The All Progressives Congress APC Kwara Central Senatorial district candidate, Saliu Mustapha, has vowed never to respond to his top rival, Bolaji Abdullahi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to a Thursday statement by Gidado Shuaib, a spokesperson at his campaign office, Mr Mustapha said Mr Abdullahi’s open letter to him is nothing but “vituperation against him”
gathered that Mr Abdullahi, a former minister, in an open letter to Mr Mustapha last Tuesday, mocked the APC candidate for saying he was “bigger than ideas.”
He was responding to a 24 December 2022 event where Mr Mustapha said he disagreed that ideas are the foundation of every development.
He said he was shocked to hear that anyone would say he has passed the level of ideas.
Premium Times Nigeria
Saliu Mustapha
Saliu Mustapha
UPDATED: 2023: Saliu Mustapha promises not to respond as Bolaji Abdullahi
The top candidates are disagreeing over ideas as the race for the Kwara Central Senatorial seat heats up.
ByMohammed Babangida January 6, 2023 Reading Time: 2 mins read
The All Progressives Congress APC Kwara Central Senatorial district candidate, Saliu Mustapha, has vowed never to respond to his top rival, Bolaji Abdullahi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to a Thursday statement by Gidado Shuaib, a spokesperson at his campaign office, Mr Mustapha said Mr Abdullahi’s open letter to him is nothing but “vituperation against him”
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr Abdullahi, a former minister, in an open letter to Mr Mustapha last Tuesday, mocked the APC candidate for saying he was “bigger than ideas.”
He was responding to a 24 December 2022 event where Mr Mustapha said he disagreed that ideas are the foundation of every development.
He said he was shocked to hear that anyone would say he has passed the level of ideas.
Bolaji Abdullahi
Bolaji Abdullahi
“The position that you and I seek, requires critical thinking and big ideas more than anything else. The issues that would be brought before us as senators would require us to think creatively and take decisions based on hard evidence. And it will not always be pretty. Senators don’t contribute money to solve problems; they contribute ideas instead. Unfortunately, it is this same ‘ideas’ that you have proudly relegated and announced that you no longer have a need for,” Mr Abdullahi said in his letter
I’ll not respond
Mr Mustapha said he first responded to the letter to set the records straight and to avoid misrepresentation.
The Turaki of Ilorin (Mr Mustapha) would not have been involved in public brickbats over the senatorial race but for his traducers, who made such as the last resort for him,” Mr Shuaib wrote.
“While you misinterpreted my statement to mean that I was underplaying the value and significance of ideas, big or small, the statement was clear enough to decipher even to the average viewers or readers.” Mr Mustapha was quoted as saying by his spokesperson.
Mr Mustapha said while ideas are good, they will amount to nothing if they do not solve people’s problems.
”For the sake of emphasis, I’d like to reiterate that while ideas are good, I believe we’ve gone past the stage of merely mouthing it for the sake of the political optics. But we are beyond that. We should be at the point of implementing creative ideas and innovative solutions to solve our people’s pressing problems through both legislative and executive channels,” he said.
Mr Shuaib said his principal preferred to “move on and focus on his engagements with the people.”
He assured that Mr Mustapha “would continue to be civil and decent in his public engagements regardless of the amount of temptations to do otherwise.”
“We’ve read and perused the latest ‘reply’ of the opposition candidate, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi. It is the position of our candidate, Mallam Saliu Mustapha that he would no longer dignify the letterman, Mr Abdullahi, or any other opponent for that matter, with a further reply.
“It should be noted that it is ordinarily not in the character of our candidate, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, the Turaki of Ilorin Emirate, to engage in public brickbats with anyone, but his traducers this time had left him with no other option.”
He said the APC senatorial candidate would instead of engaging in such “brickbats” allow the electorates to decide who represents them in the red chamber
“Moving forward, it is the wish of the Turaki to continue to focus on the engagements with the electorate who look forward passionately to conversations on issues that will elevate their socio-economic wellbeing as citizens,” Mr Shuaib said, in the statement.
