Engineer Taofeek Ayinde, the Chairman for Nigeria for Bold Actions has said that If presidential candidates can concentrate on issues based politics, the country will be better.
Ayinde disclosed this during an interview with DEBORAH MUSA, where he spoke on Nigeria’s quest for the entrenchment of democratic values and other sundry issues.
He said “If they can concentrate on issues based politics, the country will be better. They should not under the guise of campaign, damage the image of the country. The political class should also at all times protect, guide and ensure that the interest of the country is prioritized”.
“Let the people see your capacity, competence and that when they vote for you, you will perform to the best of their expectations. If candidates concentrate on their agenda, it will make politics more interesting”.
The parties have refused to follow the new act of the Electoral process, he stated that “the candidates are not used to following due process but everyone is trying to adjust. So by 2023 or thereafter, you will see that every political party will become conscious of due process. Even the National Assembly signed a law that virtually exempted them from participating in primaries”.
Speaking on the rising tension along ethnic and religious lines concerning the forthcoming Presidential Elections, he said the campaign season comes with a lot of sentiments.
The former Osun State gubernatorial candidates, said “looking at the political party system, it consists of all ethnic groups and religions, so we should not allow politicians to use any of these sentiments to convince the generality of the populace to win election. As an association, we see these things that politicians ride on to get the attention of the people but they are not the problems of our country”.
However, giving credit to the past elections conducted in Osun and Ekiti, he commended INEC for a well job done.
” It seems INEC is fully prepared and we also noticed that politicians are on their toes because the new Electoral Act is doing a lot of magic. I am optimistic that the forthcoming election will be free and fair. I don’t think we will have issues of over-voting, ballot box snatching, killing among other infractions”.
“The youths are very active, they are going to participate. They want to experience a working country. Everybody is fully prepared for the election”,he added.
Assessing the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, he said “he concentrated in three areas, security, corruption and infrastructure and also the economy, the number of corrupt people that have been tried under him are by far more than that of any government including convictions”.
Ayinde added that the aim of his organisation was to gather people with similar interest across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria under one platform.
“We have decided to form an association, there are people who have genuine interest in Nigeria. We want Nigeria to grow and compete with other nations, we want it to be a nation that our children will be proud of in the future.
