Politics is too important a business to be left to politicians, Chairman of the board of directors of Media Trust Limited Malam Kabiru Yusuf said in Abuja yesterday. Delivering his welcome address at the 15th Annual Daily Trust Dialogue, he said while Daily Trust newspapers which started with a weekly publication in March 1998 would be 20 years old in a few weeks’ time, they however determined from infancy that politics is too important to be left to politicians, “with all due apology.”
He said, “So we started this annual discussion forum, where we invite the great and the good, to debate on current matters of the day. Some years it is on a social malaise like corruption. At others it is on the economy; but again and again, we come back to politics for we believe, like Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, that if you settle the political issues, the other problems will sort themselves out.”
Malam Kabiru Yusuf said unsurprisingly for an election year, a purely political theme was chosen for this year’s dialogue which is Nigeria and the challenges of 2019 which is to set the stage for another transfer of power in February next year.
He said, “I must confess that when we settled on this topic, President Muhammadu Buhari was on an extended medical vacation abroad. His absence had added to the uncertainty and created a vacuum. Now, thank God, his health is much improved and he seems to be in a pole position to be the flag bearer of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
“But a year is eternity in politics. While there is every sign that the incumbent president and all first term governors are warming up for second term, neither in the ruling, nor in the opposition parties, in the states or at the centre, is an unopposed election likely. Politics, in our clime, is always about contestation.”
He also said, “So the political reporter in me is excited about the coming showdown and fully prepared for a few surprises. One of the political miracles of recent times is how President Buhari has so fully recovered from his health challenges. Those who were strategizing to fill that potential vacuum have now been forced back to the drawing board.”
The MTL chairman welcomed Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) who represented President Muhammadu Buhari as special guest of honour. He extolled the virtues of Prince Bola Ajibola, chairman of the occasion who was also a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice. He said Ajibola was “a Jurist-Consult of far flung renown, yet humble enough for such a lowly task” as the dialogue’s chairman. “His international career is as distinguished as his national one. He was a Judge at the International Court of Justice at The Hague in the 1990’s, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom between 1999 and 2002 and member of several United Nations and other International Arbitration bodies,” he said.
Speakers at the event included Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC] who was however represented by Mr. Wale Edun, a former Commissioner of Finance in Lagos State. Others were Alhaji Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa State and a presidential hopeful under the opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]; and Kate Henshaw-Nuttel, a star Nollywood actress, activist and politician. She is currently a Special Adviser to the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade.
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