Top presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections Monday took turns at the ongoing 2022 Annual National Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the 62nd in the series, holding in Lagos, during which they dissected the nation’s challenges and suggested ways out.
The speakers include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Oluwole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The conference was themed “Bold Transitions” which started August 19 and ending August 26, 2022 and holding at the Eko Atlantic City in Lagos state.
They all spoke during the panel session moderated by former NBA President Olisa Agbakoba (SAN).
While Shettima said the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tunubu and himself would replicate the feats they achieved in Lagos and Borno as governors, Atiku said everything negative was happening in Nigeria of today, promising to fix the challenges.
Atiku
Addressing the gathering, former Vice President Atiku said since 1999, Nigeria had never experienced the level of poverty, insecurity and unemployment it’s presently passing through.
“Since the return of democracy in 1998/99, Nigeria has never found itself in such a very, very critical point in our history. Today, we have had all the negative indices. Today, we are all disunited in the nation.
“We have never experienced this level of poverty. We have never experienced this state of insecurity. We have never experienced this level of unemployment. We have recognised all these negative development in our history,” he said.
The former VP said history beckoned on Nigerians to tackle the negative developments.
“This is where history and experience beckon on us to make sure that we don’t get it wrong at this point in time otherwise if we get it wrong, I don’t know when we will ever get it right.
“I have been involved in the struggle to return this country to democracy to this country in the time of military days. In fact, I can even say I was even lucky to be alive because so many of my contemporaries have been killed in this struggle but by the grace of God I have survived till this point in time,” said the PDP standard bearer.
The former VP was also reported to have posted on his Twitter page, Monday, saying he was at the NBA conference to give lawyers insights into his bold policy.
“I used the opportunity of the first plenary session of the 62nd NBA conference to give Nigerian lawyers an insight into my bold policy framework that embodies Unity, Security, Economy, Education and Devolution of power to states and local governments.
“Known by the acronym of Unity-SEED. I stressed how interconnected these five policy prescriptions are. I assured them that a new Nigeria of our dreams is possible in the hands of a bold man of experience. -AA,” he tweeted.
On the crisis in the nation’s public varsities, the former VP said he would transfer the control of public universities to the state government if elected president.
Speaking against the backdrop of the ongoing federal government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) face-off, Atiku said the continued closure of universities would not have happened if the education system wasn’t exclusively meant for the federal government to handle.
Atiku said: “The only way is to make sure that you make conducive environment available to both foreign and local investors to participate in our country, whether it is infrastructure, whether it is education, whether it is power.
“I had an argument with a university professor from Federal University, Lokoja. He said he read in my policy document that I intended to devolve, in other words, to return education to the states. How dare I do that?”
“I believe we have had an experience and that experience must be brought back,” he said, adding that under the present administration, the country has recorded “all the negative indices. Today we are more disunited.”
Shettima
In his remarks, the APC vice presidential candidate, Senator Shettima, said Nigerians won’t vote “pretentious politicians” but a candidate like Tinubu with capacity to replicate the “wonders” in Lagos and Borno states.
The pretentious politicians, Shettima said, “often speak nice but end up performing underwhelming after ascending positions of authority.”
The two-term governor who stood in for the APC presidential candidate said: “Nigerians have the capability to see through the worn-out rhetoric and sophistry of pretentious politicians. Nigerians should follow the man who knows the road.
“From day one, we will hit the ground running. We’ll promptly address the issue of the economy, ecology and security.”
Recalling his achievements as governor, Shettima said: “I built some of the best schools in Nigeria. Go to Borno and see wonders. You will never believe that it is a state in a state of war.”
He called on Nigerians to vote for a leader with the “skill set for global economy”, saying the leader that transformed Lagos’s economy into one of the largest in Africa and “mentored men and women” has the capacity to lead the country.
Obi, Adebayo
Also speaking at the session, the LP standard bearer, Mr. Obi, urged Nigerians to vote “a visionary leader,” stressing that with the level of insecurity and economic “mess, next year’s election should be about character, capacity, competence.”
In his own remarks, Mr. Adebayo of the SDP also said there was an urgent need for the political class to “stop stealing” and allow the nation’s wealth impact the people positively.
He said one of the ways of stabilising the Naira was to refrain from having “a dual system where one person who has a friend in the Central bank can make $30 million dollars by buying at the official rate and selling to the hard-working people” at an increased rate.
The SDP flag bearer also said: “Importers and supermarket owners should not be making more money than manufacturers and farmers.”
Kachikwu
Also taking his turn at the confab, the ADC presidential candidate, Mr. Kachikwu called Tinubu great grandfather, Atiku – grandfather and Obi father.
He further said: “If the panel session on democratic transitions in 21st Century Nigeria went on for another 5hrs, the other candidates would not be able to proffer any solutions to the issues plaguing the nation. They can’t give what they don’t have.”
He bemoaned the fact that schools in Abuja had been shut down over security issues even though President Buhari lives in Abuja. “So, what part of Nigeria could then be considered safe?”
Omokri on Tinubu’s absence
However, a former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Pastor Reno Omokri, queried Tinubu’s absence at the meeting of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
He said on his Facebook handle: “If Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi can fly to Lagos to speak at the Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference, then what excuse can Bola Tinubu have if he does not show face there? It is happening in Lagos. He lives in Lagos. Lagos is his base. He claims to be from Lagos (although Osun…).
“The venue of the 2022 NBA Annual General Conference is exactly 5.7 kilometres from Bola Tinubu’s residence at Bourdillon, Ikoyi. Atiku flew 1400 kilometres from Yola to attend. Obi is attending. Something must be wrong somewhere if Tinubu does not attend! Why is Tinubu running away from talking to Nigerians?”