…Says Buhari has failed in all campaign promises
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA- AHEAD of the 2019 Presidential election in February next year, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, has boasted that he will defeat the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari if given the presidential ticket.
Prof. Hagher whose party is in coalition with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, alongside other parties operating now under the umbrella of Coalition of United Progressive Party, CUPP, also alleged that President Buhari has failed in all his campaign promises.
Speaking in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja, Hagher who was a former minister and Nigeria`s ambassador to Mexico and Canada, said that the country at present deserves”a president who will provide growth over decay, peace over violence, benevolence over greed and integrity over corruption.”
Besides, he said that Nigeria does not need a mediocre as president rather somebody who can go to the world and face the best and challenge them, adding that he has the prerequisite knowledge to take the country out of doldrums.
Describing the country as the most risky place to be presently, he said that the country has slummed back to feudalism and primitive politics, stressing that he was instigating peaceful revolution.
The university don promised to vote 26 percent or more to the education sector at all levels and make teaching the sought after profession if elected President of the country, and that his cabinet will be made up of 18 women and 18 men to ensure gender parity in appointments.
On why he wants to be the President, Prof. Hagher said, “Nigerians have been forced to endure a political system that is a charade, our democracy is not sustainable because it is a democracy of government of people for people protecting interest of a small elite of not more than three million people who are civil service, who are politicians, who have acquired positions in the executive, in the legislature.
“They eat up the total production of Nigerian wealth, the oil wealth they guzzle it, leaving very little for the country to develop in infrastructure that can carry a stable masses. The consequence is we have no light in spite of promises from the past, we didn’t even have potable water in three quarters of our cities.
“On top of this, agriculture is at a very low level because Nigerians in the rural areas are no better than slaves. They engage in back breaking labour which does not translate in commensurate rewards because their crops do not have a value added chain so there is a lot of wastage.
“What I am saying is that there is a colossal failure of leadership in this country. We do not have a leadership that has a vision to make Nigeria a great country. I have decided that my one agenda is to make Nigeria a great country and our journey to greatness will begin with fundamental restructuring of everything and therefore, I am going beyond restructuring.
“I am defining what people have been hastely trying to say, what we need is a revolution and I am instigating that peaceful revolution and that is why my campaign is called the revolution of hope. Many people have given up hope. They have given up hope that any good thing can come out of Nigeria. They have given up hope that our politics will give anything bad leadership, they have given up hope that it is impossible to do decent business in Nigeria without giving bribes, they have given up hope that the war on corruption cannot be won in Nigeria, they do not think it is possible.
“But I have hope and I am bringing hope because I am of that vision that I know what needs to be done and therefore that is the mean reason I decided that it will amount to criminality for my education, my experience and my foresight and insight in leadership training as well as my participation as a person who has observed a first hand how systems work to give other nations greatness, I want to offer myself so that Nigeria can have hope, so that Nigeria can break away from mediocrity.
“The present level of efficiency in Nigeria is pathetic, we have swung back to feudalism and primitive governance. We have therefore with all modesty offered ourselves to participate in this election and run for the office of the President and from that Presidency, I can then instigate a revolution of consciousness that will critique everything, that will challenge every person that anything that has not worked for us will be brought down and be rebuilt. I am bringing to leadership of Nigeria building rather than sharing.”
He said citizens of the country have witnessed how Nigeria has failed to keep its promise to be a great country, to be a great nation that the rest of African nation can look and the rest of the black world can look up to and a country the international community can see that truly there is nothing wrong with having African genes.
He said, “The founding fathers of Nigeria had fought for our independence from the colonial government because they had a big vision. It was after the second world war after our troops had fought for the liberation.
“When they came home they said what is this that we have here, what are these people doing here and the contradiction of colonialism became apparent, they started fighting for independence and they struggled leading to the 23 year old young man, Anthony Enahoro moving for the independence of Nigeria. We got our independence in 1960 and we became a republic in 1963. The promise was that we were now free People, all the ethnic groups in Nigeria was one and same, we were not a theocracy, we were not a kingdom, we are a Federal Republic of Nigeria and had a construction that guaranteed the quality, Justice, freedom.
“58 years down the line today, Nigeria is still promising to be a great nation with potentials but that promise is yet to be realised, something worse is happening, Nigeria is threatening to be a failed state.
“By simple definition, a failed state is a state that is no longer able to protect the lives and property of their citizens. This is what we are today, Nigeria is the most risky place to be on, we have two of the world’s greatest terrorist groups operating in full steam in Nigeria; the Boko Haram terrorist group and the herdsmen terrorist group.
“So we see the promise going down the drain, we see Nigeria on the verge of plunging into the abyss to become totaly a failed state. The indicators are not good, our Universities are not counted among the best 500 universities in the world, our health indicators show very bad maternity death, infant morbidity maternal deaths that are preventable.
“Nigerians are dying from preventable diseases, we don’t have any infrastructure that should usher Nigeria into the 21st Century. And meanwhile, Nigeria has the fastest population growth of young people. These young people are not being regarded as a critical resource as a result the educational system is weighed against them.
“Nigeria is preparing itself to be a country with the highest interest rate on earth because as of today there are 13.2 million Nigerian kids not registered in the school system.”
