Mr Olufela Durotoye has identified what he describes as the absence of good governance as the major cause of the challenges facing the country.
The presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) stated this in an interview with Channels Television, where he highlighted the plans of his administration for Nigerians.
“I’m not a politician, I’m a nation-builder,” Durotoye told Ladi Akeredolu-Ale on Roadmap 2019, a special political programme which airs on Mondays.
“The greatest challenge we have with turning a blessed country like Nigeria into a great nation is just getting good governance for Nigeria, and getting politicians out so that nation builders can govern.”
‘Partisan Corruption’
The ANN candidate noted that his counterparts on the platform of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Professor Kingsley Moghalu, and former presidential candidate of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, also belong to the nation-builder class.
According to him, they are on a mission which is very much different from the agenda of the political class and they are determined to ensure the common Nigerian gets a better life.
“Just going by what you would call the quality of life index, I would say that we haven’t done well. There are now more people out of work more than ever,” Durotoye decried.
He added, “Where is the hope? Today I think that is one of the greatest challenges that we have. In terms of hope, Nigerians are less hopeless; in fact, more hopeless than they have ever been.
“And you can see that also in the number of people travelling out. Today, most people have lost faith in government but that’s not the one that pains me the most; they have lost faith in themselves.
“They have lost faith in their ability to be able to change and make things better.”
The ANN candidate further condemned the situation where the fight against corruption is purportedly aimed at a section while the others are left out.
He queried why those who were accused of corruption would suddenly become free of the charges against them in the name of moving from one camp to the other.
Durotoye said, “When you look at corruption today, we would say that we are doing really bad in terms of the fact that corruption today has become a joke. It’s a laughing stock for most people.
“Corruption is partisan that if you are in a particular party, then you have the tendency to be corrupt. If you are within another party, even if you were labelled corrupt before, all of the sudden now you’re a saint.”
