Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, has urged Nigerians to
take more active interest in politics — rather than focus on protests — if they
really want to contribute to the country’s development.
Speaking when he appeared on ‘Urgent Conversations’, a
programme organised by Radio Now 95.3, in partnership with Nextier, and with
the support of Channels TV, the governor said protests cannot bring about
solutions to the problems confronting Nigeria.
El-Rufai urged “good people” in the country to leave the
private sector and come into politics to make the county better.
“I am of the view that the reason why we have the sort of
party we have now in the republic — the fourth republic — which essentially are
platforms rather than ideologically-consistent kind of organisations, was the
nature of the emergence of the fourth republic and what happened before,” he
said.
“Many people in 1998 did not believe that after the death of
late general Abacha, the military would leave. This is because of the endless
transition programmes that the country went through, and maybe by then, the
better people, the best politicians, the more honest politicians got exhausted
and dropped by the wayside.
“But I think the best people in Nigeria, the professionals,
the bright guys, public service orientation, those that really believe that
politics should not be about personal interest kept away. Now, once those first
set of governors and others went in, it’s very difficult to dislodge them.
“Good people must offer themselves for public service and
suffer the indignity that we all suffer. We get abused every day; we get
insulted; we get accused, but we must have our best people in public service.
We must have our best people in politics.
We must not have them in banks, in telecoms companies, in oil companies
and in civil societies protesting. Protesting what? Protesting will take you
nowhere unless you have a seat at the table and the most important table is
that political table.”
He also urged youths to ensure that they embrace politics,
but also be patient while contesting for political positions, as governance is
a process.
“My call to Nigerians is, if you want to see better
governance, be part of the selection process of those that offer themselves for
public service and politics. And the only way to do so is to join political
parties, and be active, and influence the leadership that emerges in the
political parties. There is no other way; no shortcut to it,” the governor said.
“The pastors and imams that have made money, the bankers,
the telecoms guys, leave that thing, come and make Nigeria work, because if it
doesn’t work you will not sleep at night no matter how much money you make. I
believe that if we have more and more young people, and we have five million of
them attaining the age of 18 every year, they can come and overwhelm the
parties and chase out the old men like me and take over.
“But they must come and not stand on the sidelines and keep
criticising. Any fool can criticise. Solutions are what this country needs. You
can only propose these solutions, fight for them if you are in the system.
“I have said this before and I will say it again. Young
people think that because the not-too-young-to-run bill has been passed and
they join a political party yesterday, they will go for elections tomorrow. It
doesn’t work that way. You must not come into any organisation with a sense of
entitlement. We are all young too. We worked through the ladder to get to where
we are.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com