We ransacked Nigeria’s political space last week for the major events with national interests, and here are our picks in this week’s Politics Roundup.
First, is the qualities the former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), listed Nigeria’s next President should possess, and secondly, the red card the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega served the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
We looked at these and two other stories, examined their implications on the nation’s growth and why they should matter.
1. IBB’s remedy
A former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), during an interview with Arise TV on Friday, August 6, listed the qualities Nigeria’s next president must have to be able to lead the country successfully.
The ex-dictator, referred to as IBB by many said: “If you get a good leadership that links with the people and tries to talk with the people; not talking on top of the people, then we would be okay.
“I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. That is, a person who travels across the country and has a friend virtually everywhere he travels to, and he knows at least one person that he can communicate with.
“Nigerians are very resilient, they are very resourceful; so leaders should see how to use this to achieve a common objective.
“That is a person, who is very versed in economics and is also a good politician, who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on. The leaders should understand Nigeria and Nigerians. Anyone who wants to be a leader must use his intellect to understand the people.”
Implications
IBB only pointed a way forward for Nigeria if the country must be saved from suffocating due to successive leadership failures.
Anyone who has the interest of the country at heart knew that the former dictator only hit the nail on the head. Nigeria no longer needs leaders with nepotistic tendencies, whose decisions and actions are influenced by ethnic, religious and other primordial sentiments.
With Nigeria nearing a breaking point owing to actions and inactions of recycled old and incompetent political leaders, it is time Nigeria embraces the new normal by electing healthy and intellectually vibrant young people at the helms of affairs to save the country from crashing.
2. Jega’s red cards
On Monday, August 2, the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega gave red cards to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He asked Nigerians to reject the two major political parties in the coming 2023 general elections.
Jega, who spoke during an interview with BBC Hausa said, “The APC and the PDP have (ruled). All we have seen, they do not mean reform.
“If you look at the fight against corruption, all the people who are said to be thieves will be punished because they stole under the PDP, now they have defected to the APC, and you are silent.
“That is why we believe it is time to create a platform for all good people to return to, to contribute to the cause of change in Nigeria.”
Implications
Jega is entitled to his own opinion, however, it is hard to think the former INEC chairman would want Nigerians to believe that the rejection of APC and PDP will solve the country’s leadership failures.
An average Nigerian knows that the moment a new party births and gains the people’s support, the same supposed corrupt leaders in PDP and APC will still flood the new party.
One should have expected the professor to ask Nigerians not to vote for any party that will throw up recycled, old, incompetent, tribalistic, nepotistic, archaic, ignorant and politicians with corrupt history.
Maybe Jega should point out one political party in Nigeria that has an ideology and is ready, unlike the APC and the PDP, to stick with it or any that is truly different from the APC and PDP.
3. Wike’s concerns
On Tuesday, August 3, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike said that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot be sincere he wants to conduct a free, fair and transparent election in 2023 when his All Progressives Congress (APC) party rejected electronic transmission of election results.
Wike stated this at the official presentation of a letter of nomination to him as “the 2020 Governor of the Year Award” by the management of the Leadership Media Group at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
He said, “Mr President can’t tell us he sincerely wants to conduct a free, fair and credible election if he/his party rejects transparency and the electronic transmission of results.
“Those who voted against electronic transmission of results should be ashamed of themselves as they are enemies of the country. It is a coup against the people, the National Assembly has plotted a coup against Nigerians.
“If Nigerians were serious, none of those who voted against electronic transmission of results would be able to go home to their constituents.”
Implications
Politics apart, Wike simply stated the obvious. It is very unfortunate that the lawmakers of the APC, a party that came into power with a change mantra could kick against electronic transmission of election results.
The kick against electronic transmission of election results, which many Nigerian have been clamouring for and hoping that it will help address the plague of election rigging and malpractices in the country, gives APC, Buhari and other leaders of the party out as a party that fights against the very change it promises to bring.
4. Sultan’s lament
The Sultan of Sokoto and President, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Thursday, August 5, decried the current situation of Nigeria, lamenting that the country is not getting better.
He spoke in Gombe during the 3rd Conference of the Da’awah Coordination Council of Nigeria (DCCN), an amalgamation of about 52 Da’awa groups in Gombe.
He said, “We must tell ourselves the home truth and stop deceiving ourselves that things are getting better. The truth is, things are not getting better. Therefore, the earlier we know things are not getting better the better for us, so that we can sit down and find means and ways of solving our problems.
“We must work hard to tackle the insecurity, hunger, poverty and all the negative things afflicting our great country. We have problems, yes we know we have problems and I have said it before that things are not just normal and right in this country, but we can make things normal and right by Allah’s wish, so we have to work hard.
“People are suffering and we have few people that have so much and too many people that have nothing, yet we are not helping the poor.”
Implications
The royal father’s outcry puts the seal on any propaganda being orchestrated by the Nigerian government to cover up the near-comatose state of the country.
Sultan cry also emphasizes the position of many that things are falling apart in the country and that Nigerian leadership has failed woefully; therefore, the need for a round table conference, for a sincere talk on how to refocus the country on the path of progress.
Indeed, the lamentation by the Sultan should concern not only the Buhari leadership but also stakeholders, opinion moulders and ordinary Nigerians. There is, indeed, an urgent need for the leadership of the country to fathom a way out of the current economic and security quagmire confronting the nation.