In spite of the troubling security challenges, economic woes, secession agitations among other issues rocking the country, the political class has been active for the 2023 elections, particularly the presidential contest, writes DARE ADEKANMBI.
Whoever is in charge of the running of the country, whether it is President Muhammadu Buhari, the elected administrator or the speculated tiny group of individuals euphemistically called the cabal, should, by now, have a full plate.
The signs that all is not well with the country are visible all over. The economy is on oxygen. Poverty is ravaging the majority of the citizens. Unemployment is at an all time high. Banditry in the North-West; insurgency in North-East; farmers-herders and communal conflicts, largely inspired by murderous Fulani herdsmen, in the North-Central and kidnapping in the southern part, all go to show a country that is aching at the various joints.
The people who should show concern, those who sought and got people’s votes with the quid pro quo to seek the betterment of the country and citizens are carrying on as though the country is not in an emergency situation that should warrant drastic measures to tackle.
Rather than the troubling development in the country taking the centre stage with all gladiators proffering solutions, the discourse has been around who succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. A funny dimension has been introduced into the debate. A section of the country is now mouthing that zoning should be jettisoned for competence in the search for Buhari’s successor. Most of those championing this campaign have benefited from zoning at one time or the other in their political careers.
However, in the presidential power debate, the citizens have shown very little enthusiasm at the discourse, distraught at the old, jaded and familiar faces whose names are being touted among those aspiring to ascend the presidential seat of power from the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The likely offerings from the major parties have largely stimulated no interest from the citizenry who are faced with massive economic and insecurity challenges.
Unlike William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the eponymous character of the play, who says “what touches us ourselves must be last served,” for Nigeria’s political class, the rat race for the 2023 elections, though the elections are still about two years away, must begin now. And it has started in earnest.
Addressing salient issues before 2023 elections
There are those who hold the view that before the political class become neck deep in the 2023 race certain fundamental changes must be done in the country. One of such issues is the insecurity choking development across the country, necessitating calls on the Federal Government to deploy tact in reclaiming public spaces from criminal elements. Travelling on roads in almost all parts of the country has become a nightmarish experience for many citizens.
Following the manner the Federal Government is perceived to have handled the security challenges across the country, particularly as they relate to the murderous section of Fulani herdsmen, there has been growing agitation for self-determination by groups, mainly from the southern part, which feel the herdsmen’s menace is being treated with kid gloves.
A group, Ilana Omo Yoruba, which is led by an Emeritus Professor of History, Professor Banji Akintoye, held a rally in Ibadan last week to demand Oduduwa Republic out of the current Nigeria. The group was joined by other groups from Edo, Delta, Kwara and Kogi states. They have given the federal and state government a window of 120 days for dialogue on self-determination for the Yoruba and other nations.
Some groups under the aegis of Assembly of all Yoruba Groups Worldwide have appointed June 12 as the day of a referendum for the Yoruba on self-determination agenda.
In the South-East, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is not backing down on its clamour for an independent Igbo nation where life will be abundant and an end brought to the current over-centralised arrangement.
In all of this, the leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, reiterated his earlier position that a wholesale restructuring of the country’s administration remains the only solution that would end all self-determination agitations. Chief Adebanjo also canvassed the birthing of a brand new constitution for the country before the 2023 elections, adding that the much-criticized 1999 Constitution imposed by the military cannot help in solving the challenges confronting the country.
“If Buhari is patriotic enough, a new constitution and restructuring will silence Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB and Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, and all others with their secessionist agenda.
“If he does not, he will continue to give impetus to them. He is encouraging secession. Does he want to suppress them? We are the people who want restructuring. Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable,” Adebanjo said.
The nonagenarian described, as diversionary, preparations and talks about the 2023 elections amidst the various issues confronting the country and its citizens.
But in his response to the calls for a national dialogue, President Buhari, speaking through his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, foreclosed such possibility, saying he would not be bullied into taking such a decision.
Electoral reforms
If there is one thing that has been severely criticized, it is the country’s electoral process. The laws guiding the conduct of elections have also been blamed for the inherent lapses in the entire electoral process.
The last noticeable amendment to the Electoral Act was done by the Dr Bukola Saraki-led eighth National Assembly. But the amendment did not crystalise into any meaningful change, as President Buhari, on December 6, 2018, declined assent to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill passed by the parliament.
Some of the changes in the new law were geared towards giving legal teeth to smart card reader whose introduction will enhance accreditation of voters and determine incidence of over-voting or allocation of votes without recourse to the accreditation figures.
Although the cards were deployed for the 2015 elections, data captured by the devices were not useful in court as various courts, including the Supreme Court, pooh-poohed the use of the device because it was not captured in the Electoral Act or any other law relating to elections.
In a letter to the lawmakers, Buhari said he refused to sign it into law because he is “concerned that passing a new electoral bill this far into the electoral process for the 2019 general election which commenced under the 2015 Electoral Act, could create some uncertainty about the applicable legislation to govern the process. Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the election may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process.”
Although many of them have not openly come out to declare intention to run, their lieutenants are already on the field, traversing states, zones with the various political gospels. Some of the names that have featured prominently is that of a former governor of Lagos State and All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu. Other names being touted include Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, all from the South-West APC fold. In the South-East, Dr Ogbonaya Onu, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and others have been speculated.
The North is not leaving it to the South. Thus, the names of Plateau State governor, Mr Simon Lalong; his Kogi State colleague, Alhaji Yahaya Bello both from the North-Central, have featured prominently among interested successors of Buhari. Likewise in the PDP, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar›s name has not been mentioned just Sokoto State governor, Right Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, has been speculated to be interested in throwing his hat into the presidential ring.
A school of thought has championed a break from the culture of picking from recycled men who have been at the corridors of power all the while, preferring new faces of technocrats who nonetheless are experienced to be in the presidential contest. Such names as those of the President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Peter Obi, former Anambara State governor have been raised.
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