored 121,971 votes, with the incumbent Senator Adeleke of the PDP coming second with 77,090 votes. Certainly not a small win over a sitting senator and former state governor. That was Hussein’s journey to the red chambers of the National Assembly.

    At the end of that tenure, the loyalty of Hussein was put to utmost test. His political rival and former governor of Osun, the late Isiaka Adeleke,  has joined the APC, after three legacy parties, including Hussein’s ACN, teamed up to form the mega party called APC, which later wrestled power from PDP at the federal level.

    Everybody had expected Hussein to do a second term as a senator representing Osun West. But, that was not to be. Former governor Adeleke indicated his interest in going back to the senate and it became very intriguing how this will happen.

    Before issues could degenerate, the party leadership and asked Hussein to step-down in deference to the former governor. The decision to hold back Hussein had the emphatic support of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Hussein withdrew from the race without rocking the boat. He stayed in the party and worked diligently for the victory of all the candidates of the party, including late Adeleke, at the general elections.

    Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola later appointed Senator Hussein as a commissioner in his cabinet. An appointment that Hussein humbly accepted. Alas, as soon as news filtered out that Hussein had been made commissioner, there were condemnations in some quarters for his acceptance of what most of the commentators described as a “very degrading appointment”.

    A member of the APC in Ejigbo Local Government of Osun, was quoted to have said the nomination of Hussein, a senator as a commissioner, and his acceptance, “remained a retrogression of sort, and a reflection of strength of character of the former senator.” He argued that nothing justified the glaring demotion of the former lawmaker other than economic consideration and political booty”.

    However, Hussein remained unperturbed as he settled down to his new role as the Commissioner on Cabinet Matters to Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

    When the unfortunate death of Senator Adeleke occurred recently, the Osun APC was gravely bereaved. That notwithstanding, the constitutional provision of replacing the late Adeleke in the senate chambers has to be met. Otunba Ademola Adeleke,  a younger brother to the late Adeleke,  who had earlier shown interest in the Osun West Senate seat, withdrew his intention and resigned from APC on the eve of the scheduled primaries, to avoid what was generally believed to the a foreseeable, imminent and inescapable wide  loss by the younger Adeleke to the old war horse, Hussein. Though “allegations of subversion of process, was the alibi given by the younger Adeleke for jumping ship.

    On the same day that Adeleke decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he was welcomed into the party with the Osun West senatorial ticket, in a move which many political observers said was indicative of the fact that the PDP is not really on ground in Osun.

    Ademola Adeleke picked the ticket to contest for the vacant seat on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, when two other contestants for the ticket, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi and Mr. Olayiwola Falabi stepped down for him.

    Otunba Adeleke had earlier been screened and given clearance by the All Progressives Congress screening and election committee to contest the APC primaries. It was unprecedented in the annals politics in Nigeria for an aspirant from another party to decamped from his party and joined a rival party and on the same day become its senatorial candidate.

    However, APC insiders in Osun said, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola decided to throw his full weight behind Senator Hussein for his loyalty to the party. “When they asked him to step down for late Isiaka Adeleke, he complied. He did not leave the party. He openly cooperated and worked for the emergence of late Adeleke senior. Some other people would have left the party and said that they wanted to test there popularity.  But Hussein did not do that. He obeyed the party. So, Ogbeni (Aregbesola) felt he should not be denied twice”, an APC chieftain revealed.

    At the APC primary, which held last Wednesday in Osogbo, Hussein was elected unopposed scoring 2,412 votes of the total valid votes of 2,412 votes castes.

    Political calculations on the chances of the party at eventually winning the general elections was also taken into consideration, as Senator Hussein is seen  as a more popular, more experienced, more loyal party member and trusted to deliver the votes at the general elections.

    The whistle seems to have been blown for the senatorial race as another former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bade Falade, on the same day, also picked the ticket of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, for the by-election slated for July 8.

    Husseini’s chances are very bright in the general elections. If he eventually returns to his former seat at the National Assembly, as he is favoured to; that will a prize for his loyalty!

     

    • Oladunjoye sent this piece from Lagos.
  • Hussein: Kogi’ll prosper under my watch

    Hussein: Kogi’ll prosper under my watch

    Idris Kashim Hussein is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a governorship aspirant in Kogi State. In this interview with reporters in Abuja, the 43-year old politician appeals to the elders to give the younger generation a chance to contribute their quota to the development of the state.

    Why do you want to be the governor of Kogi State?

    I have been in business for some time now, basically real estate. I am a property developer; I am one of the front liners when it comes to real estate business in Abuja. I do partial business in entertainment and I run a couple of outfits when it comes to hospitality business. By aspiring to govern Kogi, I am trying to see how I can improve the lot of my people in my own little way. In my business, I have tried to bring together like minds, brilliant minds from among those I related with on the streets; the downtrodden; people who had no shoes (apologies to President Goodluck Jonathan); people that have no godfathers, into my business. My general manager and all my managers are people that I know right from time. Besides, most people working for me are people from Kogi State. What I am today, 70 per cent of the glory goes to Senator Atai Aidoko (Kogi East). He has been able to impact on my life positively. He taught me how to fish and today I am doing pretty well to the glory of God. I have passion for offering support to other people to raise their God-given potentials. For sometimes now, this is what I have been doing as an individual.

    How do you intend to bring your experience to bear on governance, if given the opportunity?

    Part of what I want to do is to make sure that we put Kogi State where it is supposed to be. I promised that I can grow the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) of Kogi State to nothing less than N3 billion monthly. I have come up with the programmes and plans on to how we can achieve that. From the streets, as an orphan, I have been able to be what I am; I have been able to create wealth out of nothing. Now, I have been able to do samplings, I have been able to look at issues critically and objectively, about what we need to do to improve the lot of our people. First of all, I am not too okay with what is going on in Obajana (Dangote Cement factory). I believe Obajana is strategic to the economic well being of Kogi State. Unfortunately, we have not made good use of that place. Recently, President Jonathan signed the papers that proclaimed part of Enugu as a development authority; a free trade zone. We can get that done in Obajana. I remember sometimes ago, at my youthful age, I did a paper with the direct involvement of General David Jemibewon and Yomi Awoniyi, the present deputy governor, proposing a law to make Obajana a development authority. Unfortunately, former Governor Ibrahim Idris saw it as a non-issue; it was not deliberated upon in the House of Assembly and was thrown away. If I come into power, it will be part of my priorities. Plus, minus, that place, Obajana can at least generate N500m revenue for us on monthly basis.

    Secondly, Nigerians from nothing less than 21 states traverse Kogi State on daily basis. That gives you nothing less than 35,000 to 40,000 vehicles that pass through Kogi on daily basis. How can we translate that into wealth? We can create conducive atmosphere for them, when passing through Kogi. We can then offer small services to provide a comfortable atmosphere for them. We can now start generating little funds from those vehicles. It can give us nothing less than N250m monthly, if it is well packaged. I have equally looked at the possibility of establishing the Kogi Petroleum Company. Almost every filling station in the North gets their products from the South. Kogi State is strategically located at the confluence of Nigeria where the South and the North met. I did my analysis, went to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to do some research. What we need to do is not far-fetched: We have a river bank here in Lokoja, across the river in Shintaku. Nothing is happening there. What they take from the North to the South everyday is not less than N300m. What you do; build a tank farm, bring in investors to fund the project, with that the N300m don’t need to go to the South anymore. We would then be able to save them costs in transportation. We will also be able to save them costs in the risks involved. We will be able to make 20 per cent; 20 per cent of N9bn is about N1.8bn on IGR.

    As a state government, we should be able to generate revenue internally, rather than sitting idle and waiting for allocation from the federation account. I am trying to justify my projection that we can generate N3bn monthly.

    Thirdly, today the world is information technology (IT) driven. It is because of IT that I can sit down here in Lokoja and be talking to someone in London. Today, one of the poorest countries in the world has the best in IT, which is India. Nigerian universities teach the theoretical aspects and not the practical. And that is why when a computer scientist finish from a university in Nigeria they will say go and learn the practical aspect of IT because they don’t have the technical knowhow to run an IT firm. What to do? We have the land everywhere in Kogi, go to NUC, tell them this is what I have on ground, you get approval to establish a IT-based university basically for practical aspects in Kogi, so that undergraduates in other universities after studying the theory aspects up to 300 levels when they get to 400 levels they come to Kogi to do their practical. For Kogi indigenes, we give them 50 per cent rebate. What this will achieve is to generate revenue and help in building capacity. In the next 10 years, every IT firm you go in Nigeria you will see there is one Kogi person there.

    I am not coming into government to wait for what is coming from the Federal Government. I believe it is a good omen that the country is broke at the moment. This will give us the opportunity de-emphasize our over reliance on oil revenue. It will compel every state to begin to look inwards. In Kogi, we have the highest mineral deposits which have not been tapped. The only exception is the limestone deposits around Obajana. We are facing the challenges we face today because we are not an exporting country. As a result of this, the value of our naira keeps going down. If we were exporting cocoa, for instance, we can tell anybody who is coming to buy our product to pay us in naira. We would insist that we are not accepting payments dollars or pounds. This will help to increase the value of our own currency and that is the kind of government we want to run.

    A government that can create wealth, a government that can increase the value of what we have, the government that can develop capacity, the government that will build infrastructure, the government that can look inwards and say, this is what we need to do and put it in black and white; that holds meaningful town hall meetings with the people at intervals to sit down with them and say look at what we have done over the last one month, tell us where we have not done well enough, so we may improve; a government that is accountable, subjects itself to the will of the people; a governor that will say at the point of taking over governance this is what I have, I don’t want to have much more than this because what I want is to make sure that I give meaningful life to our people, which is possible.

    Prince Abubakar Audu recently declared his intention to come back as Kogi State Governor on the APC ticket. Are you out to challenge him?

    Basically, I will like to put a square peg in a square hole. There is no doubting that during the tenure of Prince Audu he did tremendously well. If I say he did not perform, I would not be fair to posterity. He did a wonderful job. He is innovative and he is a man that I respect as an individual. I basically see him as my role model. I think during his first tenure that was truncated by the military I was in primary school. I look at it that there are situations that over a reasonable number of years a new trend will take over from what was in the past. 25 years gone. I look forward to a time Prince Audu would say “oh, Idris, is my son I have every need to support him because he has come of age, he has the courage, he has the charisma, he has done pretty well for himself and he can help develop the state as well”. I look forward to that happening within the shortest period of time. Today, it is becoming so glaring that people are now beginning to appreciate that their vote counts. At the appropriate time they will choose who they want. If they say, “oh, Idris, sit down, there is every need for you to support Prince Audu”, to God be the glory, I will. But, if otherwise the man being a father figure will see me as his son and say Idris deserves my support, because he is a young man who has supported me in the past when I was contesting, so be it. I see him as a father figure. I am not coming to challenge Prince Abubakar Audu. I am coming to answer the clarion call by my people to run for the governorship election; I am coming to answer the call by my own generation wanting a change of baton from the old order to a new order. I think my generation has spoken. Part of the campaign you have seen, you are never going to see anybody that is old in the race. What we are saying is give us a chance. Let’s be able to prove our worth. About 35 years ago or thereabout they keep telling us we are leaders of tomorrow, and today at 40 years plus, I am married with children and I am still not a leader, then I just wonder when I will now become a leader of tomorrow! I look forward to the possibility of him saying Idris come and continue from where I stopped. I think I am going to make him very proud. He would be doing what is right giving us a space in the new system, the new order that will allow us to give our own contributions, giving us a space to hear the voice and share the feeling and aspirations of our people that all is not well with Kogi and the freedom to say our state must be better off for it.