Nigeria will be “doomed” in 2023 if any of the country’s politicians from the two main political parties succeed in becoming the West African country’s President, Ralph Nwosu, the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress has said.
Mr Nwosu is part of a group of Nigerian professionals and politicians who are forging an alliance that’s expected to midwife the Third Force in the country’s search for true democracy.
Nigeria is currently witnessing a surge in permutations and realignments as the country’s political space warms up for another round of elections in 2023.
Mr Nwosu, who is also a member of the steering committee, National Consultative Front – a movement that prides itself as offering an alternative platform to push for reforms – believes there is a need for digression from a cycle that has seen political power since 1999 the exclusive preserve of the two biggest political parties in the land, the governing All Progressives Congress, and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
“In 2023, if any of the PDP or the APC governors succeed in being the president of the country, you know that the country is finished… The country is doomed,” Mr Nwosu said when he featured on an ARISE News program on Wednesday.
He berated President Muhammadu Buhari on his frequent travels to the UK for medical treatment noting that in the six years of Mr Buhari’s presidency, “half of it” has been spent on foreign treatments with little or nothing done to fix Nigeria’s health sector.
He said: “Today our president has gone out for medical treatment. For the last six years, the president has spent more than half of it going overseas for foreign treatments.
“What has been the proactive measure they’ve taken to see that our health sector is working. Now we have the pandemic all over the world, in a nation with over 200 million persons, there is nothing going on as far as vaccine is concerned, we are depending on the rest of the world and we have elected leaders, we have persons who are planning to run for president, to hold Nigeria for the next five years.
“We struggled to get the military out and look at all the PRONACO leaders, look at all the NADECO leaders, look at all the core politicians that we struggled with, some of them have become governors and when they become governors whether its PDP or APC, they become the richest person in the polity in their state.
“You see a lot of persons running around, they want to be president for instance in 2023 and they say the only qualification they have is because they have money. When did they make this money? When was this money made? You stole the state’s money and you arrogantly move around, all the governors, frankly, in 2023, if any of the PDP or the APC governors succeed in being the president of the country, you know that the country is finished… The country is doomed.”
Mr Nwosu noted that the only solution available for Nigeria is the third force and expressed optimism that citizens are now aligning with the idea of a third force.
“What will save this country is the third force and by the grace of God people are coming together again and this time we are going to succeed, I can assure you.
“We have taken time to build the ship, we have taken time to build the synergy. In 2018 and 2019, it was going to work, but we saw the desperation and we thought we don’t have any reason to break our country otherwise we would have flushed the APC out,” he said.
By Abel Ejikeme
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