There Is Desperation For Power In Nigeria – Don

Dr. Ayuba D. Mgbegah of the Department of Sociology in the University of Abuja, Nigeria, says the recent campaigns held by different political parties in the country has been characterised by “desperation for power” rather than the debate on how to fix the challenges facing the country.

Mgbegah told our correspondent in interview on Thursday that what Nigerian politicians and their parties have been engaging in recently is more of attack against each other than campaign on real issues.

He said, “My observation from all that is going on is kind of desperation by the two major parties. There is a high level of desperation. They just want to capture power by all means but ordinarily in an election it is to convince people and tell them what you have and what you want to do for them. But what I have seen recently is the parties attacking each other, that is why I said there is high level of desperation. They are desperate to take power by all means that is my observation.”

The university don said in an ideal political setting, political parties are supposed to use their campaigns to table pressing issues that require urgent attention and tell the electorate how they intend to address such issues if voted into office.

“If you observe the trend properly you will see a lot of attacks, they attack themselves. Most of their campaigns are not issue-based as such. Of cause some are issue-based but then there is a kind of accusation of one another and that is not how it is supposed to be. In political situation you are just supposed to tell the people this is what I want to do for you regardless of what the other person wants to do.

Mgbegah added that politicians should learn to tell their supports what they have in store for them and “what you intend to do for them and also convince them to vote for you, for instance, you see them talking about PDP in power for 16 years. PDP you did that and in 4 years APC you did that, that is not our concern. Whatever they did we are aware of it. So you don’t need to come and tell us what they have done, tell us what you have come to do if we are convinced we will vote for you, but attacking each other is not the best way of doing things.”

Asked on his take of the two leading candidates in the 2019 presidential race, he said: “The truth is that they are two different personalities and looking at what people say and what they themselves are saying about themselves. Take for instance, Atiku Abubakar claims that he is an entrepreneur and that if given the opportunity he can make the economy work and by his antecedent, he is just like a man who was given 5 talent and was able to use it to get 10.

“But other people are looking at Muhammadu Buhari as somebody who was given a talent and he went to bury it because from some people’s assessment if you are once a general and you are once Head of State or you have handled some pubic position like chairman of petroleum during Abacha time and yet at that level, people are still contributing money for you to buy presidential form because you don’t have money, it means on your own you don’t have the ability to multiply or generated anything.

“That means you don’t really have the ability to multiply what you have otherwise I don’t see any reason why you have been president and a president in the Army and because you are fighting corruption you cannot buy a nomination form it means something is wrong. How then can you work for the betterment of the people?” he queried.