Moshood Mustapha: Alleviating Poverty Motivated Me to Go into Politics
Hon. Moshood Mustapha, the vice chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), represents Ilorin West/Asa Federal Constituency. He was elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, but he later defected to All Progressives
Today is your birthday, how do you feel at 52? First and foremost I give thanks to Almighty Allah, who has made it possible for me to see today. The journey so far has been very interesting; having traversed various spheres of life, coming across different challenges both positive and negative and being able to surmount them successfully, especially considering the fact that age is nothing but numbers.
You are generally seen as a successful person. What is the secret of your success?
I do not have any secret other than God and my wonderful wife, who has given me a very peaceful and stress free home. She is a solid pillar, who has stood by me through the thick and thin of life. People always attribute their good looks to eating good food and engaging in exercises, on the contrary I feel such things are an express reflection of the type of person you live with. In addition, my children have as well been extraordinary, behaviourally, psychologically and otherwise. They have not given me any course to worry, or done anything that will dent the family name; they are not the sickly type as well. As I sit, one of the things that make me comfortable is that I have a family that has no issues, without any form of segregation. This entire attitude is courtesy of my dad.
At 52, looking back, what are the things you feel you are missing?
If I think of how much times and things have changed, I begin to marvel. I remember growing up, we were not just taught how to read and write, we were taught about ways of life, religion, culture, sanitary and so on. In fact our children are missing a whole lot, in that, they are not afforded the opportunity to learn what we learnt while growing up due to changing times and money consciousness of our people today. These things have resulted to problems in different spheres of our Nigerian society today. We have been so devastated by security, health, educational and employment challenges to mention but a few.
I remembered vividly, we were the first to own a television (black and white), and every time we sat to watch it people will converge from all around us to watch with us. We were also the first to have a land phone and our number was 2280. My father had more than one wife, but you would hardly tell which woman gave birth to which child, that was the extent to which we were united; because my dad never tolerated any form of segregation. We eat and drank from one pot.
What motivated you to go into politics?
I am a man that relates closely with my people. Even while I was still in active service with the Nigerian Immigration Service, I always related with my people, with my meagre salary then, I helped those I could and they were happy. With this, I thought and consulted with my wife on the best way we could help better the lot of our people, thus politics was resorted to as a means of achieving our goal. So, I would say authoritatively that rendering of service to my people motivated my interest in going into politics. Now, I can beat my chest and say that I have been able to achieve my goal to a large extent, by the special grace of God, the support of my people and my lovely family.
You are in the final month of your first term as a lawmaker, what would you say are your greatest contributions to the development of your constituency?
If you ask anyone from my constituency what benefits have accrued since the history of the constituency, they would tell you that they have never had it so good like October 1, 2014. On that day, I embarked on a mega empowerment phase 3, giving out hundreds of motorcycles, grinding machines, refrigerators, freezers, laptops, IT equipment, clippers, generators and so on. His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, the political leader in Kwara State, Sen. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, commissioners, traditional rulers were amongst the dignitaries on ground to witness the epoch making event that spelt out joy for the people of my constituency.
Prior to my becoming a lawmaker, my house has always been open to anyone that comes in, I do the best I can to assist my people and alleviate their sufferings. Now that I am a lawmaker I only stepped it up by extending my hands to more people. Apart from this empowerment, I have by the grace of God being able to help many of our youth from my constituency to be gainfully employed in different government parastatals in the country. Some others have been granted scholarships to study, both within and outside Nigeria. We also have one of the biggest IT centres where we train youths on IT skills for free. The workers at the IT centre are also placed on a monthly salary, thus making them gainfully employed as well.
I have also been able to succeed in the passing of the motion for the “Moro Bridge”, to assist the farmers in the transportation of their crops. I have successfully being able to integrate the youths into a forum via a synergy with Kwara State University where they could come together to learn entrepreneurial skills rather than just leaving them to struggle to get the white collar jobs. My constituency being a largely Muslim one, I have sent over 90 people to Mecca for Hajj. I have also sent four people to Jerusalem during the last Christian pilgrimage to the holy land. Presently, there are three roads that are undergoing maintenance/construction work. So far I have been able to build over 30 motorized boreholes and over 100 manual boreholes in my constituency.
I am one of those who believe in the system, with the kind of leadership the All Progressive Congress (APC) stands for; Nigeria will take her rightful place amongst the comity of nations very soon. My joy in all of these things is not just my accomplishments but the fact that these accomplishments are well appreciated by my people.
The general election has come and gone, how would describe it?
What more can I say, Nigerians are now matured and ready for real democracy. Any government that fails to perform will be voted out of office, notwithstanding how much you spend. Nigerians has blatantly refused to be cajoled by money, they know what they want and anyone that fails to deliver will be kicked out. So much confidence has been reposed on Gen. Mohammud Buhari and the dynamic APC leadership by Nigerians, thus I state it categorically clear that they will not be disappointed. Gen. Buhari is more than prepared to take Nigeria to the much anticipated next level, he has gotten the experience and intellect needed to do the job and I am sure he would not let Nigerians down. One thing, I must quickly point out is that, it will take a lot of work to get the job done and not by magic, thus it is definite that some people will cry for things to get better but I am sure that Nigerians will not be disappointed.