A former ambassador to the Scandinavian countries; Sweden, Denmark and Norway and a retired permanent secretary, Dr. Godknows Igali on Saturday, described as troubling, a pattern of Nigerian politics were older people were still playing the major roles, whereas in many countries young aspirants have been dominating the political space.
He also called on Nigerians to vote for candidates that have ideas and positive track records in the 2023 elections.
Igali who is also Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Board of Federal University of Technology, Akure, raised the concern in an interview with Journalists during a breakfast seminar tagged, ‘Let’s talk Politics 2.0’, with the theme, ‘2023 and beyond: Leadership, Politics and Citizenship Engagement’, organised by St. James Anglican Church, Asokoro in Abuja.
He said, “I have raised some fundamental issues about the morphology of politcal party primaries because some patterns were a little bit troubling. While many countries have young aspirants, there is still a lot of gerontocracy in ours.
“Older people are still playing the major roles. I have also expressed fears that there were very few female candidates that emerged unlike other countries where females are becoming very cardinal. I aIso have some issues on the issue of money. In the primaries, you saw that money played a major role and I thought that we should be looking at candidates that have competence.
“I also raised an issue about the place of manifesto, the place of ideas or thoughts. Nigerian citizens should pick candidates that have positive ideas. Going forward, let us look for candidates that have ideas and their track records. This idea of people being swayed by money, you will have eight years to regret. You have eight years of your mouth being shut.”
Igali also called on the church and other religious organisations to work together with the Independent National Electoral Commision, enlighten the electorate on the dangers of vote buying to ensure that votes count in the 2023 elections.
“So, I think the churches and Islamic leaders in mosques have to work together with INEC and enlighten our people and tell them, ‘don’t give up, continue to make effort’. I think that is the message, people should not just say, ‘let me collect money it doesn’t matter.’ No, it matters now that we have the BVAS, let’s hope and pray that the BVAS would work properly and if they work properly it means every vote will count,” he emphasized.