A foremost Nigerian businessman and politician, Chief Suarau Alani Bankole, has described imposition of candidates by political parties as the bane of Nigeria’s politics and therefore asked the leading parties in the country to stop the practice in the interest of the populace.
Chief Bankole, who is the father of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, spoke Wednesday in an interview with Daily Trust in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He noted that parties often imposed “wrong candidates” during elections, leaving the voters to choose between “two evils”.
He said: “Imposition of candidates has become the bane of Nigerian politics.
“It’s so bad because it’s nearly impossible to win an election without belonging to either of the two main political parties.
“So, people believe they should put their own people there for their own benefit.
“Whereas, it won’t be out of place to expect somebody when he gets to power to do certain things for some people who supported him, but at the same time it should not be at the expense of the public.
“I think what we should be talking about in Nigeria today is to stop imposition of candidates so that we chose popular candidates within their own parties to enable the electorate have choice between good candidates, because if all the parties impose wrong candidates, the populace will have no choice than to pick one of them, and that one may not be good.”
