I'LL HANDLE GOVERNANCE LIKE A BUSINESS, SAYS MOMODU

PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the National Conscience Party, NCP, Bashorun Dele Momodu has said if given the opportunity to rule Nigeria, he would ensure a turn around in the nation's economy.

While on a courtesy visit to Vanguard's corporate office, Momodu declared that the leader Nigeria needs must be a businessman because having a businessman at the helm of affairs, would lead to a boost in the nation's economy.

Asked  his plans for the resuscitation of the nation's economy, he said: 'That is the reason why I'm in politics today. I look at the caliber of people who are ruling at the moment, I look at the people who have joined the race and you will realise that most of them, at one time or the other, they were in power.

They were in power and they could not achieve anything and yet, they are the ones we are promoting as the leaders of the future. My plan is very simple. I come from a background of business. A businessman is a builder, a businessman knows that the first thing you will need in business is physical discipline.

'Our leaders are spending money as if money is going out of hold. Physical discipline is the first thing we must enforce and a leader can only do that when he has made a success of his own personal life. So, for you to grow the economy to the extent where you can then begin to generate employment to improve on the education of our children, you must have a leader who sees government and governance as business.'

Also, he said his party, the NCP, had the blueprint to bring about the needed change for Nigeria.

'If they came back to power, PDP is never going to change. For us in NCP, we don't have such fat cats. The biggest man in NCP is my chairman, Mr Femi Falana. When we are in government, by the grace of Almighty God, I can assure you that generating employment is not a difficult thing. Already today, I know how many employment I have been able to generate on the streets of Nigeria through selling my magazine.

It is about creating opportunities for people. I have had the opportunity of living in Ghana, it has not lifted any oil, but Ghana has enough  money to generate employment, and to build their infrastructure. So, what is wrong with Nigeria?'

Aside, he argued that leadership remained the bane of Nigeria, noting that if the people could get the leadership issue right, all things would fall into place.

'The problem is that we have a leadership that has encumbered itself with oil, everything they dream about when they sleep is oil. But when you have a leader like me, who has been exposed to other cultures in world, I can see that the country can  make progress without oil. All these things we have already put in our manifesto, which was initially written by late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and others, we have a very detailed manifesto, which we will release very soon. We have a health care programme which covers everything that you can think of,' he said.

On the reason behind his leaving the Labour Party for the NCP, the Ovation magazine publisher explained: 'I went into Labour, believing that Labour was controlled principally by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC; but after joining, I realised that the man who is the chairman, Dan Nwanyawu, had actually hijacked Labour for himself.'