AHEAD of the 2023 general elections, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Nigerian youths to shun the “mindset of Emi Lokan”.
The Yoruba expression which means “my turn” drew controversy after the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu used it to demand votes from party members in Abeokuta last year.
Obasanjo said: “Emi Lokan (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues’ are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now.”
In an open letter endorsing the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi on Sunday, January 1, Obasanjo urged Nigerians, especially the youths, to instead embrace a new slogan – “Awa Lokan”, which means “our turn”.
“Youth of Nigeria, your time has come, and it is now and please grasp it. If not now, it will be never. I appeal to you to turn the tide on its head and march forward chanting ‘Awa Lokan’ (Our turn) not with a sense of entitlement, but with a demonstrable ideological commitment to unity and transformation of Nigeria,” the former President said.
Read the letter here
While stating that none of the presidential candidate is “perfect”, Obasanjo said he preferred Obi because “he has an edge”.
“Needless to say that he has a young and able running mate with clean track record of achievement both in public and private life”, the former President added.
He advised Nigerians against electing other candidates because “they cannot form the new pedestal to reinvent and to invest in a new Nigeria based on an All-Nigeria Government for the liberation and restoration of Nigeria”.
Meanwhile, Tinubu and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar speaking through their campaign spokespersons have dismissed Obi’s endorsement by Obasanjo.
They maintained respectively that the former President was entitled to his opinion and only expressing “wishful thinking”.
Sinafi Omanga is a multimedia journalist and researcher with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He has a keen interest in humanitarian reporting, social justice, and environment.
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@OmangaSinafi
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somanga@icirnigeria.org