‘Nigeria needs a younger person as president

Youth Party of Nigeria (YPN) presidential aspirant Rex Adebanjo, a lawyer, spoke with reporters in Lagos on his ambition, youth participation in governance,the quest for generational shift and zoning. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.

What is your position on the state of the nation?

Because of politics and the structure of our federation, we have actually designed failure into the system and those who are going the brunt of this are the youths. They are going to suffer the failure of our system for a long time, but at the same time, they have the biggest potential to transform the nation at the moment. Everyone says that now is the time for the youth, but the question is: Has anyone articulated about how the youth will get involved in the process and to what objective. This is what I am trying to do because I believe that the youth have the strength to break the fault lines that have been allowed to thrive in Nigeria.

It is ridiculous that many don’t know that the Fulani herdsman has a common interest with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) agitator but they will never realise it. Their interests are aligned because they both need liberation. If you look at every economic index, the Fulani herdsman is at the bottom and the irony of it all is that President Muhammadu Buhari is the worst thing that has happened to the Fulani because he has raised old fears among a new generation of Nigerians who are now hostile to the Fulani and a majority of Fulani people, who are going to bear the brunt of that are not benefitting from the supposed power a Fulani man supposedly holds.

So, part of the message that I am trying to propagate to the youth is that this is the time to pay more attention to developments in the polity because if they don’t, in a few years, a majority of us will either be dead or end up in refugee camps, live under warlords and area gangs because if you look at the way things that are building up; there is currently war going on in the country whether it is reported or not. So, the youth must understand their power in terms of number and come together under a platform and pursue specific objectives that have nothing to do with personality. That is why I am advocating that the youth coalesce under the Youth Party of Nigeria (YPN) that was recently registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). If you read the party’s manifesto, you will find out that it was well thought out. I don’t want to refer to the party as a third force, but I think that we should join hands with this bunch of young people, know our number, assess our power and determine how to deplore that power.

What is your comment on the role of zoning in the leadership recruitment process, which seems to have taken the place of merit?

When I said that Nigeria was designed to fail, it starts from the way we practice federalism. Zoning was designed to produce the worst and weakest candidates. Why do I say that? I say so because those who emerge through this process are mediocre candidates because those who influence their emergence, always pick the most pliable persons; people they will have influence on. This has nothing with Peoples Democratic Party (PPD) or All Progressives Congress (APC); it is just the way the system is. Take for example the case of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999, the old Afenifere leaders didn’t pick Bola Ige because they felt he was a radical and the opted for Chief Olu Falae because they felt he would listen to them.

And because leaders, who emerge through this selection process, cannot chart their own causes, they end up being imprisoned by the so called cabal. I am not saying that we cannot zone offices like that of the president because ours is a diverse nation, but the first thing is to devolve power to the states and local governments for greater accountability. You can imagine what will happen if we unleash thousands of Nigeria’s great minds at the local government and state levels. Nigeria is a place where people try to grow a plant by watering the leaves instead of the roots.

Why is there no cohesion among the youths in their quest for leadership?

That is actually what I am trying to do; to direct the youth to adopt a platform – the Youth Party of Nigeria (YPN) and decide how to wield their power. It is not really about me though every campaign always has a face and I think that is what I am stepping out to do. But, it is really more about the movement. The younger generation really need to walk pass the problems of the past and focus on the future. The youth are not interested in tribal or religious issues; they are interested in what they need to get to their future because the divisions are irrelevant, they are things of the past. What do the youth need to get to their future? They need education and basic security that will attract investment and boost tourism.

What is your view on the Buhari administration’s anti corruption war?

It seems that the President sees the anti-corruption war as his only job, but what we need is a watchdog that will even watch the president because the biggest office is where the biggest corruption is perpetrated. There is no bigger corruption than a president sitting in his office and awarding oil blocs to his friends and business associates. So, the anti-corruption agencies should be free from political influence if we are really serious about fighting corruption. Also, the president shouldn’t be the one appointing the chairmen of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

Why did you opt for a party that is exclusively for the youth?

I think the agenda now is transformative change, but at the same time, it is a critical time for Nigeria. I really believe that if we don’t solve Nigeria’s problems now, we will not have a country in the next three to four years and people, who are going to suffer the most are the youth because they will be the ones to fight the wars, the ones that would be subject to the militias or the ones to run to Internally Displaced Persons camps and live with all the abuses that come with that. So, they have more at stake and I want them to understand that they need to take ownership of the country now. So, YPN is not an exclusive party for the youth, but I believe that the youth is a target group we can build on.

Can’t your group be futuristic by looking beyond 2019 because you seem to be racing against time as the general elections is less than five months away?

A direct answer to the question is: The time is now because I am not sure that we will still have Nigeria in the next three to four years if we don’t solve our problems now. That is how serious the issue is. The rest of the world is moving forward, so this is the only time we have to transform our country and join the train. The question is: Why wait? This idea of being patient; I don’t know where it comes from. We should be the most impatient people in the world. When are we going to get there; is it when everybody have left?

You are passionate about security and education. What are you going to do differently in these sectors?

We will triple the pay and number of cops with major retraining and recruitment of qualified educated unemployed youths. We will also make being a cop super attractive and of course this is to be developed as indigene based state policing, with the federal government focused on funding first class police academies for minimum standards to produce quality policemen. The focus is to make the nation one of the safest in the world and permit night-time economies across the nation to boost employment and the government’s tax base. In education, the focus would be free education, including free feeding beginning with educationally disadvantaged states; rapid deployment of solar powered E-learning in all schools and incorporation of Pre-k learning; triple pay of teachers and retraining of teachers for 21st learning and utilisation of online resources  Education must be allocated minimum 43 per cent of budgetary allocation.

Beyond mobilizing the youth, does your party have the resources to match a party in government and another that was in power for 16 years in the general elections?

We have more than the resources because the people have the power and whatever billions they have, what we need is for our members to just put down N500 each. If we multiply that by our number, we will defeat any force that comes our way. That is why we don’t want moneybags to fund the party because if they do so, they will dictate the direction of the party.