Senator Femi Okurounmu represented Ogun Central at the Senate between 1999 and 2003. He was also a Commissioner for Works and at a time, the Secretary-General of the pan-Yoruba socio cultural group, Afenifere. In this interview with journalists, he shares his thoughts on the forthcoming 2023 general elections. Excerpts:

The country is moving to the next round of elections to elect leaders for the country, we need your insight considering the role that you played in the enthronement of the democratic rule in the country. Do you think the preparations towards the elections will turn out well?

I don’t know what you mean by elections turning out well but if what you mean is how well is INEC prepared to have free and fair elections? Yes! I am optimistic that it would be a positive outing for INEC.

What makes you so optimistic sir?

Naturally as a nationalist and a patriot, I believe what INEC has been telling us about their preparations for free and fair election through the electronic verification platform the commission has put in place as well as other things they’ve done. I believe they (INEC officials) mean well provided that the politicians and the powers that be will allow them to work.

If you are opportune to meet the leadership of INEC, in what area would you urge them to improve on?

The area I will advise them is to ensure that they do not allow the will of the voters to be tampered with. I mean that they should continue with the pattern of announcing results at the polling booths. The collation of results should be carried out as soon as possible and the result should be announced so as to leave no room for manipulation of results. The collation of results should be done electronically and results should be announced and made available at INEC’s website. This is to allow people to follow the results as they come in.

You talked about the politicians, how would you assess the conduct of political gladiators so far?

The campaigns have just started. They haven’t had much campaigning, so in terms of their conduct, I don’t think it is too okay to assess their conduct but so far so good, I will say that there hasn’t been any case of people killing one another or fighting at campaign rallies and so on. So far, so good.

If you are to set an agenda for politicians, what would you want them to see as a major theme of their campaign?

The major theme of the campaign should be how Nigeria can be brought back to normalcy. As we speak, Nigeria is on the verge of collapse. In virtually all areas such as security, economy the country is on the verge of collapse. The level of relationship among the various ethnic groups has gone sour and is on the verge of collapse. Nigeria has become almost a failed country. How Nigeria is going to be restored to normalcy should form the major theme of their campaign.

Based on the way you’ve spoken, it seems you are of the opinion that this government has failed…

You are very right. I’m scoring this government very low.

Haven’t you seen any area that the current government has done well considering the fact that many of its officials score it (government) as having done well in the areas of provision of basic infrastructure?

I don’t know any area where this government has done well. I don’t know of any Nigerian who would say that this government has made his life better today than it was eight years ago. In terms of security, nobody is safe in the country today. In terms of the economy, the cost of living has skyrocketed. Nigerians are merely surviving today. In terms of trust, everybody is afraid for his safety. Even travelling within the country has become unsafe as one may be kidnapped. People are afraid to farm, the farmers cannot farm for fear of being captured by herders. I don’t know who is going to say that this government has done well. In terms of infrastructure, you can see how long it is taking them to reconstruct the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Between Lagos and Abeokuta, the road is impassable. I don’t know the kind of infrastructure that they are talking about. Electricity generation is even lower now than what it was eight years ago. Every Nigerian has to provide their water supply now.

Are you saying that Nigerians should not vote the APC back into government next year?

I don’t think any Nigerian needs to be told not to vote the APC back to power. Any Nigerian who feels his life is better today under the APC government than eight years ago can vote them back to power. I’m sure it would be hard to find such Nigerians. Any Nigerian who is thinking straight, whose head is thinking straight cannot vote the APC back to power.

You are saying this while not considering the fact that the party’s Presidential Candidate is from the South West and is well known to you…

It is not the individual that matters. We are talking about the party and what the party has done to Nigerians. If my own father wants to contest the election for president and I know that when my father becomes the president he is going to lead me into slavery, would I vote for him simply because he is my father? If my father is contesting an election and I know that all he is going to do is to cause all Nigerians to be driven out of their land and their land should be taken over by strangers, should I then vote for him because he is my father? Ethnicity is not the issue now. The question is, do Nigerians want to have their freedom or do they want to be enslaved? Do we want to have freedom of religion or do we want to be Islamised? Do we want to be able to go to our farms or have our farms taken over by foreigners who will drive us out of Nigeria and take over our land? It doesn’t matter if the person is a Fulani or a Yoruba or Igbo. Whoever is going to make Nigeria great, Nigerians should vote for him.

Many of his (APC Presidential Candidate) supporters believe he would do something differently if elected…

(Cuts in) It depends on how naïve people can be. People can be very naïve. We still remember all the promises that members of the APC made to Nigerians in 2015. He (candidate) was the handler of the Muhammadu Buhari campaign among the Yoruba people. He led his people to tell us what Buhari would do. We can see how many of those promises have been fulfilled since eight years ago. If people lied to us and turned all of us more into slaves and then they come again to tell us another set of lies, should we now be stupid to believe them.

We have four major presidential aspirants jostling for the office, if I am to ask you pointedly, who do you support for the Presidency?

I align myself with the young people of this country. They have been saying that they want their country back. The country has been virtually taken over from Nigerians. A few Nigerians have hijacked the country and turned our commonwealth to their personal resources. After personalising everything to themselves, they now dole out little ‘change’ to the people to vote them back to power. These are the people who have created all the woes for Nigeria.

Our country needs a fresh new generation of people at the helm of affairs, people who won’t go into government to feather the nest of their family members and cronies at the expense of the vast majority of Nigerians. That’s what youths want and that’s what I want too. I want Peter Obi.

Could you tell us what other reasons are prompting you to support Obi?

That’s the reason, this is the man who is going to stop us from slavery. Most Nigerians are slaves to the Fulanis virtually. The Fulanis want to continue that process of enslavement because all the Fulanis in West Africa have resolved to make Nigeria their homeland. All members of the APC have no choice than to key into this agenda.

But Bola Tinubu is a Yorubaman, do you think he will follow this agenda if elected President?

Ask yourself! Are there no Yorubas in this current government? Have they not been following this agenda? Have they done anything to stop his agenda? Has Bola Tinubu himself not said he would continue from where President Buhari would stop? He depended on Buhari to pick a running mate for him. The man he picked is shrouded in controversies considering his alleged ties with Boko Haram insurgents. His running mate is being accused as a promoter and protector of members of the sect.

How optimistic are you that the outcome of the election will turn out to be the way you want?

I am very optimistic of victory if there is going to be an election because there is every likelihood that there won’t be any election.

Why do you say so?

The jihadists don’t want any other group to take over Nigeria but themselves. They want to make Nigeria a Fulani country. They have their own agenda, which is different from that of the rest of the country. The election is just to pull wool over our eyes. (Daily Independent)