23 PRESIDING QUESTIONS FOR 2023 PRESIDENTIAL QUESTS: THEIR AMBITIONS VERSUS OUR CONVICTIONS

 

PREAMBLE

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has slated the 2023 Presidential election for Saturday, 25th February, 2023. Therefore, from Saturday, 17th September, 2022, to Saturday, 18th February, 2023, I shall be reeling out weekly, one critical question over a period of 23 weeks, for all the 2023 Presidential candidates. Please repost each question every week till it reaches all the Presidential candidates or their close aides who may be willing to give their feedback via @toluademujimi on twitter or @adetolu ademujimi on linkedin. It is an opinion-shaping inquisition via 23 fundamental questions about the Nigerian project. Please take note that there are NO RIGHT or WRONG ANSWERS as such! It’s simply a reflection of each candidate’s opinion, thought and conviction on specific issues and Nigerians should expect that these stances shall influence their respective administration’s philosophy, policies and programmes if elected as Nigeria’s President come year 2023.

The 23-week long session shall be divided into four sections;

Section A – Reform of governance structure for decentralization/federalism, economic revolution & security restoration

Section B – Revamp of physical infrastructure

Section C – Recovery of social architecture

Section D – Remodeling of political culture

“Our administration will construct schools, roads, hospitals & rails and secure the nation” is a famished presidential campaign rhetoric that no longer moves mountains. “I’m in the race to promote peace, justice, unity & progress” is a blank political promotion line frequently used by Presidential hopefuls in Nigeria that tells nothing. Away from those kinds of unconvincing and unbinding electioneering talks, there are crucial interrogations to be made at Nigeria’s crossroads called 2023 Presidential elections. One civic duty of mine, like all other Nigerians, is to ask such essential questions from those who aspire to lead us.

As important as it is to acquaint ourselves with persons desiring to occupy the number one seat in the land by digging into their backgrounds, we perhaps need more than knowing if he/she is for instance, corrupt or incorruptible. Political events of the recent past have proven to us that a saintly Mr. President might yet not know the critical road to Nigeria’s promised land and the hard lessons from these are fresh and rife. That an incorruptible President mounts the saddle and keeps our coffers safe from the filthy hands of public pilferers neither guarantees that our commonwealth will be effectively harvested for greater yield nor more justly, equitably and efficiently distributed to reach majority (even if not all) Nigerians, particularly the 70-80% of us residing at the subnational level.

This intellectual inquisition is therefore not unconnected with the fact that every President’s leadership strategy is primarily driven by ‘his/her convictions’ about the problems besetting our nation, and marshals his/her solutions in that line. It is imaginably more imperative to thus inquire of their clear stance on critical issues in order to rather impress on them, ‘our convictions’, which override their ‘ambitions’ of presiding over the current contraption called Nigeria.

EXAMPLE

206 million-populated Nigeria with less than $US25 billion Federal Government’s (FG) 2021 budget based on revenue receipts from crude oil (soon-to-be-jettisoned fossil fuels) and non-oil sectors is factually a poor nation falsely portrayed as rich (because of the large-scale public corruption and ostentatious life of public office holders), Unfortunately, the very educated Nigerians aren’t even aware of this bitter truth. If the State of Maryland (with a population of 6.06 million people) in the United States generated $US47.4 billion as revenue in 2021 (source: https://dbm.maryland.gov/budget/Documents/operbudget/2021), Nigeria is a poor country. Lionel Messi’s base salary of approximately $646,000 (N245.48 million) per week in 2021, amounting to $141.3 million (N53.694 billion) total earning per annum (for 1 person; and that's before considering his lucrative deals with the likes of Adidas and Pepsi), was more than the combined Federal Allocation and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of some States in the same year. To what extent do you agree with these positions?

a. I strongly agree              b. I agree     c. I disagree             d. I strongly disagree

Answer: I strongly agree

 

Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi is a Change Ambassador under the Ondo Service Improvement Programme (ODSIP), Medical Doctor, Author, Reformer, Coach and Public Policy expert who wrote in from Akure in Nigeria. Email: ademujimi@yahoo.co.uk; Twitter: @toluademujimi; Instagram: @adetoluademujimi; Linkedin: @adetolu ademujimi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aketi's Candour - Our Country's Candle

Image
  He was an attorney, activist, administrator, advocate of good governance, family man and politician whom God crowned his multi-faceted career with the people’s mandate as Governor of Ondo State when he took the oath of office first on 24 th February, 2017 and for the second time on a similar date in 2021. Notwithstanding his imperfections like you and I, one trait stood him out in the crowd of Nigeria’s political actors; he was exceptionally frank! Truth is an indomitable and immortal antidote to political falsehoods, social half-truths, governance pretences, economic tricks, legal charades, and administrative shams, all of which are despicably synonymous with Nigeria’s recent history. Aketi was unshaken in conveying that truth. Despite his membership of the privileged class of political elite – the Nigeria Governors’ Forum – from 2017 till death, this courageous man often spoke as though he was a part of the dissatisfied and oppressed. Despite his membership of the ruling All
Read more

MY POP TURNS 70 - JUBILANT PLATES FOR HIS PLATINUM JUBILEE

Image
  He is fondly called Igwe by his political associates; Kollington by old school mates; Doki by persons in his social & medical circles; Egbon by those who adore him as a reliable big brother; Honourable by people who remember he was a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly between 1992 and 1993; Kola by his contemporaries; and daddy or grandpa by those of us with filial ties to this charitable persona. Ask for three words to succinctly characterize Dr. Kola Ademujimi - my old man - and I will echo ‘simple, kind-hearted and people-centric’ seventy times, at least to remind the world of his platinum jubilee on the surface of the earth this 30 th day of June, 2023. Here is one father who never, I mean, never, raised his hands on me as a child till I moved out of his house as an adult – a very rare characteristic of an African father! Here is one father who ensured I honed my skills of independence at a ‘prime age’ through two remarkable events – a funded bank account and
Read more

From Marks to Market – Education is past passing WAEC and JAMB exams (ONDO 2025 - 2029)

Image
  Not minding this lengthy read, please note that formal and informal streams of education complement each other to form a wholly educated human whether in Ondo, Jigawa, Abia or even other parts of Africa and beyond our continent. For the umpteenth time, formal education is beyond the enhancement of reading, writing and technical/professional skills (although the three are critical skill sets for every learner) as elucidated in m y humble recommendations on 1 st November 2023 via an article titled “ Contemplating the Five Outputs of Contemporary Education: Tangible Mantra for Tahir Mamman-led Education Ministry ” ( https://sartoriusresources.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-five-outputs-of-contemporary.html ). In Ondo, ours is a State wherein individuals and government take pride in the attainment of enviable heights in the arena of formal education. Therefore, having Ondo State indigenes come out among high-flying candidates at West African Examination Council (WAEC) and Joint Admissi
Read more