In the field of rights activism, Comrade Razaq Olokoba’s name rings the bell as a public commentator, political analyst and pro-democracy dogged fighter. Right now, Olokoba is the convener of a rights group, Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG), a coalition of over 70 other pro-democracy organisations.
In this interview with newsmen in Lagos, the youth leader took a critical look at the political scenario in the country towards the election year in 2023 and gave a verdict that power should shift to the south to further cement the nation’s unity.
2023 project seems to be on the front burner now in the country. Don’t you believe it is too early for that?
In fact, your observation that it is too early to start agitation is very correct going by the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari still has more than three years more to handle the affairs of the country. Against this background, the workaholic President needs to be allowed to be more focussed on how to sustain good works he has been doing for over four years now.
I agree he does not need any detraction at all. You and I know the enormity of the challenges facing the country which the President is trying to address. The security challenges are there.
He is also working on the economy and he is also busy trying to make us happy, secured and prosperous. The importance of Nigeria in Africa in particular and in the world as a whole has put a burden on the President such that he needs all hands on deck to steer the ship of the country to the promise land.
What can you then say about people going around rooting for one aspirant or the other for president in 2023?
Well, I may not likely to condemn them because of what I stated earlier about challenges our dear President is addressing now. Their concern might be borne out of the fear about who would be suitable enough to step into the very large shoes President Buhari would automatically leave behind.
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It is like the Work Cup and Olympic Games features in every four or two years. The hosts countries are known beforehand ahead of the games for thorough preparation. If that is the concern of those searching for suitable successor for President Buhari in 2023, then, it is not totally a bad idea. They just need to apply cautions so that the President should not be detracted.
Being that as it may, where would you prefer the next president come from, North or South?
I have spoken on that on several occasions and in different fora that alliances have been made in Nigeria severally. And the most successful and most productive political alliance in Nigeria is the current alliance between the north and the south-west. So, that is one of the reasons I think power should come back to the south and specifically to the south-west in 2023.
How do you mean in clearer term?
If we look at it critically, we would realise that this kind of productive alliance should not be allowed to break. Rather, it should be sustained. If you are running a profitable alliance, what you do is nurture that alliance. And the best way to nurture the alliance is for our brothers in the north to use their numerical strength to nurture and cultivate mutual trust, cultivate a nation building and cultivate mutual trust and cooperation amongst ourselves.
Numerical strength is no longer used in the world to bully or oppress people. It is used to build nation. If you look at bigger democracies before us, like in the United Kingdom (UK), the highest population among the Scottish and Irish are English people.
But they create a situation where all other ethnic groups are comfortable with the way the political affairs of Britain are run. So, it is not only in Britain, it is also applicable to other nations across the globe. They use numerical strength to cement relationship and not to break relationship. That is the angle I want our brothers in the north to consider. That is number one.
Number two is that the good work that President Muhammadu Buhari has done in the last five years, by 2023, we will be saying in the last eight years. And the happiest period of his life would be when he sees continuity of his government in the progress he has made in the economy as well as in the unity of the country and the progress and growth he has achieved as the leader of the country.
And one of the best ways to sustain continuity is to abstract trust and understanding from other regions so that when power moves to the south-west, it will set a better example to other ethnic groups that the northerners are people that can be trusted and best people to align with. These are issues that should be looked into towards 2023.
Are you comfortable then that a number of presidential aspirants from the north are already showcasing their interest to contest for president in 2023?
Well, first thing to start with is when you look at the number of those who are rumoured to be interested in the presidency in 2023 from any part of the country, you would be happy that, gone are the days when we used to have aspirants that were semi-qualified.
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You can imagine how heart-warming it appears when you have the likes of Nasir el-Rufai, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Babagana Kingibe and others coming out from the north. Those are eminently qualified aspirants. Nobody in other regions would take the risk of presenting aspirants who have lesser qualifications than the above mentioned personalities.
The less they can do is to bring out aspirants who get equal credentials as them like Babatunde Fashola (SAN), like Dr. Kayode Fayemi and like Bola Tinubu from the south-west and ditto from other regions. So, it is a robust political exercise we are witnessing.
It is a very robust exercise playing out before our very eyes. It is so robust that, at the end of the day, whoever becomes the President of Nigeria, which I wish should be from the south-west like Fashola, will appreciate the task ahead of him that his responsibility is to take Nigeria from where it is to the next level. He would realise that, being singled out from among the arrays of eminently qualified materials, all eyes would be on him.
What do you think would be the agenda for the lucky one to become president?
He must ensure that the nation must be kept together as one. He must ensure that promises are kept, alliances must be sustained and protected and must make sure that the fears of Nigerians are taken away. He must ensure Nigeria is more united while Nigerians must be made to be more confident about politicians.
This task is what was missing between 1999 and 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the leadership of the country. Those in power then were not inspired to look for knowledge and be well equipped to tackle the challenges and move the country forward.
Their ambition on the first day in office was how to hold on to power for 60 years and not what would make Nigerians happy, not what would bring the economy back to its feet, and not what would make the rest of the world respect Nigeria as a country and as a nation. These were what we were missing before.
But with what is on ground now, there are vital issues that would scare away less qualified ones and they would voluntarily abandon their ambitions and quit willingly.
The demands and requirements required from who so ever wants to become President of this country now are so huge that not just anybody that does not have the idea of moving this country forward would just come out to express presidential ambition.
Those mentioned are tested hands from the north and the west that we know can handle the affairs of our nation very well. But the issue on ground now is for the country to reach a consensus that the power should move southward in 2023.
If one can ask, why are you so obsessed with Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), as your candidate for the job among other would be aspirants that you mentioned earlier?
To start with, interestingly, there is no indication from Fashola that he wants to run for the president yet. His preoccupation now is how to fix Nigerian infrastructure like roads and housing scheme.
And I have not heard it from any source that he has confided in anybody that he would want to run for president in 2023. But incidentally, it is Nigerians that are interested in his being the next president of this great country. They examine his character and capability and conclude that he is a presidential material.
With what he has done in Lagos as governor for eight years and his performance as Minister for Works, Power and Housing and now as Minister for Works and Housing, people are of the view that the cap fits Fashola.
His performance has made the people draw a conclusion that he has done well. They wonder as if there were no ministers for those ministries before Buhari brought inFashola!
It is not a gainsaying that there is no state in the country where major construction of road is not going on. The pain we are experiencing now because of construction works on our roads is the price we are paying for the impending gains the roads will bring after completion.
There were governments before Buhari’s administration and there was even more money then but there was no commensurable infrastructure development like what we are witnessing now under Buhari. And if we don’t develop infrastructure, economy would not grow.
If there are no good roads for people to move around, the economy would be stagnated. People must move around to transact business. Infrastructure is the back bone of any country’s economy. Farm produce that serves as raw materials for factories must move from rural to urban areas. Businessmen, who must crisscross the country to transact their businesses, need good roads.
If you slow down their movements, production also would be slowed down because if you spend three hours instead of one hour from one point to another for production, production would automatically slow down due to the time wasted on the road because of its state of disrepair. If the production time is managed very well, it would have impact on the economy.
And what President Buhari is doing now through the Ministries under Fashola, would have great impact on the economy. This must have gingered the people to view Fashola as the most suitable material to succeed Buhari in 2023.
People see him as a statesman, a bridge builder, someone who understand how to hold the unity of the country, someone who understands the need for concession, he understands how to marry conflicting zones that must work together.
In the housing sector, the policy he is pursuing is the system that gives every region the housing system that befits it. All these are what the people see in him. It is not enough to say you have sufficient funds to win an election with millions of votes.
The question is, after winning, how would you run your government? Capability to run good government is even more essential than winning elections. Remember that how to win elections is the business of the politicians whiles how to run the government is the business of the people. People would want to understand how you would run their live so, they give value to that aspect. Electoral value a times is not as important as what you are going to do with power.
And what to be done with power is what the people have seen in Fashola. People believe he can do tremendous things with power and that is why his name is on the lips of people who wish this country well. And the people appear determined to support Fashola presidency in 2023 if he decides to run for president.
