2023: Nigerian President Must Be a Business-inclined Southerner, Says Publisher

Sunday Okobi

The Publisher of THEWILL Newspaper and Downtown Lifestyle Magazine, Mr. Austyn Ogannah, has suggested that the next Nigeria president should be a Southerner, who is not a regular politician, but an aggressive and successful businessman, who will unify the country.

He noted that the next man to pilot the affairs of Nigeria, after President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, must understand the core needs of the Nigerian people.

Ogannah stated this last weekend when he appeared as a guest on a Classic FM 97.3 Radio Programme, ‘The Discourse’,

Speaking on the topic: ‘Finding Nigeria’s Next President’, Ogannah said the perfect driver to take the country through total reconstruction in 2023 must be authoritative enough “to reinvent the ship that will sail the people into the right direction.”

He said such Nigerian must acquire the understanding that the country is presently marred by insecurity, divisions and lacking citizens’ commitment to the project called Nigeria.

The next president must be a Southern Nigerian, who is healthy and must not be above 70 years at the time he finishes his tenure in office.

“Nigeria must elect a hybrid personality from the South, who is an astute businessman or woman, who knows how to create jobs and wealth; someone who is not your typical politician and is acceptable by all the key interests in the country, so we can unite as people and move forward.

have a blend of Igbo and Yoruba in him or her so that the agitations from the Southeast and South-west regions can be calmed. It has to be someone from the private sector with administrative experience.”

Ogannah lamented that Nigerians have suffered a lot to allow an uncreative mind with no track record of business qualities to emerge as president in 2023.

He insisted: “The next Nigeria president must be a detribalised and successful industrialist or entrepreneur.

“He or she must be a leader with the charisma to unify the country and satisfy the needs of the country.”

Ogannah recalled how Nigerians missed the opportunity to form a viable pressure group with the #EndSARS solidarity protest.

“The #EndSARS protest was a tool that would have been used to negotiate a better Nigeria, but unfortunately it lost its value. It was the only umbrella that had successfully united Nigerians,” he said.

The senior journalist, therefore, called for solidarity among the elite to occupy the vacuum #EndSARS protest left in order to present credible candidates in the 2023 presidential election.

This, he noted: “They must do because the present challenges in the country affect everybody-rich, poor and elite.

“The rich have become poor and the poor poorer,” he lamented, saying as a result, everyone must show interest in who emerges as the next president in 2023, especially with the rate of rising agitations and insecurity in the country.

Ogannah also lamented the poor reading culture among Nigerians, adding that one of the challenges in the country is lack of political awareness among Nigerians because of their poor reading culture.

Advocating a way forward, he called on publishers to ensure that a minimum of 5,000 copies of their production are sent as complimentary copies to primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country as their contributions to curbing the poor reading culture.

Speaking also on internal wrangling among the two major political parties, the publisher of TheWill Downtown Lifestyle Magazine said: “What is happening today is not new,” describing the squabbles in major political parties as recurring events of every oncoming election.