A former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) thinks that over 60 million Nigerians who are not connected with any political party will be among the 93 million electorate that will decide the fate of leaders that will emerge in the 2023 general elections. In this interview on Arise Television programme tagged: News Headlines, monitored by David Lawani, the legal luminary outlines the qualities that a Nigerian President should have

Why are our budgets not taking care of the issue of poverty alleviation in concrete terms? Don’t you think party manifestoes should begin to focus more on this disturbing trend?

Lagos is bombarded by six to seven million people from across the country. So, a president must present a manifesto that appeals to the people in the fringes either in Northern Nigeria or in the Southern coastal region. They can identify what the president is saying. I have looked at the manifestos and I liked the candidates to take a second look at what they are saying. To see if they cannot expand it. There are 133 million people who are dimensionally poor and are excluded from the process, and you can only get if you have a president who is looking at what interests they have. If you look at a typical Nigerian budget. A typical Nigerian budget will assign more money to the National Assembly than health and education sectors put together. That doesn’t show a government committed to Nigerians. The only way we can fight poverty is by allocating a substantial amount of our budget to the marginalised Nigerians. So, in essence, what I am trying to do is to assist maybe they will like to rejig their manifestos so that we will get the best from the presidential candidate in 2023, and this I think is the most important and fundamental election ever because we have a demographic shift. We have at least 60 million Nigerians who are uncommitted to anybody or party except good governance. Those are the people who will be willing to assist to identify who might be the type of guy who is supported by your simple vote, might come back to say. I voted for you because I feel your manifesto is such that if I have voted for you, I will see something that I will benefit from.

Tinubu not mentally, physically fit to be president of Nigeria – Melaye

What is your assessment of the presidential candidates going by what you have seen so far with their campaigns?

I will resist the temptation to provide an answer and the reason is that I don’t want to sound as if I have a preferred candidate. So, in the morning I said I am doing this because I am close to 70 years. I started public policy work at 29, and the only thing I can contribute is to offer a fair assessment without any bias or inducement. Hopefully, Nigerians will see me as a fair person saying what comes from my mind. I am not going to make any comment about a particular candidate other than to say the 2023 process has improved on at least one issue. We now see issues more in the space. Hopefully, we will see INEC closing the gap and trying to deliver credible elections with the update of the voters’ register. As the best of the election will go well electronically. I see that. So, I hope that the election will be free and fair and that the dominant demographic shift which shows that 60 million Nigerian youths are frustrated and angry will make an impact. This is the first time that votes will likely count. That is going to push people to think twice about if we have a lot of people who will vote on their brains then we better begin to talk sense. You saw what happened to Liz Truss? She lost the trust of the Conservative Party, and the party in turn talked about how they will lose the general election because people don’t want them. This election might surprise people because of the people’s power. Votes will count. If they will count then you better be prepared with your campaign manifesto.

From the manifestoes, you have seen so far, have the candidates addressed the main issues?

The biggest issue will be what presidential candidate has a clear agenda with the budget, and timeline to reverse multidimensional poverty. None of the Presidential candidates has been able to address the issue. In fairness to them, this multidimensional poverty index came out well-written before they had written their manifestos. Understandably, they didn’t delve into it. What I am doing is saying to them well, it is true that you wrote your manifesto well before. But now that you know about multidimensional poverty, what exactly will you do? If the National Assembly is budgeting more money to itself than Health and Education, that is a serious indictment. There is no way that we are going to lift 133 million people out of poverty with the current budgetary configuration. My message to the candidates is to go and re-examine your manifestos and see what you can do to up them. So, those guys in the age bracket that I referred to will say yes, this is the guy or this is the person I voted for and I have a payback. I am not going to vote for someone who doesn’t give anything. That is what I will be saying if I was 21 years old. People are ‘ japa-ing’ away. The country is empty. The brain drain is going on, and the reason for that is bad governance. So, this is the opportunity for us to reclaim power. This is the first time I am seeing excitement among this important demographic of people. So, I just hope that our politicians are listening. I don’t know if you listen to President Patrick Lumumba yesterday at the 10th anniversary of the death of ‘Oloye’ Saraki. He said it all. Any politician who was there and listened will get a message. Maybe it is time for people’s votes to count.

Since you don’t want to disclose your preferred candidate, do you see among the candidates whom you will like to vote for?

Yes. There are a couple. But I am not going to be more detailed, but clearly, there are a couple of candidates whom I think looking at their manifestos and their backgrounds and general disposition do have the potential to deliver a good Nigeria which to summarise will be to resolving the various political division. Leading with a legitimate constitution by devolving powers and by strengthening the local governments. The subsector of what I think a good economic policy should be. And going ahead to implement the UN sustainable development agenda which is sort of a guide to pull people out of poverty. China didn’t pull one billion people out of poverty just by making a statement, it did that by allocating resources. It should go beyond talk. I will expect any candidates who wish to be taken seriously by this important demographic of Nigerians to say to them, I am going to do A B C D, and they believed him, and they vote for him. There will be change. The other point that I need to make. Being a Nigerian president is a very serious occupation. It is not a lazy man’s job. When you become Nigeria’s President you age. You don’t grow young. Because on your shoulders rest the great responsibility of making the country good. And also look at what the candidates are saying about their economic policies. They have to have the potential to raise revenue. Charles, this country is resource challenged in terms of money. The money is available but I want to see a candidate who can address it unfortunately this has not been addressed in the manifestos. How a president can rely on internal revenue resources other than domestic or international borrowing? We presently owed about N18trn in debts. And debts to revenue profile is so high. But I don’t know what it is to aspire to want to be a Nigerian president. The manifestos don’t excite me about the urgency of raising money. But if you don’t have a budget you cannot do anything. But there are ways to do that. All you need to do is to look around. I was surprised that the other day the Minister of Finance by a wave of hand said. You know what, we have got something called the Ministry of Finance Incorporated. And just had a look and we found out that it is N33trn that we can tap. Now, if that is true, the Minister of Finance draws on N33trn in the system. Then we don’t have a problem. Because we only have a seven trillion naira deficit. So what I am suggesting is that candidates must be very aggressive in their thinking to see how they can raise resources. The current process of borrowing I think needs to change.

Do you see a situation that the public will say they will no longer roll over bad governance?

There was the old school when people like us started the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), then the new school- the EndSARS movement. What the EndSARS did even though it didn’t achieve its ultimate goal left a lesson. It left a warning that there is a lot of power in organised movement. The EndSARS movement is the mother of the new Nigerian voter. So, I hope and feel confident that the EndSARS movement which no one can define and say is here or there. It is a huge movement. Those are the guys probably 40 million of them. Those are the guys I feel can tell our political people. You know what the game is up to. This is a new Nigeria. We are not going to stand for old rubbish. And in saying this, two guys have been involved in political chicanery. One, for SGF Babachir Lawal. He is an APC man. He said he is a friend of Bola Tinubu, but he won’t support him. We don’t want people like that. Today, he said it is PDP, and the next day it Labour Party. We don’t want all that. If you are dissatisfied with the party you belong to. Just move on. The other man I feel worried a bit about is Wike. I just can’t figure out what he wants. He is a good man. He has done a lot for the PDP. He has done a lot for Rivers State. But you can’t be at a party that you disown. It beats my imagination that here is a guy who is a governor, who will leave in the next three to four months. But is causing all sorts of confusion. I don’t just know what his agenda is. That is part of the old policy, and I hope that this new demographic voting population I described will understand the shift between the Wikes and that Christian leader, Babachir Lawal. They are the guys of yesterday. We want guys of principles. You will recall Ronaldo the footballer. When he raised a speech against the management they said, “This is not on.” You cannot do this as a member of the Manchester United team. You are out. Those who don’t want to be in a political party, move away.