By Adedayo Odulaja
As the 2023 general election inches closer, it’s generally agreed that Nigerians are
just a few weeks away from what will define the country’s fate for at least the next decade.
Many observers outside the country see the election as perhaps Nigerians’ last opportunity to salvage their country or resign to long-predicted doom. There is yet another group with a view so pessimistic and infelicitous that there is seemingly no way for Nigeria, irrespective of who becomes president after Muhammadu Buhari. And looking at the indices on ground, it is difficult to fault their way of reasoning.
The 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that over 60% or 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. Diving further, the data shows that 86 million represent 65% of the poor people in northern Nigeria, while the south accounts for 47 million, which is 35%. The figure means Nigeria’s population stands at 212 million, but the only issue is that it’s at variance with the current figure on the website of the National Population Commission.
Going by the worldometre metrics, “The current population of Nigeria is 218,325,756 as of Tuesday, November 22, 2022, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.” But then, inaccurate population figure is among the least of our problems, and highlighting some of them would help put things in perspective.
Insecurity is widespread and at an all-time high. The National Bureau of Statistics put inflation for September 2022 at 20.77, as analysts project 21.32% for October 2022, which is mild compared to the reality for Nigerians in concrete terms. Shall we dwell on education, healthcare, infrastructure, cost of doing business and state of economy as a whole? The bottomline is that Nigerians are going through such a rough patch, which is why voting for Mr Kolawole Abiola, candidate of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), who is able and ready to stop the bleeding, restore order and drive the country towards the long-promised yet perennially-elusive stage of greatness, should be a no-brainer.
In the run-up to such an important election, what have we seen and heard beyond personal attacks, misguided reactions and rhetorics tending towards the ridiculous; the entitled and in some instances, the mundane, from the regular players jostling to lead Nigeria?
A sufficiently-lettered and astute business titan, who sits on the board of many companies, and a major private sector player yet not given to entitlement, Abiola’s decision to get into the political fray was a surprise of sort, but that he has gone about his campaign with ideas on how to launch Nigeria towards greatness is one of the most impressive points about the story so far.
“I have come back to PRP to show Nigerians that, not too long ago, we did things in the right way and the new entities that have come together nowadays forget that there was Nigeria that did things right.
“I am one that believes in an equal opportunity employer, be it employment, be it business, equally in politics and I believe this party represents all of these. Everybody should have equal opportunity irrespective of age, religion and ethnicity and that is represented here,” he pointed out.
Many would think the “reasonable” thing to do would be to join one of the two so-called major parties in the land, but those who know are aware that there’s hardly anything progressive anymore about even those who mouth the word at every point.
While noting that is not enough to reel out statistics of youthful involvement in politics across the world, when you don’t mean even a word of it, the 60-year-old Abiola rmade known his concerns regarding the abysmal level of youth participation in politics, saying, “We have a youth population that has been caught out of the system, the political process. The first thing I want to do is to disrupt the political process, to disabuse the minds of the youth on godfatherism.
“The way to do this is to give the true owners of Nigeria, that is, the 18 to 36-years-olds that make up over 75 per cent of the population an opportunity for their voice to be heard and their numbers to count.”
For any Nigerian not easily given to deceit or propaganda, it is easy to identify those saying all the right things for support and votes, and Abiola, a man with practical involvement on the local scene yet boasting not just the understanding of global affairs, but also the network to unlock gains in diverse areas abroad for which Nigeria stands to gain hugely, as a way of finally putting her on the journey to greatness.
Giving a background of his foray into politics, Abiola stated: “In 1979, I travelled the whole of Nigeria under NPN. I was a polling agent for my mother who ran for Senate at the time at Abeokuta North Local Government. Fast forward to 1992/1993, I ran, orchestrated, strategised and executed the ‘MKO Abiola for President’ campaign. I ran, I’m sure most of us still remember those jingles like ‘MKO is our man’ .
“I’ve not been active, but I have nonetheless been studying it and know that to change the political landscape in Nigeria, I believe in positively disrupting the process. I believe I have what it takes to disrupt or redeem that process and I understand it enough to change it for the better. More importantly, I believe I have the political capability to know that, not the PDAPC can change Nigeria, it requires a new party to do that. That’s why I’m in PRP and together with Haro Zego, my Vice Presidential candidate, we believe we can execute this.”
While the campaign season has seen its fair share of intense politicking, strategic moves, formation of new alliances and somewhat unconventional political manouvering, a country well managed and with limitless opportunities is among the desires of the citizens, which Abiola believes is possible.
” We are going to run a market-driven economy, but it doesn’t mean the government will totally hands off. It means that at the appropriate time or whenever the need arises, the government can step in and play its role as the last arbirter. Right now, it’s very public sector-driven and created to cater to a niche. It’s never been an equal opportunity player. As the name implies, the People’s Redemption Party will run an all-inclusive government where every citizen would feel a part of,” Abiola said when he featured on The Presidential Candidates Town Hall Series hosted by Kadaria Ahmed, along with Haro Haruna Zego, his running mate.
On what sets him and his party apart from the 17 other parties have have presented candidates for president, Abiola said, “The PRP is the oldest party in Nigeria to date, and we have an ideology we have maintained over the years. We are also a party that has fielded 711 candidates, 22 or 23 candidates for governors, 33 senatorial candidates, about 400 for House of Representatives and House of Assembly across the 36 states and FCT.
“Over time, we have been stereotyped as a northern Muslim party, but today, the so-called northern Muslim party is fielding Kola Abiola from the southwest as its presidential candidate and Hara Zego, a Christian from Kaduna State as Vice Presidential candidate; we are a national party. Not just that, I said earlier that we are fielding 711 candidates across Nigeria, we are truly a national party. Also, it’s the only party in existence that it will only cost you N100 to register, and the only party where you can buy your form for next to nothing today and run tomorrow, we don’t have godfathers but youths are allowed to participate freely.”
Also touching on one of the five fascinating points of their manifesto, Zego, the PRP Vice Presidential candidate, said the part about “‘state control of the commanding heights of the economy,” refers to resource control, which means states would be able to exercise a certain level of control over any resources generated from there.”
Dwelling on the background of PRP during a session on The Candidates hosted by Funke Treasure-Durodola, Ikechukwu Amaechi, publisher of The Niche newspaper, said: “For this election, PRP is the oldest political party because it has been around since the Second Republic, founded by Mallam Aminu Kano, may his soul rest in peace. Talakawa politics, it ought to be the party of the masses, of the people. And of course, Mallam Aminu Kano did so much with PRP. If you remember in 1979 PRP won Kano with Abubakar Rimi and Kaduna State with Balarabe Musa before Balarabe Musa was impeached and NPN took over. So, it is clear you are talking about a party with history.”
In his own assessment, Ibrahim Modibbo stated that “Under the PRP, especially in the context of the North, the masses were able to look up to a party that represented them well – a party that has philosophy, thoughts and also thoughts about them in terms of propelling the will of progress, especially developmental structures, and also seen to meet the needs and yearnings of the common man.”.
On the party under Abiola as presidential candidate, Modibbo noted: “If you look at the PRP today under Kola Abiola, I think he has been able to come in to finish the undone work of his father. I thought he would have gone to SDP, but the PRP is also a party with democratic ethos and socialist in nature.”
For Modibbo, beaming some searchlight on Abiola and his party by the media would be to the benefit of Nigerians.
“Under multiculturalism and globalization of today, has the press being fair to PRP? I would say ‘no’ as media people only tend to look at the big four parties in Nigeria. I am of the view that Kola Abiola and his team are deploying some strategic thinking in their quest to convince Nigerians while under no illusion about the enormity of tasks ahead,” he stated.
Having touched on moves to make the economy thrive again, strategy to eradicate housing deficit, revamp security architecture, create jobs and an enabling environment for young people, along with involvement of the informal sector, which accounts for over 80% of the economy, the younger Abiola is making a lot of sense just as his father did about 30 years ago. And it would do Nigerians a world of good to do away with names who have become permanent fixtures in our political calendar and embrace the flashes of insight from a man keen on a vital intervention for Nigeria.
Adedayo Odulaja is a Lagos-based journalist and public affairs analyst.