By Our Reporter
Former Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, and Convener, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi on Sunday confirmed that the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and some concerned Nigerians would soon “tickle the Press” to gauge its preparedness to work with other concerned Nigerians on getting the best candidate for the nation’s presidency in 2023.
He, however, said the media in Nigeria was responsible for about 60 percent of the failure in the Nigerian political system. His words; “What we are looking for are good people who are capable and seriously concerned about the future of our country” adding, “ we are going to tickle you (Press) very soon and we are going to challenge you the press to see whether you are prepared to work with us so that we can find good leadership for Nigerians in 2023”.
Specifically, the Elder Statesman said; “ if the press will rally round and say Prof. Ango Abdullahi and 10 people should go and search for the best material for the presidency of Nigeria and they (Press) are ready to work for him, I don’t care about party affiliation. I am looking for a good man. We have no political party that does much for this country. What we are looking for are good people who are capable and seriously concerned about the future of our country.
We can find many of them. They are available. Prof. Abdullahi who spoke with New National Star on the telephone said he and other patriotic elders were not interested in political party affiliation but focused on scouting for the best candidate to give the country good leadership. Below are excerpts of the short telephone interview with the elder statesman:
My New Year’s resolution is that I will not speak to the press for the whole of 2021. There is nothing to speak about. When I talk about the failure in the Nigerian political establishment I put about 60 percent of our failure on the press. The press, first of all, is not professionally doing its work and by that I mean telling the truth, investigating falsehood and revealing it, and so on, no matter what. And this is what the press is about in most other countries. You see what is happening to Trump today, 90 percent of the failure of Trump in his bad rulership of the United States was revealed by the press.
I am not blaming you, as a journalist employed, your employer has a policy and once you go against that policy they will sack you. That’s all. You haven’t got the kind of independence other press people around the world have. And this is why you fall victim to not really doing what you should do to help Nigeria.
How do we get out of this?
You should come out boldly. There are some of us who are ready to talk about the problems of Nigeria boldly. But we are not getting the kind of coverage, the kind of support that we should get from the press. It’s because once the combination of our views and press work we should be able to mobilize Nigeria to move away from this slavery mentality, to be free to choose good people.
How do we get the best candidate for 2023?
If the press will rally round and sayProf. Ango Abdullahi and 10 people should go and search for the best material for the presidency of Nigeria and they (Press) are ready to work for him, I don’t care about party affiliation. I am looking for a good man. We have no political party that does much for this country. What we are looking for are good people who are capable and seriously concerned about the future of our country. We can find many of them. They are available. But they can’t access the goodwill of Nigerian because of you and your employers.
But will you not be handicapped because some of these political parties have an unwritten agreement like zoning and all that?
For example, if you take any party, I was the founding father of PDP. PDP was taken away not more than six months after we formed it and you can look at each party and find that there is a master, there is an owner, and so on. And that is the way things are. If you are not part of it, you cannot be a candidate you cannot even offer yourself for any position. So this is a job that if we are prepared to do it. We are going to tickle you ( Press) very soon and we are going to challenge you, the press, to see whether you are prepared to work with us so that we can find good leadership for Nigeria in 2023.
New National Star
