Former national secretary of the defunct Action Congress (AC) and chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Dr Usman Bugaje, has said the call by APC’s national chairman Dr Abdullahi Ganduje call on the North to support President Bola Tinubu in 2027 to complete the eight for the South, is outdated.
Bugaje however said 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, irrespective of whether the person is from the South or North.
He said he appears to have found all those traits in the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, whom he said he would have supported in 2023 if he did not support former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
On the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, he said he didn’t know him well enough to support him.
He said “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.”
Reacting to the APC’s national chairman’s call on the north to support President Tinubu in 2027 to complete the eight for the South, he said such conversation had become outdated.
He noted now is the time to start a new conversation on how 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 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 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.
“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.
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