Against the background of the increasing ethnic and political divisions in the country that have left the country in dire straits, is the emergence of a new group of people.
This group comprise of middle-aged men and women who have made good success in their diverse various professional fields, such as medicine, law and engineering amongst others have come together with a single aim; to shake up the very foundation of politics by upturning the political landscape.
The group; Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) according to Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, a Havard trained physician and an alumnus of the scholarship programme of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is a group that intends to be the “driver of the movement to retire and replace the old generation of leaders.”
Having been on the political sidelines, he had seemed satisfied to occupy himself in his profession of medicine which has seen him evolve into a medical entrepreneur having pioneered the country’s first medical aesthetics and cosmetics dermatological supply and distribution company; he said he was comfortable enough not to be bothered by the malfeasance of the system.
But Dr. Samuels said the more they stayed out, the more he discovered that no one could be secure from the failures of the government.
Hence, he and some other professionals got around to form and register ANN as a political group to take the baton away from those he termed as professional politicians who he said have made a mess of the country.
His inspiration originated from the failings of the government in the overall running of the country.
He said, “Some of us have said we will do our business and I will have nothing to do with government. But over the years, the government has been encroaching on our space by not doing the things that they are supposed to do regarding bad policies and bad policy implementation.”
The ANN, Samuels said, has filed papers with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and is presently in the final process of being registered as a political party.
The group meanwhile through its website, www.alliancefornewnigeria.org has been waging a massive social media campaign to woo more and more members which according to Samuels presently stand in the thousands.
Asked if the group would shut its doors to those who do not identify themselves as technocrats, he said: “This would not be a party only for technocrats. It is a party for every Nigerian, and we are trying to set a difference between us and the professional politicians. When you say technocrats, technocrats are experts.
We believe that a technocrat has a better chance of being a good manager of resources of people than somebody who is not.”
“People who have been participating in the democratic exercise are less than 30%; so we are looking at those people who have not been participating, more than 70%. Because the feeling is that those who get into politics are those who failed in society, but we believe that by coming out as a group of technocrats, that class of people who do not participate will be motivated to step forward to participate or even to serve.”
“The difference between the group we are putting together and the other groups is that the professional politicians play politics, that is all they do, they don’t have any other means of livelihood.
They want to be put in a particular position, make money, and that is it. But we have the perspective of coming to serve; it is open to everybody.”
“We are looking at students, young adults, and young professionals and they are the ones that form the bulk of the 70% that do not participate in politics, and we have strategies already to make them participate.
So, what we are doing is packaging ourselves as a body that will be irresistible to that segment of society. But that, even if you are a bricklayer you are still welcomed to be part of the body.”
He also said the goal is to get at least 10 million persons who are presently not within the captive base of the present political parties into their base.