'Nigeria needs a visionary leader like Tinubu as president'

• Published date: 11 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Gbenga Soloki is the Executive Director of the Centre Against Injustice and Domestic Violence (CAIDOV), a non-governmental organisation. In this interview with reporters in Lagos recently, he speaks on the general elections, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. OYEBOLA OWOLABI reports

There has been a lot of apprehension about the forthcoming general election. As an activist and journalist, what are your views about the elections?

There is always apprehension every election year because Nigerians are restless based on what they have witnessed in past elections. From my perspective, it is normal to be apprehensive. But, from what I have noticed so far because I monitored the governorship elections in Ekiti State and Osun State, the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has assisted a lot and I am so sure that if it is deployed during the forthcoming general elections, we will have a very successful election. Though there is no hitch-free election anywhere in the world, at least it would be an improvement on the previous ones. I want to appeal to Nigerians, who are yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to do so to enthrone a government they would all be proud of.

In your view, what are the chances of the four frontline presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP?

Nigerians would vote for a president with antecedents, and pedigrees of achievements, not just 'my town's man' or 'my ethnic person'. They will look beyond religion or ethnicity to vote in this coming election. I am saying that because the election would determine Nigeria's future. If you look at Peter Obi of the Labour Party, the people of the Southeast are already ethnicising his presidential aspiration, which is not good. We have an Obi, who was a state governor, let him show what he did in Anambra State and showcase his record of achievements. The same goes for Kwakwanso, a former governor of Kano State. It is also on record that the man whom Atiku worked with as vice president declared him unfit for the exalted position of president. From what we have read so far in the book of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, 'My Watch,' he called Atiku some unprintable names. Number three, it was during his tenure that federal parastatals were sold at...