I can fix Nigeria in 24 months if I take over from Buhari in 2023 – Lawyer

Olusegun Bamgbose is a frontline legal practitioner in Nigeria. He is also the President of the Caleb and Greg Foundation, CAGG.

In this interview with DAILY POST’s Nwachukwu John Owen, Bamgbose vows to take over power when President Muhammadu Buhari concludes his tenure in 2023. He also revealed ways he intends to lift Nigerians out of poverty, accusing the current government of failing to address the issue of poverty, alleging that most Nigerians are suffering.

Excerpts:

What makes you think you stand the chance of emerging Nigeria’s President after President Buhari?

I remain the most qualified Nigerian to succeed Buhari. With all modesty, I sincerely believe that I’ve what it takes to be the next President of Nigeria. Buhari will need a builder and a man with zero tolerance to succeed him. I’m the one to fill that gap. I believe in the TEA principle of good governance, that is, Transparency, Equity & Accountability. I’ve zero tolerance for corruption. I believe Nigeria can be fixed in 24 months.

What are your objectives?

Thanks for this question. You will agree with me that the poverty level in this country is so high that something drastic and urgent should be done to nip it in the bud. It’s against this background that we have come up with the Foundation. We will ensure that poverty is minimized. We will join forces with the government and the stakeholders to achieve this.

Please tell us more on this?

Ok. We are coming up with Strategic Partnership Program, SPP. This is a program aimed at partnering with the government to drastically bring down the rate of poverty in Nigeria. We have concrete plans to cripple poverty in Nigeria. Our approach to tackling poverty and joblessness in Nigeria will be extraordinary and exclusive.

How do you intend to achieve these lofty aims?

Actually, we have on ground some pragmatic plans to actualize our objectives. We have COME, NAMES, LEAP, N- PASS, GAP.

These are beautiful acronyms, can you please decode them and tell us how they will help in battling poverty and unemployment?

Let me start with COME. It means Cash Online Made Easy, COME. This is revolutionary. It’ll be an exclusive online lending platform. This is an attempt by CAGG Foundation to make cash available to the people in time of need. No formal application, no collateral, no guarantors, above all, no interest. Hopefully, by God’s grace, this will commence in 2020. This we believe will assist our youths to meet with their needs without any burden of paying interest.

How then do recover the soft loan?

We have taken that to consideration anyway. We have our plans. Let me quickly add here that civil and public servants are not left out. Even traders and businessmen.

Thank you. Now let’s look at NAMES. National Mass Empowerment Scheme, It’s our hope that in 2020, we shall empower about 500, 000 Nigerians under this scheme. It’ll really be explosive and exceptional. Recently you must have read what a Minister said that about 90m Nigerians are living in poverty. This is really scary. Except we fight poverty like a plague, poverty will continue to plague us as a nation. Something drastic should be done to address this menace. Let’s look at LEAP. Let’s Eradicate Abject Poverty, LEAP. The United Nation has set 2030 to wipe out poverty in the world. This is achievable because the resources are available. Our Foundation will certainly partner with relevant agencies to actualize this noble aim. We have plans to collaborate with United Nation to make poverty a thing of the past on or before 2030. It’s our expectation that not less than 25 million Nigerians will join the community to Eradicate poverty in Nigeria. Moreover, we intend to use this LEAP Community to organize a coup, not against the government but against poverty in Nigeria. It’s our belief that all hands must be on deck to overthrow poverty in Nigeria. In other words, coup against poverty is imminent and inevitable.

How can you assess Buhari’s government in tackling poverty in Nigeria?

Let me tell you this, in any society where hardship and poverty prevail, crime and violence will be prevalent. Let’s tell ourselves the truth, we are not getting it right. No government in the world can successfully fight crimes without first and foremost fight poverty. Our youths are suffering. The government should buckle up. Nigeria is becoming very unsafe. Something should be done to stem this tide. Only recently, gunmen attacked military base and killed about 12 soldiers and wounded some. This certainly is not good news.

What are your parting words for Nigerians?

Together we can defeat poverty. It’s a collective effort. The fight against poverty will only be effective if it’s collective.


Source: Daily Post