Peter Obi Cannot Make Enough “Wave” To Win 2023 Presidential Election – Ex Niger Gov
Former Gov. Babangida Aliyu of Niger stateFormer Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu has said that Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has not made enough impact on the generality of Nigerians to be able to win the 2023 Presidential election.
According to him, 2023 appears too early for him to clinch the nation’s number one political seat as “the name is not dropping everywhere else.”
He argued that the younger people in the country may vote for Peter Obi and only make his mark in the 2023 contest but that he would need to wait till like 2027 or 2031 before he can become the President of Nigeria.
The former Niger State Governor, who spoke today, June 20 on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm, said that many of them would have loved him to be the running mate to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Peter Obi is my good friend and a former member of my former Governors forum.
“A very excellent person; his candidature, in terms of the Presidency, – I think he will make some name now. But he may be able to make it only in 2027, 2031. But 2023? Too early.
“Even though the young people might go for him, the name is not dropping everywhere else. I doubt if Nigerians are ready for him now as a presidential person.
“I would have loved him as a Vice President. Many of us were rooting for him to be Vice President to Atiku again.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has given a tall order to the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
International Air Transport Association (IATA), has complained that $450 million foreign airline revenue is being trapped in Nigeria as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cannot provide the needed foreign exchange to transfer the money out of the country.
Some members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have shutdown their operations, complaining about operating at a loss.
The national secretary of the Young Peoples Party (YPP), Vidiyano Bamaiyi has said that 75 percent of politicians in Nigeria are political bandits.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), has made it clear that what Nigeria needs to get out of the current economic downturn are more diversified and resilient economy. The 58 President of ICAN, Mallam Tijjani Musa, who spoke at the investiture of the Chairman of Abakaliki and District Society of ICAN, Mrs. Chima Ijeoma Okikechi in Abakaliki, said that corruption is still eating deep into the fabrics of the economy, even as he called on Accountants “to rise up and play the significant roles in building an invincible and sustainable economy. “Corruption doesn’t know religious or ethnicity. The lessons learnt from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic -the need for more diversified and resilient economy – should not be easily forgotten.
2023: Beware Of Candidate Flying Corruption Fighting Mantra, By Fredrick Nwabufo
President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on a broom flight to clean up the much-noised miasma of corruption in the Jonathan administration. Settling in, the Buhari government quickly applied itself to pseudo-reformist proselytising. The government caterwauled over how the Jonathan administration turned the public treasury into exclusive pockets. The biggest news headline at the time was — STOLEN $2.1bn ARMS FUND.
Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser (NSA), was the first casualty of the Buhari anti-corruption blitz. The government accused him of being the wheel from where corruption in the Jonathan administration gyrated. His office was accused of diverting $2.1 billion earmarked for arms purchase.
The Buhari government incarcerated Dasuki illegally, denying him the right to defend himself in court. And days segued into months and months into years – they held him. It became clear that the administration’s war was not against corruption but against perceived adversaries. It also became obvious that the anti-corruption crusade was only to excite Nigerians and to deflect citizens’ interrogation from the government’s failings. The arms probe has now gone the way of others before it – to the netherworld of hypocrisy – where all probes go to die.
Also, as those accused of partaking in the communal sleaze under Jonathan were put in the dock, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under Ibrahim Magu, dispatched its utilities to securing conviction in the media instead of the court. The arraignment of ex-public officers was well-noised to whet the appetite of Nigerians who were hungry to see those who stole from them chalk up time and penitence in jail. But it ended there – just noise. Some of the ex-military officers whom the anti-graft agency charged for allegedly tucking into the $2.1 billion arms ‘scam’ are free men today, and even the so-called loot has been reportedly re-looted by the hirelings of the current government.
We exist in a Dickensian society. Those entrusted with securing citizens against public theft are themselves crooks in Messianic raiment. The watchdogs are themselves bloodhounds and vampires.
Where is Babachir Lawal? The case of the former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) has been sputtering to asphyxiation in court. Lawal was accused of awarding contracts worth over N500 million to himself, but the disgraced former SGF is back in the political highlife, giving lectures on ‘’good governance and corruption’’ and campaigning for politicians seeking elective office.
In October 2021, the Pandora Papers Project led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published grubby details of sleaze involving Nigerian public officers.
Nigerians, both current and former public officers, were named ignominiously in reports revealing how the Nigerian elite evade tax, perjure, loot, and shore up questionable wealth in tax havens.
A public servant who was recently appointed as the head of a critical government agency by the Buhari administration was reported to have purchased a piece of property worth 475,000 pounds in London, UK, after he was appointed as an executive director at the agency in 2017. The asset is said to be his largest single investment in the UK property market. This public officer was initially appointed in acting capacity, but President Buhari approved his appointment as substantive managing director of the agency in February 2022 – despite the revelations by the Pandora Papers.
The EFCC recently announced it arrested Ahmed Idris, suspended accountant-general of the federation, over alleged misappropriation of N80 billion. Idris is alleged to have purchased a stretch of property in Abuja and Kano while in office. But the trajectory of this case is clear. It will go the way of others before it – to the netherworld of official compromise and collusion.
Nigeria’s corruption respects diversity and federal character. Resources and public goods may not be equitably distributed among all Nigerians, and even political offices could be sectionalised, but on corruption, there is always a geographical balance. There is always a perfect ethnic representation at the table of loot. Where true democracy is at play among the Nigerian elite is on corruption. On corruption, there is common ground. Corruption is the centrifugal force pulling all together in the council of interests. Democratised corruption.
The reality is corruption cannot be fought without institutional and attitudinal reforms as well as personal example, sincerity, commitment, clear plan and strategy by members of the highest level of leadership and those at the subnational level down to the residual rung. Any Nigerian leader who seeks to dare the undared must be willing to be unpopular.
Nigerians must beware of candidates who come in the name of fighting corruption – without any visible strategy. They know it will excite the people. But beware.
Nwabufo aka Mr OneNigeria is a writer and journalist.