ABEOKUTA – The 2019 House of Representatives Candidate in Abeokuta South Federal Constituency under Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr. Ayodele Adesina has described as effort in futility and academic exercise, the election process in Nigeria.
Adesina who spoke at the weekend from his base in Atlanta Georgia, USA on a live radio programme titled: First Take on Adanimogo 105.1FM, Ibadan said the current Nigeria’s electioneering process is skewed to favour anointed candidates of some godfathers.
According to him, the Nigerian factor will turn every opportunity to prejudice.
He said many projections about Nigeria by international bodies cannot manifest because the system would frustrate them.
“When it comes to Nigeria political terrain is complex. It is very easy for all of us to identify the problems, but it is hard to solve the problem. There’s something called the Nigerian factor. The Nigerian factor will turn any textbook theory or logic on its head. That’s why I laughed when international bodies made a forecast or projection about Nigeria. Of course, they are making those projections on theories which does not apply in Nigeria.
“Politically, textbook theories don’t apply. If you go to other countries, you can almost predict who is going to win the election, because, you look at the poll, the popularity of the candidates and determine the outcome of the election, but in Nigeria, you can’t make such projection here.
“Because, you can say a particular candidate is popular, everybody will vote for him, in fact, they actually voted for him, but one man will just take pen and paper and write the results and post it.
“It is the selection process we have and it is even getting worse. Elections in Nigeria are like academic exercises. You can’t give up on your country. I can’t give up, but we need encouragement and this is the summary.
“I stopped blaming the leaders. I blame the followers. The leaders started the problem, but the followers are fueling the problem. You can’t have docile followership and expect your leaders to start performing. If I don’t have people pushing me and whatever I push to them is what they accept, what is the reason for me to go out of my way?
“Most of our leaders think Nigerians are fine. They can’t take us seriously because they believe we are okay. People complain in the corners of their rooms. When they see their leaders to complain to, they start singpraising just to get a peanut. How would they know what they are doing is not good.”
