Dele Momodu,
publisher of Ovation magazine, has described the manifesto of Bola Tinubu,
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as an
appropriation of MKO Abiola’s legacy.
APC and its presidential candidate released the 80-page manifesto
tagged ‘Renewed Hope 2023’ on Friday.
The ruling party promised to solve Nigeria’s security and
economic problems if reelected next year.
Momodu — who is the director of strategic communications of the PDP presidential campaign — criticised the document in an article published on Sunday.
In the article titled ‘APC: Renewed hope or forlorn hope?’,
he said the document is filled with “half-thoughts, poor reasoning, and copied
notes” from Abiola’s ‘Hope ’93’ manifesto.
Abiola was the presidential candidate of the Social
Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1993 election.
He was adjudged to have won the presidential poll before it
was annulled by Ibrahim Babangida, then head of state.
Momodu emphasised the difference between Abiola and Tinubu,
describing the latter’s presidential bid as a “forlorn hope”.
He described the manifesto as “an insult to the sensibility
and needs of Nigerians” and accused the authors of “copy and paste”.
Read the full article below:
“After carefully reading through the much-awaited APC
Presidential Campaign Manifesto that was released over the weekend, we cannot
but conclude that the elephant has given birth to an ant. After such a long
delay, what the APC Presidential candidate has come up with is a series of
platitudes, half-thoughts, poor reasoning, and copied notes packaged and
presented as “Renewed Hope”. The APC and its Presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, could not even come up with something original: “Renewed Hope 2023.”
Really? This is again, another attempt by the APC candidate to appropriate
Bashorun MKO Abiola’s Legacy. It would be more salutary if he were to run on
his own steam instead of copying the memory of a man whose life trajectory was
uncommon and whose hope for Nigeria was noble. And the APC candidate should be
reminded that 1993 is far different from 2023,” the Ovation publisher said.
“The late MKO
Abiola was known for industry and brilliance. Shall we ask what the APC
candidate is known for? Whereas MKO’s Hope ‘93 was a genuine course; for the
APC and Nigerians, it’s a forlorn hope ~ and that’s the message of Bola Tinubu
and the APC campaign in 2023
“In all honesty, the 80-page document that the APC has
put together comes across as a little more than an insult to the sensibility
and needs of Nigerians.
“At a time when the country is in dire need of clear
leadership with vision and courage, all the APC seems capable of doing is to
generally copy and paste regurgitated ideas of others with nothing original or
breathtaking. Asiwaju says he “knows the way”. With due respect, he does not.
On more than one occasion, he has advertised himself as the architect of the
victory of the APC in 2015. Their party’s slogan then was “Change.”
“In eight years, they have not been able to change
anything positively. They have led Nigeria into a ditch. Inflation is close to
21%. Unemployment rate is 33%. The Naira is one of the worst-performing
currencies against the dollar in the world. The suicide rate in the country has
risen terribly, because the people have lost hope. Divorce rate too because the
APC and its leaders have castrated families, and ruined “the other room:”.
Thus, they have worsened the condition of Nigerians. Now, in 2022, Tinubu says
he wants to take Nigerians on a journey. A journey to nowhere, most certainly;
or, to be precise – to perdition. A week ago, he promised that he would ensure
the continuity of the current administration. What does he want to continue? If
I may ask: the poverty, agony and cluelessness that the APC have imposed on
Nigerians?
“Like a crafty
student trying to avoid being caught in the act of plagiarism, the authors of
the document have tried to rewrite some unoriginal ideas. The authors of the
document do not only offend Nigerians with their collection of cliches and
pedestrian ideas but they offend, expose and indict the APC candidate Chief
Bola Tinubu. I urge you in the spirit of fairness to interrogate what the APC
calls a manifesto. You will see that they are promising exactly what they have
not been able to achieve in eight years.
“Chief Bola Tinubu is not new to Nigerian politics. It is
sad that he allowed some people to copy and repackage, without tact or grace,
the Abiola Hope ’93 manifesto and mixed it with the 2015 APC/Buhari manifesto
for him. They even have the impudence to tag it ‘Renewed Hope’. Nigerians do
not need a copy and paste manifesto. They want details and original ideas. The
way this country is right now, offering the people empty promises would not
take us forward. The question for every Presidential candidate is how? How will
you solve the problem? We all know what the problem is. Tell us how? For eight
years, Bola Tinubu has projected himself as the power behind the throne. His
party has failed to lead Nigeria forward. They must stop blaming the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP). They must stop blaming the world and COVID 19. The duty
of government is to provide leadership and solve problems. Leadership is about
managing people and resources. Nigeria urgently requires a leader with
exemplary capacity and ability to lead a nation in confusion with distinction
and never with untested experimentation. We’ve already gone through calamitous
experiments in the last eight years. The APC government is the only government
that blames others and the past for its lack of innovation and creativity.
“I insist that the
authors of the APC manifesto exposed and indicted both APC and Chief Bola
Tinubu. The authors of the document, whoever they are, seem so disrespectful of
Nigerians that they do not seem to care or know that Nigerians will ask where
was Chief Bola Tinubu and his running mate when the current administration was
getting things wrong with a similar game plan and manifesto? What did they and
other APC members say or do in private or public to warn the government about
their underperformance? What did they say or do in private or public to remind
the outgoing APC administration that they failed to keep the promises they made
in 2015? What advice or suggestions did they offer the outgoing administration
to keep the lives and properties of Nigerians secure? What advice or
suggestions did they give to grow our economy, create wealth and jobs? What
strategies did they offer the outgoing administration to fight corruption? Were
they just patiently and cynically waiting for the current administration to
fail so they can say “I can do it”? Were they too scared or too engrossed with
their ambition to tackle the government for the sake of Nigeria?
“I have used the phrase “authors of the document”
advisedly because the APC is well-known to dial back, even on its own promises
and it is one party whose candidates may not even know the content of their own
manifestoes. After the 2015 general elections, the APC openly rejected some of
the promises in the party’s manifesto, and that was long after they had been declared
winner. This is probably why their 2023 manifesto this time around is long on
promises and short on details. As a concerned citizen, I don’t think Nigerians
should be taken on another bad ride.
“No other election
in recent Nigerian history can be more important than the 2023 elections. The
time for progress has come, and 2023 must be a referendum on the APC. My appeal
is that voters must vote wisely. And I hope that going forward, Chief Tinubu would
make himself available to attend debates and respond to questions that would be
raised to do so, and when he does so, he should please refrain from his
predilection to reduce serious conversations to vague proverbs and metaphors.
Nigerians are not looking for a ‘dibia’. They want a leader with a clarity of
purpose and vision.”
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