 I'm not in a contest with anybody, says Aboyne State Governor David Umahi, as he declares his ambition for the 2023 presidential elections. And on the issues of insecurity, the Middle Belt Forum says declaring bandits as terrorists hasn't changed anything. This is Post-Politics, I am Mary Anna Cohen. The Aboyne State Governor David Umahi, who recently declared his ambition for the 2023 presidential election, has said he's not in a contest with anybody but himself. He said this after a meeting with the President, informing him of his intention to contest the post of the President under the umbrella of the All Progressive Congress. He said, if the APC throws its ticket open to the southern parts of the country, his achievements in the past six years would enable him to clinch the ticket. Well, joining us to discuss this is Political Analysts, Francis Chilaca, and Public Affairs Analyst, Sonny Maduka. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us. You must have to consult widely and go to all the leaders. Well, sorry about that, Glitch. I'm going to start with you, Doctor. So he's saying that the six years that he has served in Aboyne State should be enough for the average Nigerian to pick him as a presidential candidate for the APC. But let's start by looking at the strides of this governor in Aboyne State. He has been there for six years. What are the things that we can point to as some of the great strides that he's made that would qualify him for this position? Well, let me just start by saying that every Nigerian is qualified. If you look at the age bracket, as stipulated in the Constitution, Omar's presidential ambition is already known, right from the time he defected from PDP to APC. So most of us already know that he's already vying for something. So that defection is a clear indication of his ambition. So he has a perfected intent, right from that day he defected. So it's not, it's not my news. I think he's just coming to polarize his intention to the public. But we already know that his ambition is to be the president of this nation. There's nothing wrong in it, but let me add. The problem we have today is before we choose anybody that is going to be president, we should look at the antecedent now for the past six years. Nigerian has been under certain kind of condition. So we would like to have somebody who has a clear vision of where he's leading us. And if you look at Aboyne State, Aboyne State is just a state. So when you're leading a country, it's beyond the state. So I'm looking at beyond tradition, beyond religion, beyond tribe. Let us get it right this time around. So I'm really happy that people are coming out. And it seems that who is not in it, the scorecard for us to say, oh, this is the person. But from what he just asked, yeah, Omae had done a lot well. And in terms of infrastructure in Aboyne State, he has done quite very well. But there are other areas that don't appreciate some kind of. And that areas are one is Wuthering Spirit, what I mean by Wuthering Spirit is somebody who has no principle because he's a founding father of that party. So when he defected, as of today, he has not clearly told Nigerians, this is the reason why I defected. That's why I expect of somebody like that. He's about to tell us why he defected. But in the case you can see, it's a kind of personal interest, that national interest. Then two, he's going to have a problem on trust. Because somebody without that principle of staying cute to where he started, people are going to look at him as somebody who cannot be trusted. But it doesn't really matter. Ambition is ambition. Everybody has a political ambition. And of course, you know, policemen are one of the people you cannot track. And then you talk about another inhibition, the crisis in the state. It's one of the worst states when you talk about crisis within the southeast. How much has he been able to cover that gap? How much has he been able to quell the gap? As of today, we have Benwe classes on border. We have Annambra border classes. We have even Heisman and indigenous classes. And of course, being the chairman of Southeast Governance, what has he done with the bubagu that was floated? So these are the reasons that I'm looking at. Then, Fort Lee, his base, has he been able to garner support from his base? You know, if he had been able to do that, then he's going to be hood but I think most of the southeast, not necessarily, let me put it that way, APC, whatever. I said the Supreme Court judge that added the APC within the caucus of southeast. So these are the issues. To me, beyond Omani, government, spiritual aspiration, Nigeria should look right where before choosing anybody. We have gone a lot this period. Thank you. Francis Chilaka, it's interesting. I know that this is, you know, when you throw your hat into the ring or declare an intention to run for any office, it also can be seen as a popularity test of sorts. And most times you hear people say, well, let's see how popular you are. As opposed to others who have also declared intentions or those who are consulting the likes of the Kwankwa Soos, of the likes of Bola Med Tinubu, the vice president, and several other people who might be intending to run for office. Governor Omani placed side by side with these people. And just like the doctor said, what is his base like? How much ground can he cover, I beg your pardon, to be able to say, well, he can actually run for this office and get the kind of votes that he desires. When I say it back, yes, like Tomadouka said, every right of a Nigerian citizen to fire for the presidency. But you see, my problem with Nigerian politicians is that they have no ideology, just as the political parties do not have an ideology. I mean, if you think in every aspect of it, I will look up to it, because I have political party, and I'm not in any way speaking for the APC, by the way, but there are members of a political party in which the president is also part of it. And the president in quotes, just hang on, hang on, the president in quotes might actually is the leader of the party. So if you do have your nursing and intention, of course you go to your leader and tell your leader that this is what my intention is. Change the status quo is down. The Nigerian people have the sovereignty. The sovereignty belongs to the Nigerian people before you begin to declare your intention to... I just want to pinpoint some of the issues, and I'm not in any way supporting or against the governor. But there are a few things that we've uncovered about the governor. Remember some time ago, the governor had ordered the arrest of a journalist over some Facebook post about Nigerian politicians and the army. He was widely criticized. And of course, lots of people would kick against this as to, this is the person who wants to run for office. Let's not forget that Nigerians are still fighting and fuming over the social media bill, the fact that Twitter has been shut down, and the fact that the media has somewhat faced some form of gagging over time. So looking at the character and the person of Govnomahe, with all of these things hanging around his neck, should he be the person that people be throwing their weight behind to be a presidential aspirant, especially at a time like this where the South East is also putting its best food forward? Is he, can he be considered as part of that best food that is being put forward? Yeah, okay, I don't know why the question is for me. You can go ahead, you can take it. Let me go and let me take it. Okay, there are three basic things I would tell you about what we're going to write now. One of the basic things Nigerians are going through is dictatorial. We have almost a regime that is dictatorial. Nigerians will never, never accept anybody that has a tendency of dictatorship within the purview of being a president. Two, we have crisis in security matters. The security of this regime has shown that there's a lot of people who have not even solved it. Just today within the absolute, in the Sukwata here, and in a lot of, you know, he cups of heisman, you know, boundary tree. So people will look for somebody who is going to secure their lives. They're looking at Govnomahe and the problem within the 8.8, where you have low panther being the, almost the headquarter of Heisman. And almost every time you hear about crisis from Eboni state, and Optinai has not been able to sort that out. It's going to be a minus to his ambition. I said it here before, that is the government, is the chairman of the governorship, or the governor in the southeast. He has not been able to manipulate or make deal with the Babu he deforted. As of today, we don't even know what a Babu or whatever. But nothing is working. But is that his sole responsibility? A Babu is a security network for the southeast, which means that the onus is on all the southeast governors to make sure that this outfit works. So can we just really put that at the foot of the doorstep of Govnomahe? He's just one person. Yes, yes, yes. Because look at the, you know, they are not to come. You know, when you are Heisman, the responsibility is on you. We're sure that that outfit works. It's not about whether or not Govnomahe, you are Heisman. You are the one that everybody's looking at. Because what you're talking about presidency, everybody's going to look at you. So whatever you were able to perform within your confine is what people are going to judge you if you are given the higher portfolio or larger portfolio. So Nigeria's is creating really, really somebody who has this empathy on ensuring that lives are secured. Then the third one, you just mention it on a person. You see, freedom of speech is very important. So any person who is coming with such inclination, whether it's small or not or manual, people are going to look at him from that angle of trying to, you know, the base, the thought of, you know, people being hard. Because people should be able to be hard when we talk about democracy. You just took my next question from me because I was about to point to that. There's so many issues, you know, surrounding freedom of speech or free speech within a Boeing state. In fact, the governor was also accused of disappearance of his critics in the state being that every time someone criticized them, the person would turn up missing. And a former coordinator of Anwar Ghatah, Development Center of Posi in Orharosa, local government area, Barista Amos Obunaya was recently kidnapped for criticizing the governor and his administration during a television program. So a group, Association of Boeing, Indians in diaspora in Abuja accused the governor of being intolerant of criticisms and opposing views. We already know that in a democracy, one of the most important tools is being able to protest, criticize or free speech, just as you said. So if Nigerians are going through this now, why would we want to jump or hop on a boat with a person who's almost the same or is giving us the body language as same as the person who's already leading us? Yeah, but you just answered, that's the girl who I said. We have this fundamental, that I mentioned, security, dictatorship, and of course, freedom of speech. What's, you have somebody that has that tendency of talking to people, trying to tell people that, look, look at me, I'm with, I'm with God. Definitely you're going to have a problem. But is that not the, is that not detail for every politician, almost every politician in this country? They seem to be almost intolerant of criticism. That is why I said, I started with my speech. I said we have to look beyond ethnicity, beyond tradition, beyond it in zone. We must make sure that 2020 we got it right because as I look at six years ago, look at where we are today. So we cannot go and pick somebody with such idea again, with such mentality, such political policies that are some assortment. We need people with brain, people with vision, people with mission statement, people that can castigate problems and ensure that they are solvable. But as of today, this past six years has given Nigeria a clue of the kind of leader we need. Definitely, for anybody who want to pick up as our president, we have to persuade the person from day to toe, let us know his antecedent. Let us know who he is so that when we are picking up president, we pick the best among the rest. And that is my submission because as of today, Nigerians are going through hell and we cannot afford eight years again or in our search for human treatment. Our brand name as nation has been deteriorated. Our brand name as Nigeria has been diminished into such a region that if we answer a Nigerian and abroad, people look at you with this cone. They look at you with some kind of empathy as if you're sick. So this is the code to get it to write 2023. If we don't get it to write 2023, I'm telling you, Nigeria is going to be very hard for us to get out of this border, put ourselves into. Okay, Francis, you originally said that you do not like the modus operandi of Governor David Umahi. But I'm guessing that there has to be something good about him because there are people who are literally banding behind him as he has made this choice to run for the office of the president. But then I want to take you to something that was said about him some years ago. Apparently he was falsed as the worst performing governor in Nigeria. A group had said that he was one of the worst, if not the worst performing governor in Nigeria. And he falsed that report, which listed him as one of the worst performing governors in the country. He called that report baseless. He said he was aimed at tanishing his hard-end image and reputation. And this was just before he moved from the PDP to the APC. And then now he's in the APC, obviously. Doctor said something that I want to push you forward on, that we need to look for someone who has a good manifesto. We have to look beyond the ethnicity, the tribe. As much as the South East is looking for a president, we saw Mr. President, President Bohari, as a no-nonsense general, a man that was willing to come and fight for the people. I do not know if we still hold that opinion right now. Because there are people who have really great intentions. But then when they get into office, we don't really see anything close to what they promised us. What do we need to do? What kind of goggles do our goggles, I beg your pardon, do we need to wear to be able to descend and pick these politicians? Well, I want to start by saying that I think we have a sort of brain drain in our political system. I do not honestly find the idea where you work at eight, you work eight years as a governor with nothing to show for it. And then you either want to become president or you want to retire into the Senate. I mean, these are things that we need to change. We need to begin to look at our political life as people that it's fine. For me, Umaye is a no-no. He doesn't have what it takes to be a president. He doesn't have the character. We all know that. Anybody who believes in trying to suppress the press, freedom of speech, freedom of a thing cannot be a good leader. And he has not shown that, even as a governor. And I'm surprised that somebody who believes, oh, I have to be president because I have no power, because I want to rule over the people. I mean, at six years, we call it as Nigeria's know that it has not been a guru. And so for me, it's about having the right color for equal presidency. OK, well, Francis Chilacar is a political analyst. Dr. Sonny Madukat is a public affairs analyst. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for being part of this conversation. Thank you very much. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we look at the Declaration of Bandits As Terrorists. And what's has changed since? Stay with us.