2027: Why I prefer Adebayo to Atiku, Obi, others – Bugaje

By Ihechukwu Sunday

Former National Secretary of the defunct Action Congress (AC) and chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Dr Usman Bugaje has said that the kind of a leader Nigeria needs at the moment is one that has the character, the competence and the courage to do the right thing, irrespective of whether the person is from the South or North.

He, however, said he appears to have found all those traits in the leader and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo.

Responding to a question of who he would have supported in 2023 if he did not support former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he said he would have supported Prince Adebayo, whom he said comes across as somebody who understands the country’s issues.

Although he supported Atiku in 2023, he stated that in 2027, he would not go that route again since the new conversation is centered on a candidate with competence, character and the courage to move the nation forward.

On the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, he said he didn’t know him well enough to support him, adding, “I’ve been in this business for 25 years and I saw there are ways you measure people and size them up. So, the people I saw around Obi were not people that were ready to take the nation together. They were all reacting or angry about a particular part of the country and they were all fuming and trying to go on a vengeance. So, that was my worry.

“I would have supported Prince Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He comes across to me as somebody who understands the terrain and this country. I don’t have a full background of what he has been doing, but as a person, he comes across as somebody who knows what he wants to do.”

Reacting to the APC’s national chairman’s call on the north to support President Tinubu in 2027 to complete the eight for the South, he said such conversation had become outdated.

He noted now is the time to start a new conversation on how to have to bring about real development devoid of politics of South or North. He said: “We’re having democracy with all the noise about North and South, yet the country is not developing. If anything, it’s de-developing and going down the drain. All the indices of development are taking a nosedive. So, I would rather say that we must recognize every part of this country and be inclusive. I think we will be losing out on the challenges that are facing us if we continue with all the talks about North and South.”

He described former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as a disaster, saying, “I thought Buhari’s experience is sufficient evidence that the idea of putting somebody from one part of the country to become president doesn’t work. It doesn’t make sense because what do you want him to do; to favour his part of the country and abandon others? This is very naive, to say the least. So, the point I’m making is that you can achieve inclusion but not at the expense of development.”

He called on Nigerians to recognize that there is no part of the country that has monopoly of competence as competent Nigerians are found in the South West, South East, South-South, North East, North West, and North Central. “Why don’t you pick those competent Nigerians from different parts of the country to fix and run your country? Why do you go for people who are barely educated, people who are crooks, people who have no idea of where to take this country and people who cannot engage the world? All they know is primitive accumulation and consumption with very perverse tastes, simply running the country down,” he said.