Former Assistant Secretary in the Nigeria Civil Service, Dr. Wumi Akintide has said that he would have voted for Peter Obi instead of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his fellow Yoruba man, if he had voted in the 2023 presidential election.
He made the remarks during a special edition of the online interview programme 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo on Sunday.
The close confidant of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, revealed that there was no way he would have voted for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he described as a total disaster.
The APC candidate in the election, Bola Tinubu, was subsequently declared the winner by the electoral body.
He further stated that even though he believed that the former Anambra State governor was the best candidate, he would not have been able to govern successfully with the current Nigerian constitution.
“I was convinced that given the constitution that we have and all the provisions in it, that even if Peter Obi had won that election, there is no way he would have been able to govern,” Dr. Akintide said.
“If you look at it objectively, most of what he was promising can never be possible (with the current constitution), but he was decidedly the best man.”
The retired senior civil servant also said that the outstanding performance of the Labour Party candidate can also be attributed to the decision of the ruling party to field a Muslim–Muslim ticket. He believed that the action drove many southern Christians who would have otherwise voted for Bola Tinubu, ostensibly from ethnic considerations, to rebel against the APC and vote for Peter Obi. “That was how Peter Obi was able to do very well,” he posited.
He went further to say that Bola Tinubu must do everything possible to alleviate the suffering being experienced by Nigerians to avoid degeneration into a situation akin to what is happening in the neighboring Niger Republic.
The well-known columnist said that although he believed the president was doing his best given the terrible situation he inherited from the previous government, he would need to do more to stabilize the nation as soon as possible.
“Given what President Tinubu inherited from the last government, I think he is trying his best and we should give him more time to be able to correct the mistakes,” he said. “We don’t want what happened in Niger to happen in Nigeria.”
Dr. Akintide expressed fear that the current economic hardship in Nigeria occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy is threatening the political stability of the country.
Speaking further on the interventions so far by President Tinubu, the seasoned administrator noted that he hopes that the five billion naira disbursed to each of the 36 states to cushion the economic hardship would not end up in the pockets of greedy officials.
The retired senior civil servant also commented on the recent statements attributed to popular Lagos-based clergy, Pastor Tunde Bakare, criticizing the government of President Tinubu. He argued that the pastor’s statements reflect the penchant of Yoruba people to gang up against their kind.
