Nigerian entrepreneur and economist, Atedo Peterside, has identified three conditions necessary before Nigeria can improve significantly.
He made the comment while speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily.
Mr Peterside, who lamented that Nigeria has lost about 35 million jobs in five years, said it was impossible to separate economics from politics.
According to him, Nigeria has to focus on the quality on the electoral act, lessen voter apathy and increase participation in political parties.
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“The quality of the electoral act makes a big difference regarding what type of candidates you attract,” Mr Peterside said.
And “it is important to get young Nigerians to turn back and believe in the system,” he added when commenting on voter apathy.
Mr Peterside also stressed that a “country is as good as its political parties.”
Jonathan’s chances
Mr Peterside, who recently joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) also commented on speculations that former President Goodluck Jonathan will soon join the ruling All Progressives Congress and contest again for President.
He said although he voted for Jonathan in 2011, his approval ratings have since gone down and the job description for a Nigerian President has evolved.
“You know again that I am a data person and I’m sorry, I cannot change who I am,” Mr Peterside said.
“Goodluck Jonathan, I was on his economic team, I worked with him, I was also on Yar’Adua’s economic team.
“Let me use the data, I said in 2011, Goodluck Jonathan had a 54% approval rating and by 2015 before election, it had collapsed to below 26%, the recent poll I saw, not done by us because we don’t waste time on things that are not all that relevant, his approval rating was below 5%.
“So everybody is free to ignore data and come out and do anything they want to do. In fact, I hope that the APCs of this world would make a mistake and bring out people whose approval ratings are very low. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
“He was the best candidate, I voted for him in 2011, that was a different era, that was a totally different era. The skill set, the gravity of the problem, the coverage required, it is a totally different job. Time does not stand still. But please, let parties ignore data and bring out anybody they like. Everybody should run the party the way they want to run their party. I have no say in APC, I have no say in PDP, I mean, I joined SDP just this week, I have a bit of a say but I’m not even a party officer.
“I’m in a chapter; the chairman of my state chapter is a lady who is below 35. You know, these are young people that have come in en masse because they don’t want APC, they don’t want PDP and I’m following them.”
