Ahead of next month’s presidential polls, Director-General of Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Comrade Issa Aremu, has called for new statesmanship and citizenship to deepen Nigeria’s democratic process, stating that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo had outlived his relevance as a leader.
He spoke on the sidelines of the two-hour yearly walk to mark his 62nd birthday in Kaduna.
The two-term former vice president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Vice President of Geneva-based IndustriALL Global Union, who described himself as “a child of independent Nigeria,” observed that his “modest accomplishments and impact in the past six decades as a non-state and state actor indicate that “Nigeria is work in progress” contrary to what he called “daily fictions of despair about a great country with challenges of nation-building.”
Aremu, while speaking on the uninterrupted 24 years of democratic governance, noted that with 18 registered political parties, “vibrant two leading ones,” six presidential elections since 1999 and 96 million registered voters, Nigeria remains the largest liberal democracy in Africa.
He advised that it was time for “quality control” of the democratic process through “reinvention of new statesmanship and citizenship.”
The activist faulted Obasanjo’s latest letter endorsing Peter Obi of the Labour Party for the nation’s topmost job.
His words: “OBJ’s letter in spirit and content amounts to how not to be a statesman.”
Recalling the quotation of Benjamin Disraeli, who was twice Prime Minister of Great Britain, Aremu cited: “The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”
He commended the ongoing campaigns by political parties, but sought more contests of ideas for development.
While expressing optimism about next month’s polls, Aremu, who is also a member of National Institute, Kuru Jos, noted: “All Nigerians are on the next ballots as much as the candidates. It’s time for all compatriots to rise for free and fair contest.”
He advised: “We must encourage a new democratic culture that allows for unfettered free debate of issues. The democratic contest is a form of institutionalised conflict. But this healthy conflict should be about ideas not personalities.”
