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A presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, says he is not worried whether the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, or anyone else is in the race for the 2023 presidential election.
In an exclusive interview with NewsProbe, Ohuabunwa says no matter the decision the PDP takes regarding zoning the position of the president, his chances are very strong. According to him, he doesn’t shy away from competition because he is coming with a vision, competence, character and courage.
He said, “Well, one thing I feel is that Nigerians have come to realize that ethnic voting has not worked well for them especially my brothers from the North. In the course of this campaign, first we went round to establish the New Nigeria Group which is selling our vision of a new Nigeria that will work for all; a first world nation that will move from the stagnation of a third world to first world and a country that we shall live where there will be prosperity, justice and security. When we preach that, everybody tells us that is what they want. And they don’t care who can give it to them or wherever he comes from because they have found out that those they voted for because they thought they come from their place are the ones that have exposed them to the greatest level of insecurity, of poverty, of injustice, inequity and disdain. Their health care system is not better. Their education system is not better. Their general life is not better. So, I am beginning to feel that both in the North and South, people are going to question leadership. It is not going to just be because it’s my brother, he is from my town, he is from my ethnic nationality, he is from my religion.”
He added, “I think this leadership today has given lie to the fact that coming from an area is necessarily the best that can happen to that group. The reason why we talk of rotating power is to give a sense of belonging, a sense of equity to everybody. It does not necessarily mean from what we have seen that a president from a particular area will necessarily benefit the area. If you ask the Yoruba people, they cannot tell you that they got the best when their own man was there. So, that is dying down gradually. What will eventually nail the need for rotation is when you have a president that treats every Nigerian as one, who makes sure that when appointment is made, you see the biodiversity, you see the ethnic diversity, you see the religious diversity of Nigeria. When the president stands, you see him dressed in different attire; different cultures that are around him, not the one who wears the same type of attire or speaks one type of dialect or language. That is not the Nigeria that people seek.
“What we believe is that ethnic bias will be minimized. I am not saying it will not exist, but it will be minimized. So, I am not worried whether Atiku or anybody else is in this race. There is time for everybody. There is season for everything. When that season comes, it happens. Nothing can stop it. And one of the things human beings never know is when their time is up. Saul didn’t know when he had lost the anointing. It happens often. God works his purpose out. He gives you a chance. If you don’t use the chance well, He gives it to someday else.”
On restructuring, he said it is important to him because if we want to achieve the position of a first world, we need to set our constituent groups, our federating units free to flourish. “Right now, everybody is paralyzed, waiting for the big brother, the federal government to dish out resources. We have a country that has an inverted federation. In a normal federation, the federating units donate power to the centre. But in the Nigerian federation, the centre is donating power to the federating units. It’s a travesty, it’s an inverted federation. That is why it is unstable. If you see a pyramid, it stands on its base. If you invert the pyramid and the base is up, then there is instability,” he said.
He said his government would rejig our country to make it functional, and that the federating units would be empowered to compete, the same way they were competing before the military came.
On insecurity, he said poverty, injustice and poor enforcement of law and order among others were contributory factors, noting that if people had a meaningful opportunity to earn a good living, they might not want to hide in the bushes ordinarily and commit crime.
He said many people were angry at the country for restricting them and for maltreating them and treating them as if they were not bona fide citizens. They take it on the country in their different ways.
Ohuabunwa, who is the former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Neimeth Pharmaceuticals Plc, spoke on many other issues such as subsidy, economy, corruption, quota system, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and health. Watch out for the full interview soon.
