Dr. Ibrahim Sheriff (Gold)

DECLARATION OF SUPPORT FOR THE APC CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF KWARA STATE. Preamble: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, especially my fellow Kwarans. As you may be aware, I am one of the vocal critics of the current APC administration in our dear State of Harmony; but one thing I have made sure to be consistent about, in the past years of being a critic. is that the criticisms were not out of spite or personal dislike for anyone in government. Rather, demands for good governance, accountability, fairness, equity and the best interest of our State. As we approach the next election circle in Nigeria, it has become necessary to actively be involved in the affairs and decision making of our State. As such, after wide consultation with fellow Kwarans at home and in the diaspora, professionals, and young people whose only demand is that government should be felt in their daily lives, I have reached a considered position on the 2027 governorship election in Kwara State. Those consultations were not ceremonial or for personal aggrandisement. They were objective and frank. They returned, again and again, to the same concerns: that public office must produce visible results; that competence must matter more than noise; and that equity and fairness must not remain slogans reserved for campaign season, our people must see it and feel it. Kwarans are tired of governance that is announced but not experienced. They want schools that work, roads that last, hospitals that treat, farms that pay, security that holds, and a government that can be questioned without fear. It is on that basis, and not on common sentiment, that I declare my support for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Salihu Danladi (SYD), Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, as the next Governor of Kwara State. @SalihuDanlad The case for competence: Kwara does not need another season of promises. It needs a governor who understands the machinery of government, can carry the legislature and the party with him, and can turn policy into outcomes that reach the ward, the market, the farm, and the classroom. No doubt, SYD comes to this contest from the legislature, where he has served as Speaker and has had to manage competing interests, pass laws, and account to a constituency beyond his immediate circle. The party primary of 22 May 2026 produced him as the APC flag-bearer, even though I supported a different aspirant. However, that internal contest is over. What remains is the larger question Kwarans must answer on election day: who is best placed to govern among the candidates across different parties who are waiting to be elected into the office of the Governor of Kwara State. My support rests on the expectation that, when he, SYD, wins, he will govern as a competent executive, not as a beneficiary of political arrangement. Competence, in this context, means the capacity to set priorities, choose capable hands, spend public money with discipline, and measure success by what citizens can see and use. Equity and fairness to all: Good governance in Kwara cannot be the property of one faith, one generation, or one circle of influence. Equity is not a favour. It is a condition of peace and legitimacy. As such, Kwara North, Kwara Central, and Kwara South must all see themselves in the government that emerges. So must Muslims and Christians, the old and the young, women and men, the civil service, the market, the farm, and the professional class. Appointments, projects, and opportunity must follow need and merit, not only proximity to power. SYD's candidacy offers a practical opening for that balance. A government led by him will be judged, in part, by whether every part of the state can point to a fair share of attention, and whether no community is governed as an afterthought. Fairness to all is not a concession to any bloc. It is the minimum standard of a government that intends to last in the confidence of the people. This is not a blind endorsement: Let me be plain. This declaration is not a blank cheque. It is not a pledge to applaud every decision, defend every appointment, or excuse every failure. It is a willingness to support a candidacy that has been presented as a vehicle for good governance, equity, and fairness, and to hold that candidacy to those words. Support, properly understood, includes the right and the duty to speak. I will continue to offer feedback, in private where that serves the state, and in public where silence would fail the people. Room for accountability is not hostility. It is the difference between partnership and capture. We expect: a. clear programme, with timelines, on education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, jobs, and security; b. spread of projects and appointments that Kwarans in all three senatorial districts can recognise as fair; c. openness to criticism from party members, opposition, civil society, traditional institutions, and the diaspora; d. zero tolerance for the use of public office to settle personal or factional scores; and e. regular accounting to the people, not only at election time. A call to Kwarans at home and abroad: I therefore call on well-meaning Kwarans, in the sixteen local government areas and across the diaspora, to look past rumour and personal grievance and to consider this candidacy on its merit. To those at home: examine the record, attend the engagements, ask the hard questions, and vote with the future of your children in view. To those abroad: your remittances, your skills, and your voice still belong to this state. Distance is not an excuse for indifference. Kwara is built by those who stay and by those who refuse to forget it. This call is not a demand that anyone surrender judgment. It is an invitation to join a project whose test will be simple. Did life in Kwara become fairer, safer, and more productive? Did government become something people could feel? Conclusion: Kwara has had enough of governance that stops at the gate of Government House. The task before us is to elect a competent leader, insist on equity and fairness to all, and keep the door open for correction. On that understanding, I support Rt. Hon. Yakubu Salihu Danladi of the All Progressives Congress for Governor of Kwara State in 2027. The support stands. So does the duty to speak when the state requires it. Signed: Muhammed Ndakudu Adam Esq Kwara, Edu Local Government. 09/10/2026.