El-Rufai urges Nigerians abroad to join politics
FORMER Military Head of State and co-founder of the newly formed mega opposition party, All Peoples Congress (APC), Gen. (rtd) Muhammadu Buhari has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to reduce the high level of poverty, insecurity and electoral fraud in Nigeria.
Delivering his keynote speech at the British Houses of Parliament (Gladstone Conference Room) on Tuesday night, Buhari also urged the government to revive both the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in order to generate business and employment and thereby improve living conditions for the over 100 million Nigerians, which according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, are living in poverty–below $2 per day.
Buhari, who also spoke on "Stable Democracy and Nigeria's Economy" at the Ben Television organised 4th British African Diaspora Lecture Series, warned Jonathan to urgently tackle the high levels of poverty and illiteracy in the country in order for Africa's most populous nation to truly enjoy the dividends of democracy.
Buhari, who contested the April 2011 Presidential Elections on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), also made a case against both the Nigerian judiciary and the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), saying the former needs to be impartial and the latter needs to be reconstituted if Nigerians wants free and fair elections in 2015.
In the 12-page paper, which he described as "a soldier's and politician's broad observations on democracy and economic development" in Nigeria, Buhari noted that: "Democracy can best flourish when a certain level of educational attainment or literacy exists in the society." Accordingly, "the vast majority of the voters must be in a position to read and write and consequently distinguish which is which on the voters' card to make their choices truly theirs." He lamented that these conditions do not exist for the majority of the Nigerian voting population.
Basing his arguments on last presidential elections of 2011, where he was one of the candidates, Buhari also named the judiciary as one of clogs in the country's wheel of democratic progress. "In 2011, all pretences at legality and propriety were cast aside. In the South-South and South–Eastern states, turnout of voters was recorded by INEC at between 85 percent – 95 per cent even though in the morning of the election, the media reported sparse attendance at polling booths."
He noted that in the "rest of the country where opposition parties were able to guard and monitor the conduct of the presidential election, turnout averaged about 46 per cent. In many constituencies in the South-South and South –East, votes cast far exceeded registered figures."
Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, also during the launching of his book, The Accidental Public Servant at one of London's most popular Nigerian restaurants, Mama Calabar, in Wembley on Wednesday night called on Nigerians in Diaspora to join politics in order to bring about the much-needed transformation that Nigerians and the international community have long yearned for.
He then challenged the audience, mainly distinguished professionals against leaving the political space for political jobbers. He made a passionate plea to other Nigerians in the Diaspora to join both the APC and the civil service in order to bring about the movement for change.
He cited the duo of Chief Phillip Asiodu and Allison Ayida as notable examples of brilliant Nigerians who had stints in the civil service despite studying in Oxford University. He told the audience to take a cue from the Nigerian military, noting that it boasts some of the best minds in the country. "Some of the best minds are in the military. You cannot be a colonel in the Nigerian Army without holding a Masters' degree.
Although he did admit that "the political system supports those who are not a threat to anyone," el-Rufai was quick to add that "unless good people go there in large numbers, we'll just be sidekicks" to the mediocre.
He called on capable Nigerians to put themselves forward for political offices, noting that without more involvement from credible and professional Nigerians, the political space will continue to breed incompetent leaders. "We'll get better leaders if more of you get involved." More importantly, "we must put our fate in the hands of people who can lift us, not just people close to us or going to the same church or mosque with us. They mustn't just be people from our state or town or tribe, they must be people who have the credentials to do it."
Asked for his take on dealing with looting of public funds, El-Rufai said those who steal public money should be named and shamed. "I think one of the problems we have in Nigeria is the lack of consequences for bad behaviour. We tend to forgive quickly. Besides, there seems to be a conspiracy of silence once people who loot the public treasury leave office."
The former minister said this should not continue. "Let's start naming and shaming people and put them on trial." However, he also pointed out that there's no point going about looking for those who must have corruptly enriched themselves in the distant past.
"In my opinion, we should just draw a line and move on. We should not keep looking back, because if you keep looking back, you won't be able to plan for the future." He listed multiple taxation-property taxes and taxing luxury items-as one creative way of clawing the money back from corrupt public officials. "That's an innovative way of clawing back the money without going through the uncertainty of the judiciary. The most important thing is to get back the money. You can design a system of taxation that will claw back all the money within 10 years, but I don't know what my party's line will be."
The Guardian
If only our politicians can start listening to our cry for a better. If only they can start working on the main reason they were elected