*SDP’s Adebayo, has capacity to move Nigeria forward, he says
A chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and former National Secretary of the defunct Action Congress (AC), Dr. Usman Bugaje, in analysing the future for Nigeria’s socio-political development, concluded that former President Muhammadu Buhari, his All Progressives Congress (APC) and incumbent President Bola Tinubu are disasters Nigerians must do away with.
Bugaje, while featuring on Arise TV political programme over the weekend, noted that the duo of Buhari and Tinubu have dragged the country several years back in all leadership indices.
During the programme, he shared his opinion on the leader Nigeria desperately needs at the moment, stressing that Nigeria needs a leader with provable positive character, competence and the courage to do the right thing, regardless of which part of the country the personality comes from.
Bugaje specifically noted that whether such a leader comes from the Southern or Northern part of the country is of less not portance and equally irrelevant.
He specifically named Prince Adewole Adebayo the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election, as possessing such traits, saying he should be given a chance at the presidency.
He insisted that the All Progressives Congress (APC), coupled with the poor leadership of President Bola Tinubu gave out the party and it’s presidential materials as the greatest disasters that must be rejected in 2027 and not given a chance again.
The former Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, noted with sadness that the type of democratic governance being practiced in the country leaves a sour taste in the mouth and fall short of what Nigerians expect after several years of independence the ousting of the military in 1998/1999.
Detailing his expectations, he said: “We fought for democracy; but this is not the kind of democracy we want to see.
“We want democracy that takes cognizance of competence, recognizes knowledge in the 21st century as the greatest capital and tries to mobilize. And Nigeria has a lot of these competent and talented people”.
Also responding to a question on who else he would have supported in the 2023 general election had he not supported former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Bugaje said he would have supported Prince Adebayo, whom he said understands the country’s problems and has the solutions on his finger tips.
Although he supported Atiku in 2023, he stated that in 2027, he said would change route, since the new conversation is centered on a candidate “with competence, character and the courage to move the nation forward”.
Analysing the leadership attributes of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, Bugaje said he didn’t know him well enough to support him, saying, “I’ve been in this business (of politics) for 25 years and I saw there are ways you measure people and size them up. So, the people I saw around Peter Obi were not people that were ready to move the nation forward.
“They were rather people who were reacting or angry about a particular part of the country and they were all fuming and trying to go on a vengeance. So, that was my worry.
“I would have supported Prince Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He comes across to me as somebody who understands the terrain and this country. He comes across as somebody who knows what he wants to do”.
Reacting to the call by the APC National Chairman for the north to support President Tinubu in 2027 to complete eight years tenure for the South, Bugaje said such conversation had become obsolete, insisting that the APC government is a disaster and should be pushed out.
According to him, “now is the time to start a new conversation on how to bring about real development devoid of politics of South versus North.
“We’re having democracy with all the noise about North and South, yet, the country is not developing. If anything, it’s retrogressing and going down the drain.
“All the indices of development are taking a nosedive. So, I would rather say that we must recognise every part of this country and be inclusive.
“I think we will be losing out on the challenges that are facing us if we continue with all the talk about North and South”.
Bugaje described former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as a hugr disaster, stressing, “I thought Buhari’s experience is sufficient evidence that the idea of putting somebody from one part of the country to become president doesn’t work.
“It doesn’t make sense because what do you want him to do; to favour his part of the country and abandon others? This is very naive, to say the least. So, the point I’m making is that you can achieve inclusion but not at the expense of development”, he stressed.
He called on Nigerians to recognize that there is no part of the country that has monopoly of competence as competent Nigerians are found in the South-West, South-East, South-South, North-East, North-West, and North-Central.
His words, “Why don’t you pick those competent Nigerians from different parts of the country to fix and run your country? Why do you go for people who are barely educated, people who are crooks, people who have no idea of where to take this country and people who cannot engage the world?
“All they know is primitive accumulation and consumption with very perverse tastes, simply running the country down,” he said.
Continuing, Bugaje said, “We fought for democracy. But this is not the kind of democracy we want to see.
“We want a democracy that takes cognizance of competence, recognizes knowledge in the 21st century as the greatest capital and tries to mobilize. “And Nigeria has a lot of these competent and talented people. Why don’t we bring them into governance? Why don’t they lead the process?
“Why do we need some politicians who don’t understand the world in the 21st century, and who have no record of doing anything competent anywhere, and all their life has been a life of sleaze and corruption?
“And because they have accumulated money through those corrupt practices, they buy everybody off. And now, we have a National Assembly that is literally for sale. “They cannot stand up to the President on anything, so this is the point.
“I think we have to change the conversation because we need a new narrative and we have to be constantly aware. And I keep repeating the fact that in 2030, just another five years from now, we’re going to be 300 million. “Already today, we have more than 33 million people on the verge of starvation. These are figures from the United Nations bodies. We have a deficit in grains alone, more than 30 million metric tons last year alone.
“We have 20 million out of school children, the highest around the world. We have all these terrible statistics that we’re not addressing.
“These politicians are not discussing these matters. They are discussing their ambition, their turn, and who will be the next President.
“We have to form a coalition to chase President Bola Tinubu out, just like we did to President Goodluck Jonathan”, he stressed.
