A renowned professor of Haematology-Oncology and a northern leader, Prof Usman Yusuf Sanni, says with the youth demography of the nation, a new direction can be attained in the forthcoming presidential election. In this interview on AIT’s ‘Kakaaki’ monitored by David Lawani, he said the mere endorsement of candidates won’t do the magic.

What is your view of the letter was written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo endorsing the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, as president, does that signal victory?

All these elders have the constitutional right to endorse whoever they want to endorse. Is General Obasanjo going to install Peter Obi just like he endorsed him into the villa? The answer is no. Is President Obasanjo going to deliver Abeokuta to Peter Obi? The answer is no. How about Ogun State? No. How about the South-West? It is no. So for me as a candidate, whoever endorsed me should also make the pathway for me to the villa very smooth. I am from Katsina and I just came from Kano, Jigawa, and Kaduna. These are strongholds when it comes to electoral votes. We don’t even know what these folks are talking about.

Can you explain what they are talking about in these states?

What they are talking about is what they have gone through in the last 8 years. And the facts that they need to change. And the change is in their PVCs. We are telling people that their powers lie in their PVCs. They have been patient over the last eight years. We have never seen IDPs. In my state of Katsina, until this government came. One-third of my state is under siege by bandits. We have lost a lot of people. Women have been raped. My capital city is filled up with IDPs. I have never seen this. People have been patient and prayerful. Now, it is their time to change and to change peacefully through the PVCs. That is what we are preaching to people. You have the power to change especially our youths. They constitute the demography for voting. Go and line up quietly as you vote. And that vote must be counted. That is all we are asking our people to do. No violence, insults, or blackmail. Your vote must be counted. For Peter Obi to put those endowments as badges of honour, it is now left to him to do the job. Where are the employees of these big politicians inside black jeeps?

Is the North happy with President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance?

They have not been happy with most of them. I am in because I am a physician. We are not happy. President Obasanjo’s opinion is his personal opinion. He has one vote. We have 93 million registered voters. And that choice is theirs. For us, what we are doing is educating them to make the right choice. It will be suicidal to repeat the same mistake and the lies APC has put us through over the last 8 years. I am talking for the first time. I am from Katsina. And I see the pain of our people. Each time I go there. And when I come back, I feel saddened. We can’t repeat this. 120 million now are in multidimensional poverty. And this is under a government that said and has been preaching that it is going to remove 100 million Nigerians from poverty in 10 years. 10 million each year. And a government agency is coming to tell us that 130 million Nigerians are in multidimensional poverty. This is not abstract. I see it live. Many villages when I go to Katsina. And the village square. When you buy something and you give N1000, nobody can give you balance because of multidimensional poverty. And we are here talking of endorsement. Good for you Peter Obi, for the endorsement. You have gotten over three endowments but they don’t win elections. It is time to go and meet the people. I have read the letter. One was about 6 pages. I read it on my phone. He went round and round. For me, when he finally landed, it was a weak endorsement if you asked me. He said he was the Head of state at 39 and at 42 he retired. At 62 he came back and at 70 he gave criteria. These are his criteria. We have 93 million eligible voters that will make that choice for themselves. Whatever he says is his. And he is entitled to that.

What do you have to say about the South-East where Peter Obi is from?

He talked about the civil war and lots of other issues. He said something about Eyi’lokan while Tinubu talked about Emilokan. They are merely expressing their personal opinions. If President Goodluck Jonathan is from the smallest of the state, Bayelsa where he comes from has only about 8 local government councils. Kano has 44 and Katsina has 34. He is an Ijaw minority. If President Goodluck Jonathan from the smallest state and the minority could aspire and become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, then anyone else can. I get really angry when anyone talks about ethnicity and that it is the turn of the Yoruba or Igbos. The South-East doesn’t know diversity, it is 100 per cent Igbo and they are Christians. The South-West with little diversity and is 100 per cent Yoruba with Muslims and Christians. If you want to see diversity come to the North. There is not a single state in the 19 states that have a single dialect. None, but they have only one religion. Kaduna State alone has 52 dialects. When we talk about Plateau, it is 40. Same in Taraba, and Borno and we live in diversity and know about it. There are different ethnic groups and religions. Jukun will say it is our time, Nupe will say it is theirs, and Hausa will say it is our turn. The first leader of this country, the Prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was neither Hausa nor Fulani. The first military leader, General Yakubu Gowon was a Christian northerner. When we start talking about ethnicity and ethnicity, it turns people off. There is no reason why an Igbo man cannot be a president. Make it happen as Goodluck Jonathan did. The appearance of Peter Obi was a positive one. It is positive in the sense that since he came on board, all the agitation and violence of IPOB has died down even though there are now political assassinations. What he has been able to do more than these politicians that are asking for votes is that he has been able to pull the youths into the mainstream for them to see that the only way out is not by violence. But get into the mainstream and take power as your constitutional responsibility. He is not going to fly for any ethnic group to say it is our turn. No. He won’t do that. He can make it happen. If Goodluck Jonathan from the smallest zones in the country can, why can’t he? The smallest of the ethnic groups. He was not voted by Bayelsa or South-South alone. Or even the South-East. The bulk of his votes came from the North. Just like Abiola and Obasanjo. So, get out of that shell of ethnicity. And come and sell yourself to us. That is what we are telling Peter Obi.

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Has he not been to the North enough, or what are you insinuating?

We don’t know him enough. Let me tell you. Late Abiola won the election. And late Bashir Tofa from Kano. Late Abiola built relationships in the North with people for a very long time. So also Obasanjo too. Obasanjo built relationships across Niger with people. There is no cleric or emir that Obasanjo cannot go to his house and spent a night. You cannot stay in Lagos or Abuja and expect endorsement to win your elections. People want to know you, feel and touch you. In the North. Our problems are insecurity and insecurity. How are you going to take care of it? What are your solutions? Massive and frightening poverty. Over 130 million Nigerians are in multidimensional poverty. Is that something to cheer about? And 65 per cent of that is from the North. And 45 percent of that is in the Northwest. You have to tell us how you are going to do that. In education, 20 million children are out of school. The Minister of Education came out and said he is not proud of being the longest Minister of Education because he has not been able to bring down the number of out-of-school children. Of that 20 million, 18 million are from the North. In Agriculture, our farmers are unable to go to the farm because of insecurity. There is poverty and hunger all over the place. Peter Obi, as we speak Asiwaju is in Kano for the last two days. Peter Obi should come and talk to us. Tell us how you can solve our problems. Nothing much. That is what politics is all about. I have said again and again, that the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket is neither for God nor country but for self. Just to accommodate the presidential ambition of Bola Tinubu. You go on the net and see youths from different backgrounds. They are fed up with a toxic cocktail of ethno-religious hatred. Where are they getting that from? I hope it is not from their parents. Because no mother will groom a child that way. I went to Catholic school all my primary school. We were the only Muslim family. I went to ABU the most diversified university in this country. We went to Cross River to serve. We are enemies because we speak and dress differently.

We talk differently and do lots differently. We eat and pray differently. To unify the country, security, economy, education, and out-of-school children will be a time bomb. What do the governors do? They get foreign loans and instead of them to invest it, they and their children overseas. They build flyovers and underneath them are the out-of-school children. Our people can no longer go to the farm. They are not asking for Eldorado. They want to be able to go to their farms but now bandits are occupying those farms. Even when they can go, they are levied by bandits. If they can address these five problems, Nigeria will be back on course.