Legal luminary, Afe Babalola has disclosed that the presidential candidate with the biggest pocket will win next year’s presidential election. The Senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN, also stated that the present Nigerian constitution cannot produce the best leadership for the country.
His comment came amidst fears among not a few Nigerians, that the 2023 crucial election will be highly monetised. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has insisted that efforts are already in place to reduce th3 influence of money during the election.
During the recent governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states major political parties who participated in the election were believed to have induced voters with cash to get their votes.
Babalola who is among some prominent Nigerians who are calling for an interim government to replace President Muhammadu Buhari whose tenure expires next year, said Nigerians must begin to test the capacity or those they are chosing to rule them.
Speaking on Wednesday, the proprietor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti said the winner of the 2023 presidential election “is the person who has made money in this country. It is the person who has the money that will win.”
He condemned a situation where the current leadership has been recycling themselves in power since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.
Babalola said, “It is not who can make a difference that will win the election, it is not the person who has all that it takes including age, health, education and patriotism that will win the election.
“The winner of the election, I can bet it, is the person who has made money in this country. It is the person who has the money that will win.
“A man who wants to rule the country has to be screened, and say what he will work out to do, a good manager, and what contribution to society.
“I still stand by my suggestion, if any election conducted under the present constitution cannot produce new leaders with new ideas, rather will merely result in recycling the same people who have brought Nigeria to grinding poverty,
“Experience is the best teacher, our bitter experience in 1999 thought that we are in need of a new constitution which provides for new conditions, which are respect for age, academic qualification, Character, personality and commitment to development at all levels of government as well as family background.
” These are things that must be screened about the new President.”
In April last year, the senior lawyer sued for the institution of an interim goverment to replace the outgoing administration, to usher in a new constitution noting that this is necessary to prevent Nigeria from slipping into a chaos,
