Actually, with the declaration of February 2023 by INEC for the presidential poll, we don’t have much time. If you calculate it, we are now in the calendar month of Democracy coming up on May 29.  We have a range of two years for the present government and from the platform, we are coming to run for the presidency, Not-Too-Young-To-Run, we can’t wait until it is one year to the election before we declare for the presidency. Actually, the declaration of INEC has now made us accept clearly that we are running for the presidency in the 2023 election.

What informed your decision to seek the presidential seat?

I actually have five major reasons: The failure of the current government, which lacks sincere people to implement its policies that Nigerians are expecting from the administration. The President has good policies but his personal aides are mismanaging the policies. It is for this reason that we have been compelled to declare for the presidency.

We want to address the issue of security immediately we come to power. Two, we want to address the issue of energy. Three, we want to address the issue of health. Four, we want to address the issue of the economy, particularly agriculture, and we want to address issues bearing on the nation’s education.

These are the five policies that have pushed us to run for the presidency. If President Buhari had succeeded in executing these five programmes, there won’t have been any need for people of my age to come out to declare for the presidency. There is a total failure in these five sectors: security, energy, education, health and agriculture and Nigerians need to have the dividends of democracy. We want to give Nigerians hope.

Many are worried that the aspirants or advocates on your platform do not have the political structures for presidency or governorship elections. What is your take on this?

You know, politics is a game of number and I will not go into other people’s domains and terrains or political calculations. As for me, a person who comes under the platform of Not-Too-Young-To-Run, a bill which has been signed by the current President to see that a young man of between 30 and 50 years can contest for such powerful positions ought to have been given financial backing by the presidency, especially if they may find it difficult to source the requisite finance.

We don’t know if the ruling party will present a Not-Too-Young-To-Run candidate and will financially back him but I doubt if such a candidate will have the kind of structure I have to win the Presidency in 2023. You see, I was a coordinator for President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election and there are 35 other coordinators in the other states of the country. We have a platform on which we communicate from 2015 to date. We have a structure that will be reactivated for any of us going into the poll in 2023.

Many Nigerians believe that Buhari lacks the political will to deal with the nation’s security and economic challenges. What are your thoughts on this?

Buhari has the political will to bring to an end the insurgency. But the Buhari we have today and the Buhari we had in his youthful days are different. If these two things are clear to Nigerians, we will know that Buhari definitely has the political will to bring the insurgency in the country to zero levels.
You see, the younger Buhari sent away Cameroonians gendarmes occupying Bakassi. He also sent away the Chadian forces from taking some part of Lake Chad. He pushed them back and even claimed some of their villages. That was Buhari as a young military man.

But today, we have to sympathize with an old man who is thinking of the hereafter; how he will meet God. So, he cannot do again most of the things he did with stamina in those days. He is applying theology in what he is doing these days. The fear of God is more in the mind of Buhari than the military might.
On why insecurity has not been effectively tackled, we have to also examine national and international interests. The national interest has to do with the budget for the military. What arrangement has been made financially? It is not by giving them money or adding to their salaries but do we have the policies to motivate the military to fight the war. No such policy has been made.

What I am trying to emphasise is if people like us come into power, we will make it a policy that no soldier will not pay for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). A soldier will be giving free medical service as long as he sustained the injury or fell sick on the battlefield and in case he dies his children education will be paid for by the Federal Government. This will encourage the soldier’s morale Secondly, the kind of military system we have should be applied to other security agencies such as the police. There are no adequate barracks for the police.

You have no equipment for the police but you expect them to provide intelligence and accompany the army to the battleground. How will such police be expected to perform maximally?
Finally, what arrangements have they made to source for defence intelligence in the Franco-phone countries surrounding Nigeria? What defence architecture is available to send our defence intelligence to neighbour countries? We don’t have intelligence on what these people are doing in these other countries. Everything is based on suspicion and hearsay.

Some people are worried that some foreign troops are aiding and abetting our enemies. What do you make of this?

Based on the kind of training we received those days in the military intelligence under the National Guard, you cannot come out and be talking military intelligence without facts. Even Nigeria doesn’t have a proven fact that France or any of the France-phone country is aiding these insurgents.

By merely looking at their actions, there should be somebody who is financing this group and it is now the responsibility of the DSS and DMI and NIA, DIA police intelligence and other para-military intelligence to come together under one command to find out the reality of who are the financiers of Boko Haram. When this is done by any agency, it should not keep the information to itself; it should share it with others.

If one agency finds out who is financing Boko Haram and it keeps it to itself, how can the National Assembly discuss the issue and reach a decision when the lawmakers are to appropriate the finance for the military to confront the insurgents?

As one aspiring to contest for the Presidency in 2023, as a former military intelligence officer, I will not request or advise the Nigerian government or whatsoever body in Nigeria to seek foreign mercenaries, especially America, to assist us.

Why? America predicted that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2007. They shifted their prediction to 2015. What did they mean by that? Would you hire a mercenary who had predicted that your country was going to disintegrate? You have to distance yourself from such a man, who will want to confirm to the world that his prediction about you is a reality. So, rather than stop the insurgency, they will aid the insurgents because of their prediction.

FG is seeking the relocation of the headquarters of AFRICOM not only to Africa but Nigeria in particular. How do you see that move?

You see, many are of the opinion that all these western military forces should get out of African countries completely. We don’t want foreign intrusions, military bases or otherwise because they are only coming to divert our attention so that they will go about exploiting our resources indirectly for the benefit of their people not for our own benefit.

So, we don’t want any foreign intrusion, whether military base or spy base. We don’t need it for now.  I am assuring you that when I come to power no western or European power will exist in Africa. They will only come here based on business understanding and contract. But in terms of military or security mission, they will be restricted.