As 2023 general elections inch closer by the day, a pro-democracy activist and National President of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance, CDG, Comrade Razaq Olokoba, has few words of advice for presidential aspirants, who are already showcasing their ambitions to rule the country from 2023. In a media interaction in Lagos at the weekend, the political observer and public commentator admonished presidential aspirants to discuss issues of national importance and discard utterances that may tend to malign others or assassinate their characters. Excerpts:
What advice do you have for all the contestants for the 2023 elections?
Well for all contestants, both in the North and the South, there is a period people would express painful sacrifice. This is the period the true Nigerian nature should come out of every aspirant. What do I mean by that? This is the time people should know that their ambition is not more important than the interest of the country. A time they should realise that Nigeria is bigger than their ambition. That their ambition is intended to come and serve the people. And that, if the ambition to become the president of Nigeria would jeopardise a lot of things in Nigeria, they are ready to sacrifice the ambition. This is what everybody must have at the back of his mind.
And it is expected that contestants from the North should be the ones campaigning for power shift from the North to the South. And for the contestants from the South, this is the time to also demonstrate in their utterances that this is a joint oath for all of them to abide with. And that, there should be no Southern agenda.
How do you mean by that?
I mean any manifesto, campaign or utterances that would indicate regional agenda should be jettisoned. What I mean is that phrases like ‘this is our time;’ ‘it is our turn;’ and ‘it’s our period’ should be carefully used. So that the interpretations of that should not create fear and mutual suspicion in the mind of our Northern brothers. So that they would not say, if that is what power shift is all about, I would not be part of it. If it is Southern agenda you are bringing on board, I won’t be part of it. We should be seen as leaders emerging from the South. Not that a Southerner is emerging to come and rule Nigeria. It should be a kind of a leader to serve Nigeria emerging from a part of Nigeria. It should be Nigeria’s agenda all through. Not that Southern leader coming up sort of thing.
Whatever programmes coming out from our brothers from the South must be ones that would cement the unity of this country. Not the ones to create fears, doubt, or make our Northern brothers to be jittery.
What do you mean when you said ‘no to character assassination?’
Well thank you. It is a concern that all Nigerians should address. The popular demand now is for the power to shift to the South. And the most acceptable decision expected from all the political parties in Nigeria today is zoning of the Presidency to the South. And if in the middle of the demand that the slot should come to the South, all the contestants demonstrating their intentions should educate their followers, because it appears to me that some of the followers of some aspirants are behaving as if they are under a spell!
When something is zoned to you, and the campaign slogan that you think is appropriate is to begin to decimate other aspirants of other people. That is a wrong move. The All Progressives Congress, APC, may not go anywhere with this type of strategy. And it is familiar terrain to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that led to their fall. When the PDP wanted to lose at that time, this was what they embarked upon. They were decimating each other. And that was what strengthened the APC that time. And that was what gave Buhari an edge too at that time. It was because the PDP was busy destroying one another other then. So, while they were busy decimating one another, the APC was consolidating ahead.
So, the APC should be told in clear terms that if they also start to decimate one another, the PDP would also be busy consolidating its members. There are so many challenges before this government that the people think should be addressed by the President or by the government. That is a lie. The challenges are so enormous that nobody should cause additional crises through assassination of other aspirants’ characters. Against this foregoing, the APC should start sanctioning followers of the aspirants decimating other fellow aspirants for the sake of sanity.
If you look at the array of the people that have already come out or those being persuaded to come out and contest, like the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN; they are people of high integrity. Talk of people like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Dr Kayode Fayemi, a sitting governor and Chairman, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, and Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the current Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These are people who are properly, sufficiently and eminently qualified to rule this country successfully.
And it pisses me off when I read or hear a lot of blackmails aimed at destroying any of the above mentioned people of high calibre. Or saying something terrible about Tinubu or Fashola, and I wonder why; because these are our first eleven in Nigeria that the rest of the world considers as brilliant brains that can assist the country to climb the ladder of development and growth. So, it is not proper for us as a people to, in the name of contesting for president to now begin to decimate and destroy the very people we used our resources to secure the high places for!
What do you think is the implication…?
(Cuts in) The implication of that is that it would now look strange to the world, reading about how these people are being brought to ridicule in the name of politics! If there are issues you want these people to address it questions you want them to answer, pose the questions politely and let them answer them. That is the pattern in the rest of the world. You don’t bring out pictures of someone who the Senate has scrutinised and given a pass mark to go and serve and start to decimate him?! Or someone who is the number two in the country and we begin to refer to him in derogatory manners. What kind of people are we?!
If we say all these people aspiring to be president are truly what we call them, the people who had served us meritoriously in the past and are still serving us well, who then are we as a people?! And they have had their glorious moments! Who then are we as a people? If we continue to tell the world that these people are not qualified to be president, one would begin to wonder, who else can do it again outside these crops?!
What do you think should be done to arrest the ugly situation?
It is simple. To me, every contestant should give his followers a code of conduct to guide them against misconduct and misbehaviour. That, henceforth, nobody should decimate other aspirants. What should be our concern is what can your candidate offer you and I and the country as a whole? We want to read about and know what Tinubu can offer Nigeria. We hear Fashola also is coming out, we want to hear and read about what he can offer us. Osinbajo has been Vice President for almost seven years now, what can he offer us as President? Fayemi is still a sitting governor. What has he done for his people? What would he offer us as Mr. President? These are some of the things we want to be reading and hearing about and not negative things about their personalities.
Are these the only aspirants for…?
(Cuts in) No, no. There are other people who want to come out to contest. Let them also tell us in clear terms how would they want to address the security challenges in the country? How they would provide proper structure that would give employments to 70 per cent of the unemployed youth in the country and how they would to do it in clear terms? How would they want to address the economy that is in shamble among other challenges that are facing Nigeria?
The political structure since the time of Obasanjo is responsible for our calamities and woes, how would they address that to bring Nigeria back on good footing? Those are things we are interested in, not conducts that would define us as primitive and uncivilised people.
We should warn that followers and the aspirants themselves should desist from that perilous path that caused the fall of the PDP, which paved the way for President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as the President. The APC should be told to learn from that pitfall to avoid history repeating itself.
