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By Daniel Kanu
Elder Umah Eleazu is the current Chairman, Anya Ndigbo, an umbrella body of all town unions in the Southeast and the Diaspora.
The octogenarian and elder statesman, economist, and political strategist had once ran for the office of the president of Nigeria and thus is familiar with the country’s politics and democratic process.
The 93-year-old outstanding icon told Sunday Sun the danger of failure to elect the right candidate in view of the state of the nation that is heading for the precipice.
He also advised the next president on area of priority attention, which is the re-orientation of the value system, among other critical issues. Excerpt:
What exactly are you expecting from the next president?
I am expecting Nigerians to go for the best candidate among them. So long as the election is free, fair and credible, not rigged in favour of any of the contestants, trust Nigerians, they will not revolt against it. It will be a mistake for all of us, if we refuse to choose right. The candidates have presented their good sides to us and those who are to make the choice, most of them have probed, and grilled the candidates in the sense of trying to find out what they believe in, what their antecedents are, where they are coming from, what their values are…You see, our demographic system or ideology presumes that the voter knows the candidates they want to vote for, in and out, but between you and I, we know that, that is not true. And the people who are contesting for power use all kinds of gimmicks to confuse the voter. So, if the voter is deceived enough, he or she will vote for the wrong person or candidate. Our prayer to put it simply was that people should, to use the current parlance “Shine their eyes,” and vote right. So, if we don’t get it right, but from my point of view to get it right, we have to follow the leadership of the youths. At 93, I can tell you that I have seen it all, having also participated as a presidential aspirant at a time. My views now are that of advice and the way forward if we must get it right. I know that by the time you publish this it is likely that the presidential election may be over and if you ask me, I think what the Labour Party, LP candidates, and their supporters are saying must not be ignored in terms of taking back Nigeria for the good of all Nigerians. To vote that ticket will lead us to having a smooth change in the way we do things in Nigeria and if they win, that will be good for Nigeria, but if they don’t, well, so far the election is conducted in a free and fair atmosphere and is transparent then that becomes the choice of Nigerians on who emerges. And as I said earlier, we will collectively share in the mistake if we did not vote right. We need to vote in the youths to manage this country or we may have regrets later, we may go down into the abyss, and that may possibly lead to anarchy. If we don’t get it right, we will drift into anarchy and that may be the end of Nigeria.
So, what is the challenge before the next president-elect…?
(Cuts in) The expectation is very high looking at where the country is today. The challenge is enormous. The next president has to deal with the rottenness that has taken over the country and that starts with value re-orientation. When I say value re-orientation, it means that we have to begin to go back to set our priorities right as human beings living together in a society. The older parties are so comfortable with the old ways of doing things that I don’t see them being able to create a new mindset that will produce the re-orientation of values needed to take this country to where we should be. So, the first thing the new president will do is this re-orientation of values because presently the moral basis of our society is completely eroded. The life of an individual is now worth nothing. People don’t believe that you can live and let live. People don’t believe that public funds should be used for public purposes. People don’t believe that you should not take the life of another person who has not in any way harmed you. Society as it is today needs a fresh start and that fresh start will begin with the re-orientation of values to create a new mindset and then with that, you can now create the trajectory of building the economy, politics, education etc. There is a need for a sharp departure from the way we do things; hence the urgent need for a re-orientation of value. I pray that whoever will emerge will be the right choice for the job at hand. If he is the candidate Nigerians, indeed, voted for, I do not foresee any problem
What will you expect from the new leadership that will emerge, core issues to adequately address?
Let’s first pray that the popular and best candidate among them will emerge. If we choose right it will be to the good of Nigeria and Nigerians and you will see that people will just follow, but if we make a wrong choice we will go back like squirrels in a circle making the same mistake all over again. The old leader is leaving, I mean, President Buhari and his group, we are looking for a new group of leaders and if a new group of leaders come up and the people who emerge or are brought to take over is not the individual voted by the majority of Nigerians, you will discover that people may resist it and if they run into the street to cause any disorder then it goes back to what I said that we either get it right or we degenerate to anarchy. I have always said it that we must get our choice right or have ourselves to blame for any mistake of wrong choice. This presidential election is a very sensitive one so we must not fail to get it right. That has been my preaching. If we fail to get it right, well we all will be consumed by our mistakes. I pray we will get it right that after the election, Nigerians will smile. Already you know my candidate and I think if he wins, Nigeria will be better for it. You can see that the Peace Committee has been making efforts, trying to get all the leaders of the various political parties to agree that there will be peace. It doesn’t pay anybody to go into the street and start fighting. The laws of this country if they are still being obeyed have stipulated what a person should do if he or she loses, go to court. That is why we set the courts. If you think you have been cheated that you are to be president and you know for sure that you have been cheated out of the office you have won, simply go to court and prove it before the law court. Again this one presupposes that we have a proper value orientation in the court system. Will judges and magistrates take bribe? If I win and then I go to court and the court system is not able to give me justice, that is another problem. If we live in a situation where justice is bought and sold to the highest bidder, it is part of the rottenness in society.
If you know you won’t get justice you will not have the courage or enthusiasm to approach the court. We have seen other places where democracy is practiced the way it should be practiced; we want the democratic process to be the way it should be. We must ensure our democracy works the right way. Given where we are today and the trends, Nigeria needs younger people to drive this country. These are individuals, youths that are not talking about where you come from, your tribe or religion, but driven by competence and capacity to deliver.
