Balogun Akin Osuntokun, notable columnist, activist, politician, Yoruba leader and former Political Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, has said given the realities on ground today, many Nigerians wished Obasanjo had five terms as the President.

Osuntokun also said if the country must develop politically, leaders should have primary occupations and professions.

He described moving from one party to the other as charlatanism and a lack of dignity.

Osuntokun, former Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said these in an interview with Vanguard. Read the full interview HERE.

On why he remained in Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Osuntokun said: “If Nigeria must develop politically, leaders must have primary occupations and professions to which political incumbency is secondary.

“Making a lifestyle of moving from one party to another in order to earn a living is the definition of a charlatan and lack of dignity.

“There is the extenuating fundamental point that Nigerian politics is still at pre-ideological differentiation level.

“Our socioeconomic challenges are basic and non-ideological. First is the very notion of Nigerian nationhood itself.

“We don’t even have a nation yet, let alone governance style and policy differences. What is ideological about the official subversion of the very idea of Nigeria itself?

“What is ideological about crushing poverty, primitive corruption, terrorism, genocide and banditry?

“Is defection not consistent with the fact that the difference between APC and PDP is analogous to the difference between six and half a dozen?

“Your question nonetheless borders on the inability of the political elite to survive outside of power.”

While responding to the invitation to explain the notorious “Third Term Agenda” of the Obasanjo administration, the son of late Chief Oduola Osuntokun, a Minister in the Western Region(1955 to 1966), said: “I doubt if anyone fully knows the story of the ‘third term’.

“Speaking for myself, there was no time the President informed me he was seeking third term in office.

“However, the irony of contemporary Nigeria is that arising from the dangerous and comprehensive failure of the recent past, many Nigerians wish there has been a third, fourth and fifth term of Obasanjo.”

Vanguard News Nigeria