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Vincent G. Uba, is the national coordinator of No Alternative to Tinubu 2023, (formerly No Alternative To Buhari-Osinbajo 2019) and former President, Catholic Young Men Association (CYMA) now Catholic Brothers United (CBU) and a Lagos based business man, in this interview with GBENGA ADERANTI talks about the 2023 presidential election, why the group is supporting Tinubu, Osun governorship election. Excerpts
How do you describe the political space in Nigeria right now, considering the attacks on the three Presidential candidates of the three major political parties?
I think some people are unnecessarily heating up the polity, deviating from issue based arguments and campaigns and resorting to crude personal attacks on the candidates. This is clearly a sign that we are not yet matured politically. Let me use this opportunity to advise Nigerians, especially the youths, to refrain from these personal attacks and focus on the individual’s competence and capabilities based on past records of performance. These attacks, rather than portray us as serious minded citizens, expose us as uncivilised persons bereft of good upbringing. We transmuted from the “No Alternative To Buhari-Osinbajo 2019” (NTABO 2019) to “No Alternative To Tinubu 2023” (NATT 2023) before the APC presidential primary election.
Before the primary election, my group was in the forefront, pushing that Mr. President and APC maintained a level playing ground for all the contestants, and that was respected, hence the best candidate in the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged. Our group is seriously advocating for issues based campaigns and we have started to tell Nigerians, especially the youths, why there is “no alternative to Tinubu” in the 2023 Presidential election, based on his track record of achievement and his good personal inter-relationship with people across the country.
We will tell Nigerians that this election should not be about religion, but about the well-being of all Nigerians irrespective of religion. The person most suited to handle the religious diversity of the country is the man who is the most religious tolerant person, and that person is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Some people have expressed the fear that the political parties are divided along tribal line, what are your thoughts?
The emergence of a particular candidate and the style of his campaigns and those of his followers have contributed in polarising the polity and the country along tribal line, and I frown at this kind of politics. We don’t gain anything by advocating that we should support a particular candidate just because he is from a particular tribe. Rather we gain, all of us Nigerians, by queuing behind a candidate we know can deliver irrespective of tribe. The right person, in the face of this tribal sentiment, is Bola Ahmed Tinubu because, his antecedents have shown that he is the most detribalised among all the contestants for the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
With the present opposition, do you see your party emerging tops in the next year presidential election?
With the quality of the presidential candidate of APC, in the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate Kashim Shettima , I have no doubts in my mind that APC will win the 2023 presidential election. No opposition can succeed in attempting to stop Tinubu and Shettima because they are the most widely acceptable persons across the country. When you talk about opposition, those who are opposing APC and the flag bearer are the ignorant and unenlightened persons who want to use the current economic crisis in the country that is not the making of the present administration, but as a result of consistent global crises since 2015. Every sincere person knows that we have global recession from which Nigeria is not excluded.
Again, I ask, will Muslim-Muslim ticket deny you of putting food on your table? Will Muslim-Muslim ticket prevent infrastructure provision in all parts of the country? Will it make Christians or other people different faiths not to practice their faith? Why all these hypocrisy of religion? If you examine the personal life styles of some those making noise about Muslim-muslim ticket, you will discover that they are nothing to be proud of . For your information, the man at the centre of this Muslim-Muslim ticket, Asiwaju Tinubu, is the most religious tolerant person amongst all the three major contenders for Presidency of the country. His wife is a Christian and a pastor. Hear, this my personal experience as the former President of Catholic Young Men Association, now Catholic Brothers United. I was once invited to the presentation of the stewardship of Peter Obi as the governor of Anambra State after his first term at the house of Late Commodore Ndubuisi Kanu in Victoria Island, Lagos, over twelve years ago.
After the presentation, I and the person I went with meet personally with Peter Obi who happens to be one of the patrons of Catholic Young Men Association (CYMA) for his financial support for the charity and evangelical works of the Association. He told us that he was looking for money to develop Anambra State and could not do anything for the association. We were disappointed at his response, wondering if a donation of N100, 000 to N200,000 would make him not to develop Anambra State though we didn’t ask for Anambra State money, but his personal donation. In another instance, the Catholic Young Men Association invited another of our patron, one Honourable Yomi Ogunnusi to one of our annual lectures. He came, made his personal donation and presented an additional donation of N150, 000 from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for us.
Tinubu is neither a Catholic nor a Christian. I have not met him before, but he donated to a Christian course. God who created us is more interested on how we make positive impact on fellow humans than our professed religious inclination. So those who are kicking against Muslim-Muslim ticket should as a matter moral conscience stop.
How has the loss of the governorship election in Osun State affected the confidence of your group and party in general?
That was a governorship election, not presidential. The dynamics will change in the presidential election. Mind you, APC came second with over 370,000 votes, while Labour Party known for social media noise, performed dismally with less 3,000 votes. So our group’s confidence and that of APC have not been affected at all by that loss.
What opposition are you facing right now from your home state for supporting APC?
I have always faced opposition for supporting APC both during the presidential election that saw Buhari emerge as the President in 2019 and now, but despite that, I made sure that Buhari won in two polling units in my community then. Right now I’m facing a stiffer opposition for not supporting my fellow Igbo man in the other party. There’s something that happened to me last week when I mistakenly drove my car on a road designated “one way” at Ilupeju, Lagos and I was arrested and my car taken to Alausa. Most of my people saw that as an opportunity to advise me against supporting APC, erroneously suggesting that it was because I am an Igbo man that my car was arrested.
They reminded me of the article I wrote in favour of Governor Sanwo-Olu in the build up to the governorship election in 2019 titled “Why Sanwo-Olu remains best choice for Lagos”, published in most of the national newspapers. You can read that piece to understand it more when you goggle “Why Sanwo-Olu remains the best choice for Lagos”. In that article, I extolled the virtues of Tinubu , not knowing he will contest for the presidency of the country this time around. I tried telling my people that I was not arrested because I am an Igbo man, that a lot of Yoruba people who made the same mistake suffered the same faith also, even those in government. I tried to make them understand that even though my car was impounded, government was doing a good thing to sensitise Lagos roads and users as it is done in other civilised climes. Opposition or no opposition, I have the right as a Nigerian, to choose who to support at any given time based on my judgement of who will better handle the affairs of the country.
Mind you, Imo State, my home state is an APC state and my zone Okigwe, is the base of APC, not only in Imo State but also in all the South Eastern States.
If you were to advise the party leaders, what would you be telling them?
I will tell them, to unite and work in the interest of the party and the nation. I will advise that they throw tribal sentiments to the dust bin and work to retain the Presidency of the country. Emulate the likes of Orji Uzor Kalu, Dave Umahi and others who have jettisoned tribal sentiments to support Tinubu. I will also advise those party leaders who are trying to work against the party because of Muslim- Muslim ticket to sheath their swords in the interest of party and country and support the party’s flag bearers. Above all they should emulate the Presidential flag bearer, Asiwaju Tinubu, who has been criss-crossing the country humbly visiting and appealing to those who contested with him to see the need to join him in this rescue mission to move the country forward.
What lesson has your group learnt since the last Presidential election?
We as a group have learnt that for national interest, we must sacrifice our individual interests and work together to move the country forward. Before the APC primary election, we in the exco decided that we must choose who to support in our party. Some argued that we must wait till after primary, while others suggested we select who to support before the primary. It was put vote and those who said we should go ahead to support a candidate before the primary carried the day. The next task was who to support among all the aspirants in the party. It was put to vote again and Tinubu had the majority support. So, all the group members decided to toe the line of the majority, including those who were against Tinubu originally. That is the beauty of democracy. Our group has also learnt that though we were not rewarded for our contributions towards assisting President Buhari to win, we should continue to do the right thing for the love of country.
What factors do you think will determine who becomes Nigerian President in 2023?
There are four major factors that will determine who wins the Presidency in 2023. They are track record of achievement of the candidate, individual goodwill of the candidate, versatility of the candidate across the six geo-polical zones and off-course the will of God. Just like every organisation looking for the services of someone for a particular assignment will embark on aggressive search for the right person who possesses the requisite experience, competence and wisdom, Nigerians will be looking for that person whose track record of performance ranks the highest among the different contestants in the forthcoming Presidential election. Obviously, Tinubu and and Shettima are the candidates. Again Nigerians will be looking for the person whose individual goodwill ranks the highest among others. Tinubu’s goodwill is second to none and has no ethnic and religious boundaries. Thirdly, the person who is the most wildly known and acceptable accross the country will be the choice of the majority in 2023 Presidential election. Tinubu again ranks the highest in this. Lastly, the will of God will be the determining factor also. By the singular fact that Tinubu and his Vice surpass others in all the other three factors, especially their Goodwill, the will of God will definitely be in their favour.
The Nation
