SAN FRANCISCO, June 03, (THEWILL) – As the next round of national elections draws nearer, some middle-aged men and women who have attained success in their various professions have teamed up to float a new political party which they believe would upturn Nigeria’s political landscape.
The promoters of the proposed party named: Alliance for a New Nigeria, ANN, comprises medical doctors, architects, lawyers, journalists among other leading lights who are resolved “to be the driver of a new movement to retire and replace the old generation of leaders”.
A Havard-trained physician and an alumnus of the scholarship programme of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, made this known as he sat down with a team of journalists in the Ikeja area of Lagos state last weekend.
Pointing out that he was comfortable enough as a medical entrepreneur not to be bothered by the malfeasance of Nigeria’s political system, Samuels said the more fellow technocrats showed apathy, the more they realised that no one can be shielded from the failures of those in government.
He explained that this was what led him and some other professionals to form and register ANN as a political group to take the baton away from those he termed as professional politicians who he said have made a mess of the country.
Samuels disclosed that ANN has already filed papers with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and is presently in the final process of being registered as a political party.
Asked whether the group would welcome those who are not technocrats, he said: “This would not be a party only for technocrats. It is a party for every Nigerian, and we are trying to set a difference between us and the professional politicians. When you say technocrats, technocrats are experts. We believe that a technocrat has a better chance of being a good manager of resources of people than somebody who is not.
“People who have been participating in the democratic exercise are less than 30%; so we are looking at those people who have not been participating, more than 70%. Because the feeling is that those who get into politics are those who failed in society, but we believe that by coming out as a group of technocrats, that class of people who do not participate will be motivated to step forward to participate or even to serve.
“The difference between the group we are putting together and the other groups is that the professional politicians play politics, that is all they do, they don’t have any other means of livelihood. They want to be put in a particular position, make money, and that is it. But we have the perspective of coming to serve; it is open to everybody.
“We are looking at students, young adults, and young professionals and they are the ones that form the bulk of the 70% that do not participate in politics, and we have strategies already to make them participate. So, what we are doing is packaging ourselves as a body that will be irresistible to that segment of society. But that, even if you are a bricklayer you are still welcomed to be part of the body.”
Samuels further stated that the goal is to get at least 10 million persons who are presently not within the captive base of the present political parties into their base.
On the prospects of ANN and why it was formed, he said: “We see ourselves as the vehicle for the true change that every Nigerian desires. For me stepping out to take up this task was not easy because I could have stayed in my comfort zone and said to myself that I had nothing to lose.
“But when it comes to Nigeria, our children and our children’s children will have us to blame if we don’t speak up and come out and do something about it.”
Sharing the challenging experience he faced upon returning to Nigeria, Samuels said: “When I came back from the US, my friends asked me whether I was serious about staying in Nigeria and that I had better go back, but I said I am not going back and that this is my country and that this is where I am going to live.
“Then they said I had better think of forming my own government! Then I said what do you mean by having your own government? Then they told me you have your own house, your own borehole, your own power and that that is the only way you can survive.
“Some of us have said we will do our business and I will have nothing to do with government. But over the years, the government has been encroaching on our space by not doing the things that they are supposed to do regarding bad policies and bad policy implementation.”
