Dr Abiola Oshodi, a member of the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress and spokesman for the party’s Canada chapter, in this interview with PETER DADA, speaks about the forthcoming presidential election, among other political issues in Nigeria
The Nigerian electoral system is not yet there; you are based in Canada; with your experience there, what do you think is the way forward?
To ensure the sanctity and transparency of our electoral system, we need to keep deepening and strengthening our democracy through innovations and the right investments. So, the 2022 Electoral Act is a good step in that some electoral processes were upgraded and made technologically compliant. For example, voter accreditation and voting via the BVAS machine will eliminate the temptation to snatch ballot boxes, though the challenge of voters buying ballots remains real. The way forward is to keep believing and keep pushing until we get things right in the country.
Many Nigerians abroad are not allowed to vote. What can you say about that development and what do you think can be done to help the Diasporas exercise their civic responsibility in their homeland?
It is disappointing and very upsetting but we believe that the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu administration, if elected, will initiate the legislation that will enable Diasporas to vote, and we can contribute our quota to shaping the future of our country.
Even if Diasporas are allowed to vote, do you think their votes can have any substantial effect on the outcome of the election?
The Nigerian diaspora is an integral part of Nigeria, even though many of us left the country for different reasons. The bigger truth is that all of us dream and wish for a greater Nigeria that we can call home. It’s against this background that many of us are very much involved in the Nigerian political process at different levels. We are stakeholders in the Nigeria project, and we remit over 25 billion dollars annually to Nigeria, and we can remit more, especially if there are very clear developmental pathways, as enunciated in the renewed hope manifesto of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, where we can partner with the government under different business partnership models.
Many of us also have substantial leverage over our family at home who look up to us and also listen to us so that they can make the right decision. We can sensitise our people, educate them, and mobilise them to the polls come February 2023 to elect Asiwaju as the next president of Nigeria.
Yes, if we are allowed to vote, we will become a significant voting bloc in Nigeria’s political trajectory. Someone like me wishes to be one of the great minds willing to help birth a new Nigeria under the leadership of Asiwaju Tinubu. This influenced my decision to join pro-Bola Ahmed Tinubu support groups.
A commission, NIDCOM, is specifically formed for those in the Diaspora; can you give us your view on the commission’s performance so far, concerning Nigerians in Canada?
The Nigeria Diaspora Commission came into existence in May 2017 when President Muhammadu Buhari signed the bill establishing the commission into law through the then-acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo following its eventual passage by the eighth National Assembly.
The formation of NIDCOM through an Act of Parliament, the appointment of the first Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, as the pioneer boss of the Commission, and the ratification and final approval of the National Diaspora Policy by the Federal Government.
The diaspora commission as it is currently structured has achieved a lot within the few years of its creation in tackling some of the challenges confronting Nigerians living in the diaspora, for example in the areas of advocacy, organising and hosting investment summits, simplifying the process of applying for a Nigerian passport abroad, or even being able to travel home with an expired Nigerian passport.
Among other accomplishments of the diaspora commission in its few years of existence, I would like to see the commission upgraded into a full-fledged diaspora ministry and gain traction in ensuring that the Nigerian diaspora community is enfranchised and able to vote in any Nigerian election and contribute meaningfully to the development and evolution of a new Nigeria.
I would like to see a full-fledged Nigeria government-diaspora investment partnership, with the Nigerian diaspora organised into formidable investment partners capable of taking on some developmental projects, such as build-operate-transfer or public-private partnership arrangements in the telecommunications, technological, education, health, transportation, and or banking industries, among others.
As a Nigerian in Canada, I would like to see the Nigeria Diaspora Commission function as a full-fledged ministry, engaging the organised diaspora community to contribute their experiences and expertise much more meaningfully, as well as invest in some developmental projects in the country.
As a member of the APC in the diaspora, there is a belief that the APC government has not performed to the expectations of Nigerians. What is your reaction to this?
People who make such criticism frequently forget that Nigeria is a part of the gloomy global economic challenges that we have all been engulfed in for the past seven years or so, beginning with the slump in oil prices in 2015, then the COVID-19 outbreak as we were about to recover from the crashed oil prices, then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its global economic consequences, but despite the challenges of a significant drop in revenue, President Muhammadu Buhari has maintained his position.
Yes, we have substantial challenges in the insecurity and economic areas, some of which are unique to our local area. But overall, the PMB administration has tried its best within the unique global socioeconomic challenges it finds itself.
Don’t you think the substantial challenges you mentioned can affect the chances of Tinubu in the forthcoming election?
The chances of Asiwaju Tinubu in the forthcoming election are very bright, and the opposition will make his impending victory swift, sweet, and formidable simply because the opposition is disunited, poorly strategically positioned, and non-focused.
For example, the three leading opposition candidates are from the Peoples Democratic Party: Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Alhaji Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party.
As far as the 2023 national election is concerned, Sen. Bola Tinubu is the candidate to beat; he is the frontline candidate, and this did not happen by chance; it is a strategy that gradually evolved. He is well prepared and well equipped for the rebirth of a new Nigeria; he has the experience, vision, passion, qualifications, and track record to ensure the successful midwife of a new Nigeria.
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, if he is elected as Nigeria’s president in February 2023, will be the first Nigerian president to have served as a senator, a two-term governor, and a party chieftain who built his political party along with other stakeholders, of course, and made the party a household name that won national elections in 2015 and 2019 and hopefully in 2023.
Senator Bola Tinubu has a very good chance of winning the 2023 national election if it is free and fair, and I hope the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will live up to its constitutional responsibility and ensure a free and fair election from the polling units upwards.
When was your support group formed in Canada?
Our support groups were formed and launched in Nigeria, not Canada; for example, the Patriots of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (POBAT) were formed and launched in 2021, before Senator Tinubu’s open declaration to run for president; as a follow-up and to ensure a cohesive fit for purpose, we had to launch the Dr Oshodi for Tinubu-Shettima Media Group in September 2022, and both support groups have structures and full membership in Nigeria.
Do you think your support out there can give the APC candidate the victory they desire in the forthcoming presidential election?
Though I reside in Canada, the support groups that I am directly involved with are based in Nigeria. Because we are present in every polling unit across the length and breadth of Nigeria, we are present in the media, and we operate within the APC party structure, directing the operations from Canada only gives our support groups the unique identity that we mean business in helping to midwife a new country.
True federalism is said to be missing in the Nigerian political system; how do you think this can be achieved?
If you are talking about federalism, which means the devolution of powers of self-governance to its federating units—the states and local governments that share sovereignty with the federal government—then you can say that our type of federalism is structurally defective.
However, in the manifesto of Asiwaju, titled “Renewed Hope,” it is expressly stated that he will restructure Nigeria if he is elected.
In the relevant sections of the manifesto, he promised to initiate a constitutional legislative review that will ensure that states are given greater control over certain critical matters, and the focus shall be on crime prevention, the prison system, stamp duties, and certain forms of taxation.
In the document, there’s also a promise of a restructuring of the federation revenue allocation system, and that under ABAT’s (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu) leadership, it will be recalibrated such that more funds will be allocated to the states and the local governments so that they can better address local concerns and fulfil their expanded constitutional obligations to the people.
The country is truly overdue for restructuring so that we can set on the true pathway to irreversible socio-political and economic developments, and I am pro-restructuring just like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed and as expressly stated in his manifesto of renewed hope.
