It came as a pleasant surprise of sorts when Nigerian music star, Abolore Akande, aka 9ice, publicly declared his interest in politics. Although many initially took it with a pinch of salt, the Gongo Aso crooner seems to be committed to his political ambition more than anyone can imagine. 9ice, whose music has been on the decline for some time, spells out the details of his manifesto, among other issues, during an interaction with some journalists, including DUPE AYINLA-OLASUNKANMI.
WHEN did you specifically join party politics?
I have been into party politics for quite some time now. I am a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). So, certainly, I will be contesting under the platform of the APC. In fact, I have been a member the APC for some years now.
What then is your manifesto?
My manifesto revolves around what I call CARE, and all my plans are programmed under it. We have already identified the pressing needs of our people and have decided to make sure that those needs are properly tackled; and by the grace of God, we will solve them before any other thing. You and I know the importance of education, so we will be awarding scholarships to brilliant students, starting from the primary, secondary up to the university level.
Our CARE initiative will take care of that: care for the less privileged in our society, care for the elderly, health care, community care, care for pregnant women, care for the widows and so on. In fact, we have a total package under CARE. We also have good programmes for agriculture because food business is a very serious business. No matter what you give people, if they are still hungry, they will curse you.
So, we are going back to agriculture to provide food and employment for our people. We also have what we call ‘You must work’, which is also in our programme. This is specially designed to create employment for our teeming youths. I have said it before that if the youth are gainfully engaged, they will never get involved in criminal activities, they will not have the time for violence and they will not become political thugs. So, we want to make sure that our youths are gainfully engaged. This is the only way our society will be protected and conducive for everyone. So, my manifesto is very simple: Care or We Care, whichever one you choose, will go a long way. If you care for the people, you care for the society.
Listening to you say all these sounds interesting, but how are you sure you will not go back on your words, if you eventually win?
This is one of the main reasons I want to represent my people at the House of Reps. You see, if there must be any change, then, the people who need the change and are ready for it must rise and make the change possible. We must not continue sitting at the corner to criticize all the time. There are times to talk and times to walk. Evil, they say, persists where good men choose to remain silent.
We must never abandon our country for people who have been failing us all these years and expect that things will just change miraculously. We can no longer abandon our society for those who don’t care to continue to toss our lives as they like. No, it doesn’t work that way. It is our responsibility to be involved in the welfare and development of our country and we must not sit at a corner and expect miracles to happen. So, we must make that change possible.
You are based in Lagos, so how well do you know the people of the constituency you seek to represent in the House of Reps?
I am from Ogbomosho and the blood runs in my veins. Aside that, there is hardly any week I don’t visit home. I spend as much time as I spend in Lagos in Ogbomosho and Ibadan. I visit home regularly and I also interact with my people very well. People have been trooping in and out, pledging their support for me. If I had not been coming home regularly, this would not happen. People have been showing support since I declared my intentions to contest. From the way we relate, you can see that I am not a stranger to them and they are not strangers to me. We are brothers, friends and family. I have never abandoned my people and they have never abandoned me.
You said people have been trooping in and out, but don’t you think they are only interested in what they can grab?
Yes, you might be right about people looking out to see what they can get. But as you can see for yourself, we don’t share money or rice and beans. We don’t play the politics of money or that of the stomach. No, we don’t do that; we are not part of those who have deliberately impoverished the people so they can take advantage of them during elections. We are not part of those who have deliberately refused to provide jobs for the youths so that they would be available for them as political thugs during elections.
We play what we call the politics of intellect. We go to the people directly and convince them on the reasons a change is necessary; why it must no longer be business as usual; why they must not sell their conscience for rice and beans and why they must not sell their votes for money, no matter how much. The money will finish within few days, so what happens next? They will now have to wait for another four years before they come back again to do the same thing. No way! How long must we continue with all that? We need change and that change is now! We must all join hands to make change possible, including being good citizens.
What is your view on corruption in Nigeria and what do you think should be done to curtail it?
Corruption, as you and I know, is a very serious problem in Nigeria. You will agree with me that corruption is one of the main reasons we have not been able to fulfill our potentials as a nation, even with all our natural and human resources.
Now, one question we must all ask ourselves is: what is corruption and who is corrupt? You see, these questions are very important because we may never be able to fight corruption, if we can’t define corruption and who is corrupt. Corruption has eaten deep into the soul of this country and from the way I see it, we must acknowledge the fact that there is corruption before we can fight it. Starting from the top man down to the man at the bottom, corruption has become our norm.
So, what do you suggest as the way forward?
I think I have already answered that. But if you want me to go a bit further, then, I will say before you can stop corruption, you must first stop corrupt people from being in positions of leadership and you must stop them from being in positions of authority, where they can have access to our treasury. If you give fish to Mr. Rat to look after for you, what do you expect him to do with it? Surely, he will not look after the fish, but he will eat it, including the one you did not put under his care. It is the nature of Mr. Rat to steal fish and eat fish.
The bottom line is: don’t put a corrupt person in charge of your money because the money will develop wings. So, what is most important is to give opportunities to those who have the passion for the job to do it and allow only those who have the interest of the masses at heart to do the job.
That is the only way we can tackle the issue of corruption in this country. Nigeria is 54 years old, but we are still battling instability of light, bad roads, bad welfare of the citizens, corruption etc. So, how do we move forward? If you collect money from politicians before you vote, I am sorry you have sold your future. Your destiny is in your hands.
