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How do you react to the victory of Jonathan at the recent Presidential poll?
I congratulate him on his well-deserved victory and thank Nigerians from all walks of life that voted for him resoundingly.
However, I appeal to all Nigerians, irrespective of culture, religion or whatever background, to come together and support him in his onerous task of piloting the affairs of this country.
There could only be one President at a time, so it behooves all those who lost in the election to eschew bitterness and in the spirit of sportsmanship, gallantly accept defeat and congratulate him.
I am 100 per cent convinced that when he is sworn in on May 29, he would perform even better than he has done so far. But this would become possible only if Nigerians support him.
What advice do you have for him?
He should declare a state of emergency in the energy sector; he must ensure that Nigeria enjoys uninterrupted power, because constant power supply is the foundation for development and industrialisation in any country. We stand to gain a lot from constant power supply, including a reduction in unemployment.
The President should also appoint technocrats into his cabinet and shun the scheming of some politicians who would like to impose their cronies on him, just because they felt they helped him to win the election, as this would make many Nigerians have confidence in his government.
How do you rate the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of the elections?
Its Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega came on board, saw and conquered. I would eternally remain grateful to him. He is a political child prodigy and a man of immense destiny; he is the best electoral midwife Nigeria has ever had.
I may not give him 100 per cent, which is my benchmark, but I think he has scored nothing less than 85 per cent. Even in the developed countries, despite their advancement in technology, elections are not perfect.
I thank the President for giving INEC the latitude to operate without encumbrances, as already acknowledged by international media and observers. I am sure that Jega himself would have raised a red flag if the situation had been otherwise.
What this means is that Jonathan can be trusted, because he assured the whole world that he would never interfere with the constitutional assignment of INEC, and he never did.
As a prominent player in the freight forwarding and logistics business, what are some of the issues you would like to see the President address?
If only the President could pay unscheduled and unannounced visits to the nation?s seaports, he would be shocked by the high-level corruption and malfeasance that would confront him all over the place.
However, most of the agencies in the seaports, including the Customs, are doing their best to see to the success of the 48-hour cargo clearance deadline, but like Oliver Twist, we need them to improve on their commitment and services.
For instance, I wish to see a situation where one or two units of the Customs that have been performing similar functions are merged to stop duplication of duties.
The President would do the Lagos ports and the economy a lot of good if he sees to the upgrading of roads in and out of the seaports to allow for seamless haulage of goods to and from the wharf.
What is your reaction to the killing of some corps members in some northern states, following the announcement of the results of the presidential election?
One of the urgent tasks the incoming National Assembly should undertake upon inauguration is the amendment of the relevant laws to ensure that graduates are posted to their regions for the mandatory one-year national service.
The prevalent situation is no longer acceptable, in view of the post-election violence. The best thing is to post the northerners to the North and southerners to the South.
There is a proverb in my place that says that when another person?s corpse is being carried to the grave, it appears to an onlooker as a mere bunch of firewood.
So, the senseless killing of citizens has got to stop. The governors and local government chairmen of the areas where these atrocities were committed must be held responsible, being the chief security officers of their respective domains.
The federal government and the respective states and local governments where these acts of cowardice took place should set machinery in motion to compensate the families the corps members left behind, even though nothing can be compared to their lives.
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Gbemi Saraki?s Milestone After April 26
By Kayode Akinmade
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THE April 26 governorship election has come and gone, but the echoes of the polls would be with us for some time to come.
In Kwara State, the election provided an opportunity for a new dawn that the victory of Senator Gbemisola Saraki would have brought. Many of us are still aghast that the election went the way it did.
Gbemi represented the best for Kwara in that election; she stood shoulder higher than her fellow contenders, and the masses wanted her as their governor. But some political forces in the state believed otherwise.
Looking back now, Gbemi may as well be a case study in the axiom that it is not every time that the best candidate emerges tops in a contest. A parallel can even be drawn between her case and that of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was generally acknowledged to be the best for the presidency at the time, yet was stopped by some political forces from exercising power.
At death, one of the political foes of Awolowo, in fact, came out publicly to say the man fondly referred to as the sage was ?the best President Nigeria never had.?
Had Gbemi made it at the election, it would have been double celebration kind of. She would have been governor-elect one week ahead of her birthday, as she turned 46 on Tuesday, May 3.
At 46, winning the governorship election would have been the icing on the cake of her political career in the last 12 years, which has seen her traversing Kwara with her empowerment programmes, and the National Assembly with her down-to-earth public-impacting legislative activities.
Gbemi?s victory at the polls would have been significant for two main reasons. One, Kwara would not only have made history as Nigeria?s first state to elect a woman governor, history also would have beckoned on her as the one to break the jinx against women being elected as governor in Nigeria.
Indeed, it would have put us on the path of giving effect to the affirmative action that seeks to promote women?s interests in politics by setting aside 35 per cent of elective and appointive offices for our womenfolk.
One slot for women out of 36 governorship slots may not represent 35 per cent, but that would have been a step forward in the implementation of the affirmative action.
Two, Gbemi has done so much to impact on the lives of the common man in the last 12 years that her election as governor would not only have guaranteed continuity of her empowerment initiatives, but also put her on a pedestal to do it on a wider scale.
For the record, the senator runs a Foundation that puts food on the table of thousands of the less privileged. Her style is not to give fish, but to teach people how to fish.
The Foundation provides micro-credit facilities for people wanting to start businesses. It does not discriminate on the basis of religion. Although Gbemi is a Moslem, beneficiaries of the micro-credit facilities cut across the two major religious in Kwara State- Islam and Christianity.
The multiplier effect of the scheme is that many families that would have gone hungry are today able to feed themselves. In the area of education, the Foundation is doing no less to affect the lives of the people.
The senator?s involvement in the provision of education for the teeming youths must have been borne out of her conviction that their future ought to be secured. Apparently, a society that refuses to give its youths education is headed for uncertain future.
Many Kwara youths today are in school, courtesy of the senator?s scholarship. Just imagine how many more of the youths would have had the opportunity of education had this Amazon been elected governor. With so much value that she attaches to education, just don?t rule out the possibility that Gbemi, as governor, would have declared free and compulsory education in Kwara.
The totality of everything about Gbemi is that the people are her passion; her primary constituency. Stories are told about the thousands, most of whom she has probably empowered, that flock to her home each time she visits Kwara from her Abuja base. And she would see everyone of them, staying awake late into the night and admonishing her aides not to turn anyone back.
Her life, as a representative of the people in the parliament, first as a member of the House of Representatives and now as a senator, has not been less eventful, as she has been the brain behind many pro-people legislations.
She was prominent in the vanguard of lawmakers in the senate that stopped former President Olusegun Obasanjo?s alleged third term bid that most Nigerians saw as anti-people.
Gbemi also sponsored a bill to reform the police, as well as give the force a human face. And so high was the profile that she built for herself in the senate that at the inception of the current parliament, she was a strong contender for the office of Senate President.
Having been in the upper chamber for four years earlier, being alive to her responsibilities must have recommended her for the nomination. And to have been the only woman-senator to be so nominated spoke volumes of her political stature.
Yes, Gbemi may have lost the governorship bid, but this is not the time to be downcast, simply because she did not succeed to acquire power, not to feather her own nest, but to use it to further impact on the lives of the people.
Gbemi herself has taken the outcome of the polls with equanimity, to confound those who do not understand her. She is comforted that only God gives power, and that she will continue to add value to humanity in any position she might find herself.
At 46, Gbemi boasts of tall accomplishments that dwarf her age. Yet, age remains on her side to confidently tell her the sky is the limit.
Indeed, it is time to celebrate a rare woman that would have broken the barrier against our womenfolk in politics.
-Akinmade is chief strategist, Connectcomm Limited, Abuja
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