Nigerians should support Atiku in 2019 if… —Akinfenwa

 A former Nigeria’s Senate Minority Leader, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, speaks with SEYI GESINDE on the reason Nigerians and Yoruba voters, in particular, should vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, subject to his decision to restructure Nigeria. Excerpts:

THE opposition politicians are regrouping to support the aspiration of the PDP’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to unseat the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. What is your take on this?

This is the time for all Nigerians to take seriously the existential challenges posed to the country and its unity by both the economic mismanagement and ethnic turbulence, which have characterised Buhari’s so-called government of change. Nigeria is in a dangerous state of flux, due to the alarming failure of Buhari on the economy, employment, youth empowerment and infrastructure development, as well as his various gestures of commission, omission and public appointments, most of which have deepened ethnic suspicion and tension across the country in the past three and a half years. For this, Nigerians, and Yoruba voters, in particular, should let their votes speak loud and clear in favour of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar since it is evident that a majority of our citizens have rejected Buhari’s leadership of ethnic division and economic underperformance.

Before now, you have shown personal reservations against the person of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the PDP leadership in Nigeria, why are you now rooting for his anointed candidate, both of whom you once condemned in leadership positions?

Despite my personal reservations about former President Obasanjo, especially given his role in undermining Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s effort to guide Nigeria away from the path that has led to our present economic-development failures, the gesture of forgiveness that Obasanjo has made towards his former vice-president and given the peculiarly and dangerously fragile circumstances we now face as a nation under Buhari, I heartily join the former president in endorsing Atiku as the best presidential candidate to challenge President Buhari in the 2019 elections. Likewise, I endorse and stand fully with the pan-Yoruba leadership body, the Afenifere, in its endorsement of Alhaji Atiku as Nigeria’s next president. The decision to endorse Atiku has not been taken lightly, but in the higher national interest, given our present challenges as a nation.

Have you ever had a personal encounter with Atiku, especially outside government, that makes you think he has become a better person than he was as vice-president?

I don’t know Atiku closely, beyond noticing his amiable character and attention he gives to detail during the occasional meetings with him as vice-president, at a period I served as Senate Minority Leader, from 1999 to 2003. An advice I would have given him was to pick his vice-presidential candidate from the Eastern zone of Nigeria, which he had done. He should also enhance the enthusiasm of Yoruba voters and underscore his government’s fairness, including due recognition of the electoral weight of the Yoruba nation, by ensuring that the position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and that of Speaker of the House of Representatives go to the Western Zone of Nigeria.

What then do you think Atiku will do better than previous leaders of the country that makes you present him as the best for Nigeria?

My endorsement of Atiku for president is clearly and unambiguously predicated on his long-standing and publicly declared commitment to the restructuring of Nigeria’s current malign, dysfunctional and anti-development structure of governance. Restructuring is an issue of great relevance and developmental importance to all parts, as well as all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. While the Yorubas seem to make the most vociferous agitation for restructuring, that agenda is a positive objective for every region or zone of Nigeria, including the core northern zone, where millions of feudally oppressed Almajiris and young women who are currently deprived of education, need to be brought into the modern economy and empowered with 21st century skills. Moreover, the restructuring will greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the four-yearly ritual of hate, bitter political rivalry and public-treasury looting for election funds, in which the political elite engage across Nigeria’s different ethnic groups.

• In 2019, Nigerians’ll show they are tired of Buhari by voting Atiku —Akin Osuntokun

A truly restructured Nigeria will encourage political leaders and citizens to fight less about and pay less attention to who will be president in Abuja. The goal must be to strengthen the federating or sub-national units’ capacity to provide good and accountable governance while making the presidency become a strong coordinating and standards-setting organ for nation-building. The core function of the central government and presidency must be to enhance the most critical levers of common, sovereign nationhood, foreign policy, international treaties, defence, internal security, customs, globally-benchmarked standards for science and technology generation, adoption, research, international sports, excellence in regional and federal universities – benchmarked against the highest global standards. Nobody or state cares from which region the American president is coming from because they already have a working federal and restructured system, this is what we should work for in Nigeria, and if Atiku is ready to do it, he deserves Nigerians’ votes.

Besides restructuring, what do you think is the economic benefit of Atiku for Nigeria, and what will he do to contribute to the system which he couldn’t contribute in Obasanjo-Atiku eight-year presidency?

Well, we need not repeat the fact that he is a shrewd businessman. The private university set up by him in Adamawa, his home state, is generally acclaimed to be of a world-class, science and technology quality, and an encouraging example of what can happen across Nigeria, given an effective, global standard-setting role of a well-restructured central government, in a well-restructured Nigeria. I support candidate Atiku for president in 2019 because he is already investing in areas where a restructured Nigeria will show nation-wide excellence in the immediate and near future. Both a more-focused central government, as well as more responsive regional and local governments that would emerge with proper restructuring, will be very strong in meeting the demands of local and regional development in every part of the country. And that will be nothing new. Just like in the years before January 1966, each level of government will become strong and well structured, for the right reasons, and on the right, locally-relevant issues. That was why Obafemi Awolowo achieved the wonders he did as Premier of Western Nigeria. Ditto for the Sardauna Ahmadu Bello in the Northern region and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe in the Eastern region. Atiku’s historical mission must be to restore Nigeria to that era of competitive governance and developmental leadership, within the context of a modern, 21st-century world. It is a task that is eminently doable and must be done.

What are the other benefits of restructuring Nigeria?

The restructuring will move Nigeria beyond the present state of affairs, where all levels of government are, more or less, failing in the discharge of good governance, due to either too much (federal) or insufficient resources and power (states) to address developmental governance. Needless to emphasise, the present structure promotes corruption and looting, while also, sometimes, providing central-government political cover or immunity for elected and political leaders who betray the objectives of good governance among their local constituencies and populace. The restructuring will keep government and political leaders within easier reach and under the more effective control of their constituencies and citizens. Indeed, the centre of gravity of agitation for good governance will shift from a distant presidency in Abuja to a more locally reachable and controllable leadership at regional and local levels.

We’ve had past leaders who had promised to restructure Nigeria but failed to do so when they assumed power. The promise to restructure Nigeria has become like a political statement for politicians to assume power. So, why do you think Atiku’s case will be different? 

This is why I want to urge the leadership of the four pro-restructuring zones of Nigeria, along with all minorities’ spokespersons and stakeholders from all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, who want a better-structured, developmentally-focused and fiscally decentralized governance for our country, to urgently request for a pre-election meeting with Atiku, to present him with a detailed Memorandum of Understanding and Articles of Commitment to Restructuring, to which he would append his signature, as the ultimate guarantee of his promise to use his presidency to embark upon and complete a restructuring process within his first two years as president. Nigeria needs restructuring to fulfill its destiny as Africa’s natural leader. Atiku as Nigeria’s president needs to etch his name in the annals of history as the leader with the golden ‘Midas Touch,’ who will, at last, steer Nigeria in the direction of its long-delayed and distracted manifest destiny.