Peterside: First Year of Nigeria’s Next President May Be about Blood, Sweat, Tears

*Moghalu wants presidential candidates interrogated on their plans to tackle terrorism

With exactly 194 days to the 2023 presidential election, the President of Anap Foundation and Founder Stanbic IBTC, Chief Atedo Peterside has stressed that whoever emerges victorious at the poll would require a lot of hard work and tough choices in his first year for someone who is serious in addressing the myriad of challenges confronting the country.

Peterside Twitted this at the weekend, in response to comment by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, that he (Obi) has not promised to make anyone happy if he becomes president because of the current situation in the country.

Precisely, the economist stated that a serious presidency in the first year might be about, “blood, sweat and tears, not happiness.”
According to him, delays would not be required in implementing critical reforms in the country.

The leading presidential candidates are Mr. Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party; Obi of Labour Party, and Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party.

Peterside, who is the Convener of GoNigeria wrote: “The first year of a serious presidency commencing 29 May, 2023, might be about blood, sweat and tears and not happiness. The gain will only come after the initial pain.

“An incoming federal government must address insecurity and economic mismanagement ‘head-on’ instead of ‘kicking the can down the road.’
Obi had in an interview on News Central Television, said he did not promise to make anyone happy if he becomes president. According to the former Anambra governor, what he promised Nigerians was to take the country and restore it to its rightful place if elected president.

“This is the time to scrutinise those who are offering themselves. When people are contesting in America, you see their uncles and aunts come out and say ‘yes, this person can be president or cannot be. That is where we are now.  You need to see the character of this man, he said lives in Onitsha; we in Onitsha know him.

“There are so many people that will tell you this man is useless. Not everybody will tell you that I’m good, they will tell you he is useless. I heard somebody on TV yesterday who said ‘don’t vote for Peter Obi’. He said there is no way he can vote Peter Obi because the man is wicked and he doesn’t give anybody one naira. But nobody said Peter Obi is a thief.

“I have seen even church people say the man doesn’t give anybody anything. I have been in positions where I go around, come to Abuja and people say the people are not happy with you, I said why? In my heart as governor, I never promised anybody happiness. I promised to fix schools. Are the schools working? Yes.
“So, those who want to be happy can go to the people in entertainment who make people happy.  I am not happy myself. We want to fix it and I assure you we can start with the youths.”

In the meantime, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a former presidential aspirant under the African Democratic Congress, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has advised Nigerians to interrogate all the presidential candidates on the plans to tackle the rising spate of insecurity and terrorism in the country.

Moghalu who Twitted this yesterday, wrote: “It seems to me that the most important question for the 2023 elections and whoever wins the presidency is the existential matter of security and the shrinking territorial integrity of Nigeria under the threat of terrorism. We should interrogate all the candidates on this.
“I don’t think we’ve heard enough from them on this. We must not let the 2023 election be about stylish but empty slogans and emotional vituperations without a cold look at our fundamentals. A state is not really a state in international law if it’s not in control of its territory.”