THE CHANGE FOR KENYA IS BETTERNESSS, NOT BITTERNESS

of them is a law professor, George Luchiri Wajackoyah, who will be contesting on the platform of the Roots Party of Kenya (RPK).

Since Kenya's Constitution has been amended through referendum to accommodate voters from the Diaspora, Wajackoyah was in Nigeria last weekend to solicit support from his kinsmen resident in Nigeria.

And due to the terms of the new constitution, it could also be the first presidential election in Kenya where the candidates face a second round between the first and the second if none achieves simple (50 per cent plus 1 vote) majority in the first round or if the winner does not get 25 per cent of the votes in at least 24 countries.

The RPK presidential standard bearer, who was born on October 24, 1959 to the family of Tito Olilo Jakoya and Melenia Makokha, fielded questions from Nigerian journalists on his arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos.

RAZAQ BAMIDELE, brings the excerpts from the parley.

Ambition
The ambition is change. It is about change. And I have to be very thankful to the press. I also thank Chief Emeka Kalu and other Nigerians, who have been taking care of me since my childhood to maturity. They took care of me since I was in London and actually made me to become a lawyer.

The reason why I came this way is because the task in my country now is change; to practise politics of betterness and not politics of bitterness. Though a lot of people talk of change, the change they are talking about is that of betterness. While I am talking of change with betterment is that we may have a better environment in my country. We can have change for everybody. We can educate people to dismantle the yoke of colonialism that intimidate my people in my country.

We have to leave the yoke of neo-colonialism that breeds corruption. We are now in the paradigm of change that will enhance sustainable development. I think Africa has become one through the African Union (AU). West African Development Committee. South African Development Committee. So, we need to look forward to know how we can sustain ourselves into issues and not into personalities. So, the reason I want to take up the mantle of leadership in Kenya as a Professor of Law and as an academic is to go back home and join those who are already fighting for change so that we can transform that country into a viable economic giant and human resources hub in Africa. So, my slogan is change, and anti corruption. Change for betterness and not for bitterness and change for the younger generation. We move from the old paradigm shift to a new paradigm of shaking the trees. Shaking corruption from the trees. If you ask me what I mean by that, I will say what I mean we need to shake all the corrupt elements from the tree to fall so that we can move on. And Nigeria has been championing this role. The current President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is the darling of change in Africa. He is a man of socio-mobility. He is the first President in Africa, or, let me say in the whole world to fashion in development and allow us, the younger generation from other parts of Africa to copy the modus, and I am copying the modus of Goodluck Jonathan and Sambo, the Vice President.

Campaign in Nigeria
Well, we need a change in Africa and we need Nigeria because Nigeria is the giant of Africa. Nigeria is the giant of economic development in Africa, and Nigeria is the giant of brains throughout the world. If you go out in this continent for example, you will discover that the best educated in Europe, particularly Britain where I practised law for years, the most educated people in the Diaspora particularly in the United States as well are Nigerians. And the roles Nigerians played in those old days of dictatorship, brought us back to stitch together. The economies have collapsed but Nigeria's economy did not collapse because of her brain power.

Therefore, Africa as a whole, has vast lesson to learn from Nigeria. And I have to start my campaign in Nigeria so that we can work together and stitch together to work out the wind of change. Without Nigeria, what would come out of Africa would not be viable at all.

Reception in the Diaspora
Oh, they are receiving me well because Kenya now has got three million people who are eligible to vote in the Diaspora. Nigeria has got 10 million in the Diaspora, but they are not eligible to vote. Imagine what that rule would have got for Africa!

It is because of the 2010 amendment of our constitution that allows Kenyans in the Diaspora to vote that I jumped on the band wagon to jet out to seek my people in the Diaspora for votes. And as a person who has come from nowhere, as someone who has gone through difficulties, as a person who has been in exile for 24 years dictatorship, that is why I left my prestigious job as an academic as a Professor of Law to join in calling for the support of my people in the Diaspora. In Lagos, there are many Kenyas who are virtually part of this country.

Kenya today
I see corruption, I see nepotism, I see opportunists and I see bitterness. Those who are there are fighting the wind of bitterness. Those who are coming in like myself are fighting for betterness. Therefore, we are coming in for a shift in paradigm because those within inherited the mantles, either from the colonialists, or their fathers and the mentality is still the same. So they cannot change. So, what we want to do is to develop the situation from colonialism, because they are building a line of dynasty. We can't build a country like that. We believe that our Prime minister, who I respect very much, Railo Dinga, who won the last election and was rigged out, is practising the same nepotism. His brother-in-law is the Ambassador in Washington DC today. His elder sister is in the Consulate in Los Angeles, his other brother-in-law is the Ambassador in France. What kind of change is that? And the former Nigerian regime supported him.

I am now telling Nigerians, who are my brothers that it is time for them also to come in and associate themselves with new people like myself who want to bring in new change.

We are 17 contesting, and my chance is that I am the next President of Kenya. I am already a President.

On corruption
I don't see it as part of our culture in Africa. No, that is a wrong paradigm. We have people like late Captain Thomas Sankara who came in and brought in new welfare in West Africa and was killed. Lumumba came in with new web of politics in Congo and was killed. We have seen good people coming in, and they were eliminated. It is not because of culture but because of bitterness, greed and also self centeredness. Me, me, me and me alone. Then my wife. Then my brother. Then my brother-in-law, then my whoever. So, if you have composed such into rulership, you would want to protect it.

Nyerere came in, he ruled and left. Kaunda came in, he ruled and left for other people. Mandela came in, and also did the same thing. But if you look into the history of the people who are trying to sit tight, you would discover that they are the people with self centred mentality. Look at the late past Biafra Leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu, he had a vision for Nigeria. He had vision for Biafra. People in that region thought that they would be going to the drain if there was no change. You can see what happened after him. Coup after coup until when? Now is Nigerians realising that Ojukwu stood for a paradigm shift of change.

Point of departure from old system
My point of departure is very simple. Let us also ask ourselves one question. Who am I, why am I here, where am I coming from and where am I going? Do I need the change for betterness? Or do I need a change of bitterness? Now, if I need a change to bitterness, in term of corruption like bribe you to listen to me, that I have to bribe you to change, then, you are not going anywhere. But we have a few people who are very talented. People, who have not been in any political establishment of any kind. People who have been exposed, people who have been refugees, people who have been in the Diaspora, like in Israel. Israel is an anti-corruption nation in the world and the most corruption free in the world because the people are from the Diaspora who chose to reside there. Similarly, Rwanda for example. It has become the hub of Information Technology in the whole of Africa. It is now beating Canada. Rwanda are peopled by those who came from outside and came for one purpose. Change our country and live in it. So, we need people from outside, we need new generation from outside of the system to usher in new development.

Education is the key word. Corruption for example. How do we curb corruption? There are so many ways to end corruption. Must we be blaming the police officers? Must we be blaming the system No, we have to blame ourselves and blame the institutions because of poor infrastructure. Poor education. Unavailability of even distribution of resources that lead to the breakdown of the society. We have to blame endemic unemployment, failure in healthcare system, lack of training facilities and so on.

For example now, I have been in the United States campaigning in many areas, one of them is the firmament of police officers. Nairobi has got a population of five million people. Three million in the day and two million at night. But it has got three fire stations. Two of the fire stations were built in the colonial days. And on top of that, they have 144 firemen trained in 1993. There are five fire trucks. Some of them very old. And Nairobi firemen are not insured. People who are at risk not insured! How do you compare that to Singapore that has four million population, with 130 fire stations, 9000 firemen. For God's sake, what are we talking here?! The problem is that politicians in Kenya can't have fire hazards because they are insured, they live in bungalows, they stay in corrupt environments, and have everything to prevent fire incident from occurring. And that is why they don't care about firemen.

Look at police officers for example. My work is just to look at the crowd, my job is just to take order from above. Police officers are the custodians of property, liberties and lives. They should be given number one priority. Like police and firemen, they have to be given priorities. They have to be given facilities to operate so they can feel wanted, and so that their morale can go high. But when a police officer looks like a child of emancipation, our government is going to say no. Anybody who wants a police officer to drive around him, let him hire one and pay. Let our security hands be trained, armed and let them have a living. Rather than engaging a police officer who was trained with tax payers' money for a private business. It is not allowed.

Nigeria for example, this is a beautiful country, beautiful people. But if you look at what is happening, you would like to tell the people up there to tell us what they want and tell us what is wrong so that we can identify it and then sit down and talk. This is better than someone killing some one else. That is not going to help anybody.

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President Jonathan
I think President Goodluck should be given time. He is just like the President of the US, Obama. President Obama has been in power only for four years, and he has not been able to imbibe properly. Nigerian elected Goodluck. That means if the whole population could elect this man, it means he is a good man. Goodluck is a young man. He came from the environment like where I come from. We came from poverty. He was not given this with a golden spoon. Let Nigerians give this man sometimes to improve himself. He is a man of accountability. When I came to campaign for him last year March, it was ridiculous how people who were close to him were losing votes. It means this man did not manipulate anything. We need this man just as they need me in my country. So, let us give this man a chance. Goodluck is a good man. May be that is why he has that name-Goodluck. He is good outside his country. He has good flavour. Members of our Parliament asked me to come and see Goodluck and give him their message because they love him. Why ask me? They know he is a good man and I am a good man. If he is not a good man, I will not be here. I would be sweating in Kenya doing what I am trying to do here. So, let Nigerians give this man a chance. Just one more chance. This is a democracy, you can not mature democracy over night. You can not bring in those who are at the other end of bitterness. That is why they don't like the better part of Goodluck because they want to come in with change of bitterness but Goodluck came in with change of betterness. He is trying to better people. He is the only President who can communicate with the populace on facebook.

Kenya's invasion of Somalia
Well, what the Kenyan government has done in the case of Somalian militants, my government would not have done that. They invaded Somalia in the case of removing Al-Shabab. If I was the President of Kenya today, I would not commit my Kenyan troops to other nation. I would go through the United Nations, I would prefer dialogue, so that we would work together collectively and holistically, in stead of going in there and a lot of people losing their lives. What happened in Baghdad, some kids were killed, just as more women are killed. So, this issue of Kenya sending in troops into Somalia I look at it holistically and say it on record that this was not right. They should have looked for other means of dialogue and other means of reconciliation. Who is a politician who would come here and say we can solve that problem by sending in troops?

Boko haram in Nigeria
I feel so bad that Nigeria that used to be a beacon of security in Africa and beacon of economy in Africa is going in that way. My prayer is that God intervenes and resolves the situation. I pray that the President and former Presidents like Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Buhari come into one room, find out how they can trash this situation, because with this one, Goodluck can not do it alone. He needs former Heads of State to sit down to find out the cause of this conflict. It is a conflict that can be resolved. I feel so bad seeing brothers kill one another. These are all Nigerians killing each other. And there are those who rush to bitterness. They rush to say oh, people are bombing, let us also go and bomb them. But who is being destroyed at the end of the day? The economy goes down. The name of the country goes down. The people themselves also go down. And foreign investors also go away.

Foreign intervention
Foreign assistance can come as the last resort because if you go outside to call them to come and solve your problem, then they would have different agenda. They might come in to say 'we are bringing in this thing to kill them,' but Mandela would say, don't do that. Mandela himself, when he came out of prison, he dialogued with the Whites who jailed him for 27 years. And he said he would rule for only five years. and that was exactly what he did. He did not call any outsider to come and help him so solve the problem of South Africa. If South Africans solved their problem, what is wrong with Nigerians who can sit down with their President and call in some eminent Africans like Nelson Mandela, and call in even Arabs from Arab countries who are willing to change and who have actually laboured for change to come and sit down and find solution to the problem. There are Muslims in the north. They must be fighting for a reason. We don't know what the reason is. But if there is any hooliganism, let the law and constitution of the country take care of it.

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