APC and 2015: Who shall we send? By Deolu Oyebode The new political party< All Progressives Congress (APC) has a manifesto that is in line with poverty reduction and sustainable development of the nation, which has made someone like me to like it. APC could rescue the nation from the whims and caprices of the accidental leaderships that has bedeviled our nation since its democracy. I am of the consideration that the newly registered APC can correct the systemic failure if only Chief Bisi Akande, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau can filter the words of the youths and independent minds on all platforms in adjudging you bears the flag in the 2014 Gubernatorial elections in some states as litmus test and the 2015 General Elections. The major challenge that will rock, if it is not already rocking the party at present, is “Who shall we send”, the “who” in question, I know isn’t anybody but people of sound mind with anger to change the embarrassing situation of our nation, men who the love of money cannot buy, men who the lust of office cannot kill, men with wills and opinions, men who can stand a demagogue down, men who will never accept in private what they cannot accept in public, men of high integrity like MallamNasir el- Rufai. His courage in challenging the N54million bribery scandal in the Senate shows that he is zero tolerant toward corruption and tough; the Abuja land reform and the restructuring of the Abuja Master Plan has given the federal capital territory a new look. We do not want this landmark reformreversed now or in future. Everyone mentions Abuja today as one of the best artificial cities in the world, yet the powers-that-be had forgotten that only the tough pay the tough price. A person as tough as El Rufai in implementing tough policies is needed as the APC flag bearer and not those looking for every opportunity to contest; fourthly, El Rufai was successful in reforming the Public Service and if for no reason he could stand against the third term agenda of President OlusegunObasanjo on the ground that it was against the general interest of Nigerians, I think I am not mistaken to have said this man is tough enough to face the challenges of the Nigerian state. Another important factor that I think the APC leadership should consider in choosing who to put forward as its presidential candidate in 2015 is age/ gender representation. Never again should an 80-year-old man be the governor of a state or president. I accept that Nigeria needs someone who has the age and the zero-tolerance to corruption or the discipline toga as president, but we have got better persons who are younger and just as upright. We have done a lot of recycling to the detriment of this nation but we think we are doing much good to the nation rather; we are killing the system. It is only in this nation that our leadership believes that recycling the old will proffer solution to the new order problems facing the nation that require a pragmatic new order solution. It is only in this nation that a Dr. Bello Haliru who was a Commissioner in old Sokoto state, now Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states becomes a minister of defence after 33 years, Major Gen. David Mark Rtd., a military governor of Niger state became the Senate President after 28 years; Vice Admiral MuritalaNyako, governor of old Niger state in 1976 became governor of Adamawa State after another 36 years; Governor Jonah Jang the factional NGF chairman was governor of Gongola and Benue states in the mid-1980s and 27 years later the governor of Plateau state) and unfortunately a prominent political party parades a 62 year old Umar GarbaChiza as its National Youth Leader. These are indications that our political system has no room plans for the youth in their twenties and thirties. I hope the leadership of APC will accept that anyone who is to govern Nigeria must have a political antecedent, not only at the state level but at the Federal level because the complexity at the national is more than that in the states. Some governors in the APC, most importantly the second term governors, might be interested but the challenges are different. The challenges in the local government system are different from those at the state level or the federal. A balance of administrative competence and political experience will not only produce a tough candidate to defeat but a credible person to lead this bedridden system.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 11:53:48 +0000
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