Mohammed Funsho Abdullahi, a 41 year old communication and youth development practitioner is being proposed for consideration as the second possible ministerial nominee from Kwara State.
At a joint press conference by over seven APC youth groups in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, Abdullahi’s name was put forward for consideration as a minister in the ministry of youth.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had earlier named Mr. Abubakar Momoh as the minister of youth, but following a national outcry that borders on his age, especially among the youth stakeholders, he was redeployed to the ministry of Niger Delta shortly before the inauguration of the ministers. This created a vacancy in the ministry of youths, which is yet to be filled.
Joining the rising contest for the vacant ministerial seat in the ministry of youth, the APC youths in Kwara State called on President Tinubu to consider the fact that the North Central recently lose the National Chairmanship position to the North West geo-political zone and therefore deserves some compensation.
“Having just lost the APC National Chairmanship position to the North West, a zone that also has the largest number of ministerial positions in the cabinet, the North Central deserves to be compensated. Meanwhile, in the north central, Kwara deserves a special consideration owing to our near 100% performance in the election that brought Mr. President into office,” the group said.
Comrade Tunde Salau, who read the speech of the press conference on behalf of the seven youth groups, also made a reference to an earlier call made by one of the groups before the inauguration for the then President-elect Tinubu to retain the two ministerial slots in Kwara State as it was the case in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Salau, “Kwara deserves two ministerial positions on the basis of the near-perfect and incontrovertible election results delivered by the state in the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections. We also gave overwhelming support to Asiwaju Tinubu, both before and after the primaries. Kwara was also able to successfully deliver the then APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with a landslide margin.
While noting that Kwara is not just asking for consideration on the basis of its contributions to the victory of President Tinubu at the polls, the youth groups said the state also boast of competent young people that fit into the president’s agenda of running a government peopled with competent Nigerians.
“Kwara is well qualified, both in terms of competence and contributions to the election victory of Asiwaju. Speaking of quality and ideal candidate, we make bold to present a worthy ambassador of Kwara youth, one who has been a founding member of the party and made significant contributions to its growth in the person of Mohamed Funsho Abdullahi.
“Having been a founding member of the All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), a youth group founded in 2013 ahead of the successful merger that birthed the APC, Abdullahi has stayed true to his progressive ideals, variously serving the party in various capacities, starting as the Kwara State Coordinator of the APYF between 2016 and 2018, then becoming the North Central Coordinator of the same group as well as the Chairman of the Coordinators’ Forum until 2021. Since then, he has served as the National Publicity Secretary of The Progressive Forum (TPF) till date,” the youths submitted.
While expressing confidence in the ability of Abdullahi to effectively man the youth ministry, the youth groups appeal to the Kwara State Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give him a chance, noting that the progressive youths of the APC across board in Kwara State are solidly behind his nomination.
Abdullahi, who is often addressed simply as ‘Moh’, the first three letters of his first name, is a well-known face within the APC youth circle. He served as the Secretary of the Ondo State Senatorial Primary Committee of the party in 2022, while he recently served as the Deputy Director of the directorate of youth mobilization for North Central in the 2023 presidential campaigns. A master’s degree holder in political marketing from the Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, he has worked in both the private and public sectors for over a decade and half. He was, in December 2020, appointed by former Minister of Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba as a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the preparation of the Medium Term National Development Plan 2021 – 2025 for Nigeria.
The youth groups who endorsed Abdullahi at the conference, which held at a private hub in Ilorin, include The Kwara State Progressive Forum; All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), Kwara State; Forum of APC Kwara Central Young Stakeholders; Kwara Progressive Ladies in Politics (KPLP); Kwara Youth Agenda (KYA); Kwara Emerging Progressive Frontiers (KEPF) and the Youth Alliance for Tinubu (YAT), Kwara State Chapter.