Professor Yusuf Usman, a former chairman of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has urged voters in northern Nigeria to learn from recent political developments in Osun State and recognise the power of their votes in determining the country’s leadership.
Usman made the call during an interview with DCL on Wednesday, while criticising alleged vote-buying, the deployment of security personnel during elections and the use of religious sentiments to influence voters.
The former NHIS chairman questioned the deployment of more than 30,000 security personnel to Osun State during the election, describing it as excessive and potentially intimidating.
“They sent over 30,000 security agents to Osun State to intimidate people. 30,000. If you sent 30,000 to Zamfara, all the insecurity in Zamfara will be gone,” he said.
Usman questioned why such a large number of security personnel could be deployed for an election while several parts of northern Nigeria continue to grapple with insecurity.
He, however, said voters in Osun were not deterred by the heavy security presence and still exercised their franchise.
“In spite of that, the people of Osun were not intimidated by the presence of security agents in their state; they were there to help them vote,” he said.
Usman also alleged that politicians spend huge sums of public money to influence voters during elections.
“Number two, they spend billions of our money, people’s money, to buy votes. Yes, people receive the money,” he said.
He urged voters, particularly in the North, to consider the long-term consequences of accepting money or other incentives during elections.
According to him, voters in the region should not exchange their votes for temporary benefits at the expense of effective governance over the next four years.
“And our voters in the north, the lesson you need to learn from Osun is whereas in Osun they gave them N30,000, N40,000, N50,000, here in the north they give you N500 and noodles to grab your lives for the next four years,” he said.
Usman maintained that voters have the constitutional power to determine who governs them through the ballot.
“We have a lot to learn in the north to tell you that we have the power. We vote this government in. We have the power to choose whoever we want to choose,” he said.
He also criticised the use of religious sentiments in political campaigns, particularly appeals for support for Muslim-Muslim political tickets.
“And now they are bringing in these religious leaders back to you again to tell you to vote Muslim-Muslim, which I said from the outset was nothing but a scam. Nothing to do with Islam,” Usman said.
He argued that religious identity should not replace accountability and effective governance, questioning whether the lives of Muslims in northern Nigeria had improved significantly in recent years.
“What happened in the last four years? What happened to Muslims in the north?” he asked.
Usman identified poverty, insecurity, drug abuse, hunger and the growing number of out-of-school children as some of the major challenges confronting the region.
“Our poverty has been deepened. Many more children are out of school, over 20,000 are out of school. Insecurity is worse, drugs all over,” he said.
He further argued that Nigeria’s security challenges could not be resolved through military spending and hardware alone, stressing the need to address the underlying social and economic conditions driving insecurity.
“And I tell the military, you can buy a billion rockets, a billion whatever to Kano jets. You cannot solve this problem. You don’t solve this social problem,” he said.
The former NHIS chairman also called on religious leaders to focus on addressing social challenges and holding political leaders accountable rather than using their influence to promote political interests.
“Instead of our religious leaders focusing on solving the social problems and telling our leadership to solve these social problems now, they are getting pittance and selling the same bandwagon of Muslim-Muslim scam,” he said.
Usman concluded by distancing himself from religious leaders he accused of using Islam for political purposes, insisting that their political activities did not represent his understanding of the religion.
“This is not my Islam, they are not representing me, they are not representing hundreds of millions of Muslims in Nigeria. That’s all I have to say. Islam is better than they are,” he said.
Comments