WE WON'T ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE DISTRACTED –BEN DUNTOYE, KWARA STATE COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMTION

How prepared is the PDP for the 2011 polls?
We are not yet putting attention into election activities, we in the government still want to concentrate on governance. We are still interested in giving democracy dividends to the people. We don't need to close shop and concentrate on politics, we believe there is still time and that when we get to the bridge we will cross it.

This is a government that has touched the lives of the people in every sphere of life and that is why the people are not concerned with the political picture of what is happening in the state.

How are you going to sell the PDP candidate given the fact that he or she is going to be a new person?

What will campaign for the next governor is the achievement of this government. There is no doubt that the PDP will sweep the state in 2011 because of the manner the party has performed in the last eight years. I believe that when the party eventually picks a candidate, we won't have a problem.

We will be picking from the same system and they know that the new man will be a person who would continue from where Bukola Saraki stopped.

People within the PDP fold are already pasting posters and the state PDP in January banned such act.

I saw the posters too and we have called the individuals to ask how the posters came by, and they denied it.

Are you saying some people pasted the posters for her?

It could be some faceless group that did it. But the most important thing is that the party has told everybody to hold on. We have a system that we are used to and this system has brought for us peace and stability.

Are you sure you are not denying the posters because the governor is said to be unhappy that his sister is about to take over from him?

Are you telling me that Gbemi Saraki has told you that she is running for an election?

The rumour mill has it that she is interested in taking over.

I don't have such information and I am aware that the party is yet to declare a candidate for the state.

What do you see to the issue of zoning that has been the singsong of the people of Kwara South?

I don't see it from that angle of people from Kwara South agitating for power. I am from Kwara South and I don't know anywhere where we the people complained that we were marginalized.

A politician of Kwara extraction has ruled for just for three months.

We once had Cornelius Adebayo but for the military that struck. It was not the people of Kwara Central that called in the military. It was a natural political disaster, if it was not for the coup, Chief Adebayo could have done eight years.

We need to ensure that Kwara moves from this parochial level to the level of real development. It is not really the idea of a man from Kwara South ruling that would bring development to the area. We need to focus on development if this country will surely move forward. I will assure that whoever the PDP will use in 2011 will be one that will move the state forward and generally accepted by all the people of the three senatorial districts.

How do you react to this allegation that the government has concentrated development only in Ilorin and GRA specifically?

That accusation is very wrong. Development during the government of Bukola Saraki is even.

If you look at the area of road construction, it was spread all across the state, in electricity; the effort is spread all over the state. We have electrified over 300 communities since Bukola Saraki came to power. We are into the clean and green exercise.

However, we need to realize that Ilorin is the state capital and conscious effort should be made to develop it and make it attractive to investors. It is Ilorin that the investor will first come and the first impression matters a lot.

If we really want to be objective we will agree that development has been even in the state; the people know that the governor is fair minded and they know that he is a man of justice and fairness.

Will you disagree that with the insinuation that there is an emerging rift between the governor and his father over the issue of succession?

That is not true. I can tell you that authoritatively, it is not possible that politics will divide father and son. They are one family and no one can cause division between them. There is no rift between the Waziri of Ilorin and the governor. I can tell you that authoritatively.