Jackson Lekan Ojo is a certified gold member of the International Security Association, Switzerland, and a fellow of the International Institute of Professional Security, IIPS. A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State. In this interview with Gbenga Aderanti, he looks at the events that will shape the 2023 presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the two leading parties, APC and PDP. Excerpts.
HOW would you rate the current presidential aspirants?
We have a lot of presidential aspirants who are warming up to take power from the incumbent president in 2023.
A lot of them have come from the PDP and some from the APC, when you look at all of them, the question you would be asking is, are they all presidential materials? Are they the kind of people we expect to take the mantle of leadership? Are they the kind of people that can withstand the pressure of office? A lot of things are waiting for whosoever will emerge as the president of Nigeria in 2023. I sympathize with whosoever will emerge as the next president of this country because there are lots of jobs for him to do, lots of pressures he will have to face, that is it.
He should have a sound education, sound willpower, and the ability to control any type of pressure from any part of the world.
When you look at the people that are coming up, a lot of them are qualified, yes, but beyond good qualifications, the next president of this country must have the willpower, the boldness, the ruggedness, the ruthlessness.
For a good leader, ruthlessness and ruggedness are two major attributes of leadership.
But how many of these people coming up have these qualities? But when you look at the APC today, you will see people like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He has made his intentions known.
People like Governor Dave Umahi are warming up and lots of them like that. Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Vice President Yemi Osibajo too, are rumoured to be warming up.
In the PDP, we have people like Bukola Saraki, Atiku Abubakar, Aminu Tambuwal , Bala Muhammed, Nysom Wike, they are all coming up.
Among these people, most of them had been governors, ministers, some are still ministers but do they have national clout? No. Being a governor for eight years in a state or being a minister does not give you the national clout. Even if they have the national clout, do they have what it takes to rule the country, to govern a state does not mean governing the country, a multi-religion, multi-ethnic group, a very sensitive country like Nigeria.
I will rate only three people, among all these people. Number one, I will rate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the person that has all it takes to govern this country. Atiku Abubakar too has all it takes to govern this country, Professor Yemi Osibajo has all it takes to govern this country, every other person does not matter, these are the three I think can do it better.
APC is currently engulfed in crisis, what would you be advising the president?
Mr. President has no stake again. He is not running for any elective office in 2023. Politics is a game of interest, I don’t think the man should go and kill himself over a party he does not have a stake in.
I have said it many times, there are a lot of things that need the attention of Mr. President, has he been able to attend to all these? So Mr. President has a lot of things on his table to handle, I think he should allow the party to manage itself though with little intervention at times. He should be allowed to face national issues rather than being bogged down with his party’s crisis.
Let the party manage its affairs. Let Mr. President manage the country.
Do you think Nigeria should accede to the US request to extradite suspended DCP Abba Kyari?
Yes, it is the best thing to do. If the major culprit is in the US and has mentioned a celebrated police officer in Nigeria as another culprit, I think the world is listening, the world is taking records, for the western world to take us seriously particularly when we are talking about security, the same man has the allegation drug on his neck, America does not joke with the issue of security, they do not joke with the issue of financial crime, this man has all these things on his neck, I think we should accede to their request. If he goes and after investigation he is innocent, America might give him an award and he will be celebrated globally, but for us to keep Aba Kyari in Nigeria, it could mean he is serving the interest of some people.
I sympathize with the person of President Muhammadu Buhari because, at the end of the day, this will be recorded against his name that during his time something like this happened. I see no reason why DCP should not be extradited to the US to go and face his interrogations.
He has not committed any crime now, it was alleged that someone mentioned his name. Let him go there and clear his name.
Recently, SGF said 30, 000 Boko Haram members surrendered in the Northeast. What is your take on this?
To me as a security expert, I have never seen where terrorists surrendered anywhere in the world. When these 30,000 Boko Haram members surrendered, did they surrender with their arms and ammunition? Did they surrender and give information about how to locate fellow members in the crime? Did they surrender with the telephone and telephone numbers of how they have been calling their other members across other sub-regions in Africa? Did they surrender with enough information that will enable us further intelligence? If all these things are not done, those people that have been killing, terrorizing military base, are now surrendering with knives, we say they have surrendered Where are their weapons? Where are their arms and ammunition? Are they ready to give information to the Nigerian military and paramilitary? All those things are not there and you say they have surrendered. These people have not surrendered. There are some persons that are coming out who are claiming to be boko haram, because they believe the government will empower them. Some people could be truly Boko Haram too, but informants. Nigeria should be very careful. I don’t know any country in the world that has so much accepted terrorists.