Era of politics of ideas is gone – Ray Ekpu

Ekpu

By OBINNA EZUGWU

Veteran columnist and co-founder of Newswatch Magazine, Mr. Ray Ekpu has said that the present crop of presidential contenders in the country lack ideas, character and charisma that defined politics in the First and Second Republics. He noted that the leaders the country has had since 1999 are nothing compared to the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu.

Ekpu who stated this in a chat with BusinessHallmark, regretted that the campaigns so far, by main candidates for the office of president have left much to be desired.

“I don’t think that since 1999 we have had the kind of campaigns that some of us who are older used to see in the First and Second Republics, particularly in the First Republic,” he said.

“I don’t think that era is coming back because we don’t have the quality of candidates that we used to have in the First and Second Republics. I mean, such orators like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, Ladoke Akintola and Aminu Kano. Those were great politicians and even as young people, we were anxious to go and listen to them. And they moved you with their campaign speeches and their various strategies.

“In 1959, Awolowo did the sky riding, we were never used to seeing human beings in the sky. So, people said it was magic. But today, even with modern technology, I haven’t seen anything worth talking about. Maybe I’m speaking too soon, maybe we will see more in few weeks.”

He attributed the lack of excitement and issue based campaigns to dearth of good candidates, lamenting that politics in the country is now driven by money as opposed to ideas.

“They are not good candidates in the first place, they are not strategists, they are not good communicators and so on. All that they do is to use money and at campaign venues they just use somebody’s hands and that’s it.

“No seminar speeches. During the 1979 camp, Awolowo was pushing for free education all over the country. He carried a black board in all the venues. He used the blackboard to do the arithmetic and show to Nigerians that it was possible with the kind of economy that had to have free education. It was as dramatic as that. Where do you see that these days?” he wondered.