Nigerian comedian, Alibaba has shared the strategy of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo used in winning the presidency.
Alibaba made this disclosure during a recent episode of the Outside the Box Podcast.
“I was speaking to Obasanjo one time, and he told me, he listed some things for me,” Alibaba said during the interview. “He said those are the things that are necessary to win the election. I am going to read the chat I had with Obasanjo.”
While making reference to the conversation he had with the former President, Alibaba quoted Obasanjo saying, “Ali, I’m happy you’re catching up with politics but you still have a lot to learn, like how you get governors and presidents elected.”
“You need seven governors to win an election: Lagos, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Kano, Kaduna and the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) governor. Then I said Kano and Kaduna don’t have money, he said that is for numbers, and what is money? That is numbers too.”
According to Alibaba, former President, Obasanjo won the presidency because he involved governors, economic figures, international powers, and traditional political godfatherism.
“You need 44 of the most popular senatorial districts. You need to have awarded 10 contracts and 15% of that contract can give you a marginal impact at the polls. And you must award this contract in your first year of assumption of office,” Alibaba said, quoting Obasanjo again.
“If you don’t do that then, you can’t ask the people for anything because when you give them at the first year of your getting into office, when it’s time for elections you just tell them ‘Do you want to continue this contract or not?”
“You must suspend pending cases of corrupt past governors who are loaded,” Alibaba recalled. “Don’t forget that those guys have chests, war chests that they are just sitting and waiting for who they want to align with. No matter how much EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) milk from them, they still have plenty.”
“These are people who were sitting on a monthly federal allocation… like some states that when they get their federal allocation, they don’t touch it. They actually add to it because their state’s internally generated revenue is higher than what the federal gives to them.
“So if the federal government gives them N3, they can add N4 to it and spend N7. When they leave office, the EFCC can’t come looking for them because they added money to what the federal government gave them. But you see that internally generated revenue is their sweat as it is called, it is their money, they generated it themselves. They can determine anything they want to do with it.”
“This is the meaty part of it,” he said. “He says ‘Get US or China’s support because of their businesses in your country, they would support.’”
“Get National Association of Nigerian Students, market women, National Union of Road Transport Workers. Unsettle the organized labour. Get 10 of the richest Nigerians on your side. Infiltrate opposition parties and let them decamp before the election. Buy delegates one year before the congresses,” he added.
