Alhaji Moshood Mustapha, a former Special Adviser on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs, Protocol and Special Duties to Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, says his decision to stay in the All Progressives Congress (APC) is informed by his belief in the ability of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mustapha stated this on Wednesday in Ilorin, Kwara State.
He explained that as the coordinator for Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation in Kwara in 2015, he was not ready to “dump the ship in the middle of the sea and look for a way to sail out”.
“There are ways we can manage our mistakes. It is not about abandoning.
“If you say that your wife offends you, she will always offend you and you will also offend her. But you have to manage your mistakes, otherwise you will keep marrying everyday.
“A lot of things come around, that is why you should always embrace perseverance. That is what politics should be all about.
Mustapha, who also served as a commissioner under Saraki, said his decision to stay with Buhari was based on personal conviction, feeling and principle.
“I must feel comfortable and I must be able to take decision on my own.
“So, either any leader or no leader, I choose to work with him when I was with him. I was not coerced to work with him when I was with him.
“It was based on my own personal conviction, it was about my personal feeling and when I feel otherwise, I decided to take the next step.
“I am on my own. I take decision and I face the consequences of my actions. It is based on my personal volition that I decided to venture into politics in the first instance,” he said.
The former member of the House of Representatives stated that he decided to move with the progressives because of some of the things happening at the state level.
“And I decided on my own that aside this Buhari, I have not seen any other candidate like him.
“If anybody wants to come out, let me see what he has for the goodness of our people”, said the former aide to Saraki.
Mustapha, who is aspiring for governorship seat in the state on the platform of the APC, explained that he could not, because of his former principal, turn to a nomadic politician, who jumps from one party to another.
“As far as I am concerned, I have every right as a citizen of Nigeria to pitch my tent with someone that can help me to actualise my dream.
“And my dream is service to the people and where I realise that I am not able to achieve my dream, it is expected of me to take myself out of that place; that is why there are so many options,” he said.