Thousands of people who belong to various support groups across the country gathered in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State last week where they drummed support for and called on the vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo to declare his intention to contest the 2023 election.
The local organising committee headed by Otu Ita Toyo addressed journalists after the event that was tagged the Uyo Declaration. TNN was at the event and recorded the questions and answers session.
Excerpts:
Question: The support groups are calling on the vice president to contest for the position of president. But is the man ready? Secondly, what if your party refuses to give him the ticket, will you advise him to defect to another political party that may give him the ticket?
Professor Osibanjo’s readiness for service has never been in doubt. Right from the age of 23, he has designated himself for service, it is second nature to the guy. So, the business of trying to persuade him does not even arise. As a matter of fact, he probably feels extremely let down if he doesn’t have something to contribute to the betterment of his country. So he is ready and will run if we give him the platform.
Number two, will we ask him to defect if he doesn’t get the ticket? He is a man of integrity. An ideological man if you like. In these days of very scanty ideology, people like that don’t defect because they have lost one little battle. He will be there to build the country along with other patriots in Nigeria.
God has always given him an opportunity to showcase his talent and he has never shied from it. So he will be there to help others and you can see, he worked as a lecturer, became a professor, became an attorney general, became a SAN; Senior Advocate of Nigeria, became a vice president, a man who has served in all those capacities has shown an incomparable capacity to serve under people. So, this business of defecting is very alien to his character. He will not be encouraged to defect.
How come you are not considering the south-east to take the APC ticket, since the APC has even zoned the ticket to the south. One of you even said earlier that if the VP is not given the ticket, something worse than EndSARS will happen. Can you please explain this?
As you understand and you rightly pointed out, the South of Nigeria is made up of three zones, South South, South East and the South West and I hope you also know that there are other candidates who are involved in the process from the South East and they are equally qualified to be president. Now, what we have done here is to say this is our own choice and that is within the confines of democratic norms, that you can make a choice. In fact, that is democracy, the right to make a choice and that’s what we have done.
Now, if he doesn’t get the ticket and someone from the South East gets the ticket, we will have the opportunity to look at that person and decide if he fits to be, based on our conditions on who should lead this country. So that is not a problem at all.
Now, on the second point, that if he is not elected as the president of Nigeria, we will have problems. I can assure you we will have problems. Let me give you my example. I have a son, he has never registered, he never voted in any election, but he said to me dad, if Osibanjo doesn’t get the ticket, I will not vote and I said to him why? He said because the young people of this country are feeling left behind, nobody cares about them, Osibanjo is the most qualified politician because he easily connects with all categories of people. He has the language, he can deploy them depending on the group he is meeting. So I am just being truthful. The population of this country is in favour of the young people and we cannot continue with the broken politics of the past, the politics of division and self-promotion. I am working so hard to have a country that I will be proud of, to pass on to my children and my children to pass on to their children.
Before the Uyo declaration, there was a similar event in Kano State and there may likely be such events in other parts of the country. I want to know those behind the sponsorship of these events. Is it from his pocket, is it an NGO, I want to know
We have told you that the call for Professor Osinbajo to be president is a movement, it’s a mass movement, there is nobody that is sponsoring it. We are all sponsoring it, your presence here is part of the sponsorship, if we are here, we have everything here and there is nobody here, there will be no event. So all of us are participants in it, we are not holding it to anybody, that is why we believe in him and that is why we know if he gets there, he will not be caged by any leadership or any leader but because it is the masses that are calling on him, it is the masses that are making this movement, that is not being sponsored by any individual, it is a mass movement for change in Nigeria.
You must remember the man is six years now in office and to be sincere, this is a man who has brought governance to the ordinary home of the Nigerians, it is not an accident that those who are more concerned about PYO’s ascension as president are those who have been touched by his attitude and his actions. That is why we are here, that is why you cannot see any semblance of community or organizational capture, this is a mass movement, properly so called, the New Tribe, the old tribe is dead.
Most of us here sponsored ourselves here, if you want to know whether we came here because some people funded us, it’s out of our little savings that we are doing what we are doing and that is why you don’t see money bags who are hovering over us here and telling us what to say. So, this is based on conviction. I paid my way here. All of us here on this desk paid our way here. So just know that this is being funded by the people who are leading this effort. We have 180 support groups, urging Professor Osibanjo to run; that is where the funding is coming from.
This is a follow-up question. Some 180 support groups are mounting pressure on Osinbajo to run. If he runs and wins but fails to perform, his excuse will be that he was forced to come and run. Who would we hold responsible if he fails to perform?
As we have written, PYO has been in leadership position from his 20s and a man like that doesn’t just change his spot overnight. The connection between him and the ordinary people and by extension, the young people of his country is almost visible. The young people of this country are in another age; digital age, the age of artificial intelligence, what have you. But the problem had always been that that sector of the population has largely been neglected or misunderstood. As we sit, I am sure they have spoken out loudly and everybody has heard them. And one of the very savvy politicians who connects with the youth population is PYO himself, and therefore he does not even need an intermediary to deal with the young people, he is not even an old man himself, check him out. So he is a bridge between the very young like us and the older members of the community like you.
First and foremost, we must admit that we are not where we want to be, but we are also not where we used to be. If one set of leaders can solve one problem then we don’t need new leaders. You said what happens if we convince him to run and he doesn’t turn out well, hold me responsible, okay? Look at my face very well and hold me responsible. What I can tell you is that, you see, life is about risk, even you waking up every day and deciding to take a step out there is a risk. You can’t be afraid of travelling in a vehicle because some people died from car crash, it’s even the vehicle that will take the dead body home for burial, so, don’t say because things didn’t go well, based on your own judgement does not mean things can never go well. So, we are sure of who we are selling to you.
