“We studied your achievements in the area of education, health and infrastructure across Agege Local Government as chairman at a time some of our members were either in primary or secondary school. We remember how you even gave us, all pupils and students in your council area, school materials so we could study well. This endeared you to the hearts of our parents and we are voting for you,” Arewa group coordinator told Hon. Jubreel Abdulkareem.
A group known as Arewa Ibile Youth Organisation in Agege, Local Government Area of Lagos, has directed its members across the council to work and vote for former Chairman of the council, Hon. Jubreel Abdulkareem, who is contesting as Candidate of the Accord Party (AP) in the March 9, 2019 House of Assembly election in the state.
The group, whose executive council members visited the former chairman witnessed by The DEFENDER, said it was established not as a political body for it needed to play a role in the forthcoming election whereby Nigerians will exercise their civic duty of choose their leaders for the next four years.
According to the Coordinator of the group, simply called Abubakar, “It was one of us that passed through the front of your office and saw banner and posters indicating that you are contesting for election. He then came to tell us and advised us to move out of our policy of not partaking in politics to support you.
“After he had spoken with us giving the advice, we went first to our parents, who confirmed to us that you are a candidate we should support regardless of which political party you are coming from. Honourable, you would recall that President Muhammadu Buhari of APC is the candidate of our parents and the candidate that we the Arewa youths will vote for. But, because we used to know how well you did as chairman of Agege Local Government, after we will have voted for Baban Buhari on Saturday February 23, we shall return to the polls on Saturday March 9 to vote for you.”
According to the coordinator, “We took our decision after securing the consent of our parents because we needed to support somebody who will remember us if elected. We studied your achievements in the area of education, health and infrastructure across Agege Local Government as chairman at a time some of our members were either in primary or secondary school. We remember how you even gave us, all pupils and students in your council area, school materials so we could study well. This endeared you to the hearts of our parents and we are voting for you. Be sure of that. We have our PVC capacities to do this for you,” he said.
In his own comment, Director of the group, Usman Ashim, told Hon. Jubreel Abdulkareem that, “If you give us money it means nothing to us. But we need somebody who can build our future not somebody who will give for instance me N100,000 for today and forget about my future. Wallahi! If you give me N100,000 today I will finish it before tomorrow morning because I know what I can spend it on. But no, politicians’ money; N20,000; N2,000? We are not interested.
Ashim said: “Obasa, the Speaker, has been there for close to 20 years now but without anything to show us that he did.
Responding, visibly emotional Hon. Jubreel, who code-mix between English and Arabic languages quoting citing Qur’an and Hadeeth of Prophet Muhammad, told the exco members of Arewa youths group that he was short of words.
He said: “I thank the Almighty Allah that some of you who were in primary school when I was Local Government chairman now come to me and confront me with my past as a government head with regard to my achievements. I thank you so much and pray to Allah to use you and many others who have indicated interest in my going to the Lagos State House of Assembly to represent you to make it a success.”
The Accord Party’s candidate said: “One thing in life is that education is germane. The prophet (peace be upon him) said ‘Seek knowledge even if it means you have to travel to as far as China.’”
He seized the opportunity afforded him by the Arewa youths’ visit to pick responsibility for an indigent having difficulty going to school due to lack of money and pray that Allah would make it easy for him to do, even as he said it was part of the things he will do when he becomes member of Lagos State House of Assembly to make access to quality education easy for youths in the Agege Constituency 01.
He however urged them to merge skill acquisition with education noting that those who are skilled and are in today in business never bother about whether they are employed or not.
He cited Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola among others and asked if they ever had cause to agitate over lack of employment. “But today you can see they are role model as they are not only gainfully self-employed but largely speaking, they are big time employers of labour. You can be like Dangote too, Insha Allah. So, face your education because you need education and also ensure entrepreneurship is not left behind in your quest to be successful in life,” he said.
Hon. Jubreel Abdulkareem then urged: “I do not need to preach to you any longer because on your own you have come to me. But I will implore you to also talk to others to vote for me so that I can serve you all together under the guidance of Allah subhanau wata’ala. Tell them and your parents to vote Accord Party when it comes to House of Assembly election and they should vote with their index finger because the space in the ballot paper is small so that their ink will enter well.
“Also, tell them that Accord Party is the number one on the ballot paper according to the specimen that we have been shown. So, they should vote for me to do more than I did for them as chairman Agege Local Government,” he said.
