By Folorunso Alagbede, in Abuja
A chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and former National Secretary of the defunct Action Congress (AC), Dr Usman Bugaje has said that the kind of leader Nigeria needs at the moment is one that has the character, the competence and the courage to do the right thing, regardless of which part of the country the person comes from.
Bugaje specifically pointed out that whether such a leader, who posseses the character, commence and courage the nation needs now, comes from the South or North is immaterial.
The former Chairman, Foreign Affairs committee of the House of Representatives, while speaking in a Television interview, noted with sadness that the current democracy being witnessed in the country is not the type Nigerians fought for.
In the words of Dr Bugaje, “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”, he said.
The ACF chieftain, however, said he appears to have found all those traits in the leader and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo.
While specifically responding to a question as to who else he would have supported in the 2023 general election if he had not supported former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Bugaje said he would have supported Prince Adewole Adebayo, whom he said comes across as somebody who understands the country’s issues.
Although he supported Atiku in 2023, he stated that in 2027, he would not go that route again since the new conversation is centered on a candidate with competence, character and the courage to move the nation forward.
On the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, 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 Obi were not people that were ready to take the nation together.
“They were all 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”, he said.
Reacting to the APC’s National Chairman’s call on the north to support President Tinubu in 2027 to complete the eight years for the South, he said such conversation had become outdated, pointing out that the APC government is a disaster.
According to him, now is the time to start a new conversation on how to have to bring about real development devoid of politics of South or North.
He said: “We’re having democracy with all the noise about North and South, yet the country is not developing. If anything, it’s de-developing and going down the drain.
“All the indices of development are taking a nosedive. So, I would rather say that we must recognize 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 talks about North and South”, he said.
Bugaje described former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as a disaster, saying, “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 said.
