Election: Nigeria needs mechanism to assist candidate financially -Okunola
Kunle Okunola, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), business tycoon, was a candidate for the House of Representatives for the Ikeja federal constituency in 2015 and 2019. In this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, he spoke about the presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a spate of insecurity, among several other issues in the polity. Excerpts:
Bola Tinubu has said he is interested in the presidency. What is your reaction to that?
We were the first to see the vision and we started mobilising because we know that 2023 would be about popularity and the majority of Nigerians can attest to the fact that all the successive leaders have failed them, and we have no alternative but to get new hands and engage them for the development of our nation. We saw that Bola Tinubu has the capacity to leave the nation; three years ago we started the TNN movement, and today he has declared which is a credit to us.
Now that he has made his intentions known to Nigerians this would make some members who believe that they can be sponsored, I mean unserious members, who probably think Tinubu is not going to contest to think twice. So, it would also reduce rancour in APC’s rank and file. Also, it would put loyal members of Asiwaju to test if they would remain loyal or do otherwise, betray him. This has put a lot of people in focus; it is fair to give him a chance, so we can see what he can offer and what we can do to help him actualise his dream.
So, we are not God, we should not judge a book by its cover; let’s give Tinubu that benefit of the doubt. It is an opportunity for the man to put himself to service because nobody knew what would come out of Nigeria in 2015 when Buhari was voted in. We should not criticise anybody because of his ambition, we have a choice to make. Let’s give everybody the opportunity to present themselves to serve.
Why is your group so confident that he can lead Nigeria to the promised land?
People are misinterpreting us as a support group; our movement is not a support group, and we are an interest group who foresee that Nigeria is disintegrating because of the communication gap and no cohesion between all the regions and tribes. Greedy people have secured the place of authority, that is why we set up this movement three years ago; to have an input and participate in the governance of Nigeria. We are presenting candidates for all elective positions in 2023.
109 Senators, 360 House of Representatives, over 400 state Assembly and so on. We cannot all lose, what we know that can be different is to bring in new leadership for Tinubu to perform. We are so confident in the vision we see. So, our movement is not about Tinubu alone it is about the unity of Nigeria, power rotation and extracting a local content that would define and determine our structure living together without any rancour or discrimination.
We are about the unity of Nigeria and the only reason we are targeting Tinubu is that we believe he is the only leader among the existing leaders that can hand over power to the youth. Our movement’s desire is to take over power from the current crop of political dealers. Tinubu is the only one that can reason with us to hand over power to the right set of people.
You can see the candidate that came out of Obasanjo; that is Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who was sick with Jonathan as his vice. A leader must be able to bring after them a better leader and that is what we see in Tinubu. He is a reasonable leader that can allow power to transient to a reasonable and logical youth in Nigeria and that is why we are resolute. The rulers in Nigeria are not more than 2000; from the Senate to House of Representatives, local government and state Assemblies.
So, our movement is about producing people to take over the system, overhaul the system. Because there is nothing Tinubu alone can do if you have the crop of politicians that are in Senate and House of Representatives. Our movement is about interest and not support groups and that is why you would never see us filing around Tinubu for money, you would be nervous to see me or my picture around Tinubu because my covenant is for Nigeria. We are only leveraging Tinubu to bring in a new leader.
The #NotTooYoungToRun law is a distraction, Bankole has ruled and Bello is ruling in Kogi they are youths. For me, the law is a distraction for 2023; what Nigeria needs now is the #NotTooPoorToRule law, where people can borrow money to contest elections and pay back with their salary when they get to the office. With that kind of arrangement, a better candidate can be put forward to contest. But the crop of leaders we have now would never pass such a bill; the gap between us who desire to make Nigeria better is the fund.
The people there now have cornered our wealth; you see them giving us N1,000, N2,000 to make us vote for them. I have the right to borrow money to sponsor people to contest elections. I don’t have collateral, that is why I want to use my movement as collateral. We cannot all lose; those that win would make money available for payment of the loan.
Borrowing money to contest elections; are you saying we should encourage that?
A man has integrity when he has enough. This political system is reducing Nigerians to nothing; they have not done anything to empower Nigerians; so, you cannot stop this issue of money politics. You can only abate it by making provisions and changing the system when you get into government.
The present crop of politicians has seen that weakness and is continuing to impoverish Nigerians so that they can continue ruling us. There is no business in the world where you don’t take money to start. So, if a businessman can take that gamble, I don’t see what is wrong with policymakers and decision-makers in any nation taking that as a serious business.
As much as the money would be spent on Nigerians, who are demanding money to exercise their rights, that is the situation we find ourselves in.
So, we can’t run away with that. Until we develop our people and give them food because a hungry man is an angry man. There is nothing Nigerians can do when people offer them money when they are in need. Don’t let us deceive ourselves, we have gotten to the level of borrowing money to contest elections because borrowing money to do business is not helping, because the index factor for growth in Nigeria is not there, government policies have killed all business.
Would this not encourage corruption in public office?
Are we not corrupt already? Everyday people take money abroad, if you borrow money to contest elections you are spending it on people which would even boost the economy after the election. The problem of Nigeria is people siphoning our money and taking it away, if they keep it here it could improve the economy. People would go to a farm, people would spend. So, when we talk about corruption, why we are feeling it more is because there is BVN which is attached to people’s accounts and it does not allow money laundering by third parties and the only way you can steal money is to take it abroad. This corrupt tendency was encouraged by colonial masters; they have designed such that Nigeria money would not stay here.
Ahead of 2023 there are rumours that you are interested in contesting for the House Representatives ticket again for the Ikeja constituency. How true is this?
I was a candidate for 2015 and 2019, it should not be a surprise that I want to contest in 2023, but I am trying to create an enabling environment for my people. Because I am not a desperate politician, it is not only about my ambition alone. Have we done the right thing before I began pasting posters because the season is here? So I am trying to mobilise people, trying to do the needful so I can have the right set of people vote for him.
What is the meaning of ARPM and why was it set up?
It means African Reformation Party. What Nigeria and Africa needs are reforms, how we are using that opportunity to take back Nigeria and follow suit by rescuing other African nations that there is nothing we can do in isolation, being the leaders of all Africa, the most populous nation in Africa. So, in our movement, we are even thinking beyond Nigeria because we know that the Nigeria issue is a done deal and that’s why we are floating the Africa information party.
Does that mean you are planning to defect from the APC ahead of 2023?
Our movement TNN 2023 is not a support group; we are an interest group which means we are doing political empowerment to the people. We are not going to buy tricycles or grinding machines for the people, we are following Tinubu’s empowerment to people by empowering people into the place of authority for them to give back to society. Most of the people you mentioned today coming from the Vice President, Fashola, Ambode, Fayemi, were not giving them tricycles or grinding machines.
Tinubu did not even buy them loaves of bread; he only empowered them politically. He supported them, financed them to be in office and brought good governance to the people. But most of them are now biting Tinubu, the finger that feeds them. We are now selecting like minds in Nigeria to empower politically, to sponsor to office so that Nigeria can benefit from their kind and philanthropic activities.
And when you look at our party the APC, you see the reluctance in doing the right thing, the impunity that is in place is actually affecting the chances of any right-thinking candidate including our principal. We could not let that consume us. Up till now, we have not had Congress, and we’re talking about the primary of the party ahead in 2023. Are you going to continue that way?
If truly you are going to do empowerment for people can APC be able to give all of our 109 senator’s tickets? 360 House of Representatives members without collecting money from them? We believe in an egalitarian society you don’t give what you don’t have.
You can’t expect candidates to be paying N22 million or N15 million in order to seek office and you expect them not to be corrupt. So, those ideologies are not making sense for us and that’s why we are trying to bring in a better system that will be able to help and if APC sees the capacity that we are going to add, they can follow what we are saying which is normal and logical.
Then we will be able to think at that point. But nobody will take you seriously until they have seen what capacity you can put in. So, our basic reason why we are trying to form a political party is to provide a platform for our members to contest elections free of charge, empower them politically. To give back to society in return is bountiful. That is the thing with our movement which cuts across the globe. Not only Nigeria, but we are also in more than 40 countries, in the diaspora and if that is the case, we have the capacity by the constitution of Nigeria to form a political party.
The Lagos chapter of the APC has been marred in an internal crisis recently which has led to the defection of some members including the Lagos4Lagos faction to the PDP. What is your take?
You see Lagos4Lagos is not sincere; defecting to one political party or the other is not the solution about you wanting to prepare yourself to serve. The only way is that Lagos4Lagos should look at alternative platforms, not the party that will provide money to contest the election and feed fat.
So, none of them has stolen Nigeria’s money. PDP ruled for 16 years, APC is on the case for eight years now and that’s why some politicians are finding them very attractive. I mean people who are corrupt minded, jumping fence to fence. There’s no difference between the two parties. Lagos4Lagos showed that they are not sincere by jumping from APC to PDP. For what, if you’re not desperate, what you need to do is to focus on structuring and restructuring this nation to make it work by gathering like minds who are not even politicians.
Ahead of 2023 what is your take on agitations that power should be zoned to the South by the major political parties?
When you talk about zoning it is not what we are talking about, we believe in power rotation. Zoning is a political gimmick to defraud Nigeria. Any politician talking about zoning is a fraud. Power rotation is what we should be talking about; because power rotation is relative and will be attached to the region. No region would take that power twice.
When Jonathan took over Nigeria, he took over from Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who hails from Katsina, when APC came with their candidate they still brought Muhammadu Buhari from the same state. How many times has a single state governed Nigeria?
But when you talk about power rotation, it would have been enshrined in the constitution that any party that wants to bring somebody must be where the rotation agitation is being felt. Zoning is a gimmick to defraud Nigerians, where politicians share Nigeria like cake. Tomorrow you will not make reference to what people felt at that time you would start another new fresh zoning arrangement. So, power rotation is the key thing towards one Nigeria, which would check godfathers bringing people forward irrespective of party and region.
What is your take on the worsening spate of insecurity in Nigeria?
Actually, most of the killings you are seeing now are politically motivated towards winning elections. During the time of Jonathan, you remember about Chibok girls he had claimed based on an intelligence report that such numbers of people could not have been kidnapped until we had the wife of Obama carrying placards before Nigerians put pressure on Jonathan.
So, it is politically motivated towards winning elections and it is now getting worse, because people use rebels to wrestle power, by force or political conspiracy.
These are the results you’re seeing unless we do the right thing. Unless power rotates to the South, the issue of security cannot be resolved. Because the funniest thing is, at that time, Jonathan was blamed for the kidnapping and killing in the North.
People believed that being a Southerner from Bayelsa he must have the solution as the president to solve the problems. This is even when the problem is created artificially by some politicians in order to make you look terrible.
Today Jonathan is not there, somebody from Katsina is not there, does it reduce? No, but it keeps increasing.
You can see that it’s politically motivated and the only solution now is to rotate power down South. If power still remains in the North there is no capacity and will to deal with those enemies and they already have so much resources in their hands.
We know how much money has been used to settle them, we know how much ammunition they have because these things are being favoured by even international communities who benefit from the distortion that is happening in Nigeria.