Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, says he should be examined by a psychiatrist if he joins the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) masterminded by ex President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo recommended the coalition in a letter he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari in January.
The elder statement had asked Nigerians to rally round the movement, saying neither the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) nor the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could give Nigeria the leadership it deserves.
But speaking in an interview with BBC Yoruba , Soyinka said the coalition
is not meant for someone like him.
“Me? Obasanjo would establish a group and I will become a member of such group? That means they should get a psychiatrist to examine me,” Soyinka said.
He also spoke about the letters which Obasanjo and former military President Ibrahim Babangida addressed to Buhari. Soyinka said people should get suspicious “when these soldiers speak” because there is the possibility that “what they have in mind is different from what we have in mind”.

The scholar said nonetheless, the content of the message should be examined even though the messengers are not trustworthy.
“When these soldiers begin to speak, we are supposed to get suspicious and ask what exactly do they have in mind? It is possible that what they have in mind is different from what we have in mind,” he said.
“You can look at it from two perspectives, the messenger and the message. The message should be examined closely. We should not look at the misdeeds of the messenger alone. Let’s start by asking, is he saying the truth or telling lies, or is he being tricky?
“If he is saying the truth and talking about things that are beneficial to the masses, we would allow that be. After that, we would now look at the person speaking, what is in his mind? … even if it’s a little child who is speaking, as far as that child is saying the truth, we won’t ask the child to keep quiet. We won’t ask the child what do you know? We would listen. It is the same situation with those who have presided over the affairs of this nation without making significant progress.
“We have seen their weaknesses, we have seen their unclothedness in public, if they now want to be covered by saying that they have turned a new leaf, we would examine that, too. What I am saying in essence is that what they have said should also be examined".

He urged the youth to come together and present a candidate to represent them, adding that the older generation would support them.
“We have a lot of them. It is the turn of the younger ones. If they come
together, as we speak, if they can start now and bring out one individual among them, we will work with him,” he said.
“We are going to give them the support they need to transform the country. People like us are supposed to sit somewhere.”



https://www.thecable.ng/soyinka-get-psychitrist-examine-ever-join-obasanjos-coalition

OBJ is now bad market.

“Me? Obasanjo would establish a group and I will
become a member of such group? That means
they should get a psychiatrist to examine me,”
Soyinka said.“

Wole, stop this your talk.
Donald Trump matter is still fresh in our memory.

We Will Not Vote For You Unless You Do These 11 Things: Presidential Aspirants

https://www.nairaland.com/4287028/not-vote-unless-these-11


For every presidential aspirant, here is our requirement checklist if you actually want us to cast our votes for you in the coming 2019 election.

We don't care about what political party you belong to anymore -whether old party or new party, popular or unpopular; we don't care about what religion anymore; we don't care about what tribe or region anymore but
You

1. Must attend not less than 3 presidential debates: how do we know you're mentally stable and not a slowpoke if you cannot give reasonable responses to simple debate questioning?

2. Must undergo medical qualification tests: both the psychiatricals and others. The result must be verified by a notable medical panel and must be made availale to the general public.
People do medical tests even for secondary school admission, so why not for presidency aspiration.

3. Must have a governing plan (just like a business plan or a master plan) and make it available to the general public through the all the social media channels.
Bank cannot commit their cash to people without a good business plan with clearly written goals and objectives, figures, strategies and a guarantor, so how much more should we commit the life, future and properties of more than 150millions Nigerians to you without a plan.
In the plan must also be indicated your personer track records of successes.

4. Must have more than secondary school education. (There's nothing new about this)

5. Must have at least one of your children educated in a public university in Nigeria (not private): by this we will surely know that you believe in the future of Nigeria and that you will work towards her betterment.
This is a price not too much to pay if you realy love us.
We are tired of insensitivity of government towards the development of standards of educational setup in Nigeria, the strikes and industrial actions.

6. Must be a patronage of Nigerian made products and services and you must believe in capacity building of Nigerian indigenous businesses to provide exportable products and services to neighbouring countries, Africa and the world at large.

7. Must be wide reader and self development enthusiast: If you don't constantly feed your mind with transformative, educative and informative ideas through books, you don't have a business doing with presidency in Nigeria.
We are tired of archaic approaches to human governing. We need mordern, liberated and future oriented leaders to lead us in Nigeria, not power mongers, who just want to be in government for power, fame and monetary gain.

8. Must be within the working age range (younger than 60 years): "what's good for the goose is good for the gander".
Towards old age, people become less and less physically, socially, mentally and psychologically fit to cope with occupational demands, not to talk of rulling a nation of more than150million citizens, so retirement is compulsory.
The retirement age in Nigeria civil service guided by decree No. 102 of 1979 that dealt with pension and gratuity pegged the statutory age of retirement for public officers at 60 years, while it is 65 years for judiciary officers and 70 for academic staff of universities. However with reform of civil service decree No. 43 of 1988, retirement age has been put at 60 years or 35 years in service.

9. Must have no public record of hate speech, tribalism, nepotism, crime against humanity, pending corruption charges or history, and or affiliation with any millitant group or religion fundamentalist group or terrorist group :
We will never ever think again that people will change. Ascenssion to power only gives people the chance to express their true self.

10. Must have done something contributary to the development of your immediate environment: this is simple, is'nt it?

11. Must be well educated about the constitution of Nigeria. We are tired of reminding the government what to do and what's not to do. We are tired of reminding the government about what's in the costitution they swear to uphold. This is 21st century.
The INEC in collaoration with the National Assembly and the Judiciary Counsel of Nigeria should create an online platform where common citizen can get proper education about the Nigerian constitution. They should maku use of shot animated videos and other training material. Certificates should also be awarded.

My advice: What 2019 Presidential Aspirants Should Do If Older Than 60
https://www.nairaland.com/4288681/must-read-what-2019-presidential


This writeup is based on the premise that "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" - and invariably, what's good for the civil servants is good for the political aspirants.

I made a quick scan yesterday about the age of some of the people whose intention has been publicly declared to run as presidential candidate in the upcoming 2019 general election but was supprised that almost all of them have age older than 60, the civil service retirement age.

The retirement age was pegged at 60 not because of hatred for the civil servants by the government or the lawmakers but because of other factors which include their been psychologically, physiologically and mentally unfit to meet up with their daily work demands due to the the call of old age.

Any aspirant with age older than 60 will not get our votes, so we advise them now to drop their presidential ambitions. Their children and immediate family needs them more than ever before to enjoy their company and learn from their life exploits before they finally go to their graves.

We need young vibrant adults who are liberated, civil, has clean records and are already doing something good with their individual lives. We need smart, intelligent and presentable leaders who will be pragmatic to national issues, growth and development and not just political jobbers.

Now, get me right this once and for all that this writeup is not a campaign strategy for any aspirant whose age is below 60 because we will still disqualify him or her for our votes if he or she could not meet up with the remaining ten requirement standards for earning our votes.

https://www.nairaland.com/4287028/presidential-aspirants-not-vote-unless

If they have the love of the citizen at heart and not just for power, fame and financial gain sake, they should please respect the choice of the people and accept their unfitness to becoming a president in Nigeria. They should respect themselves.

This is where the respect is, they should find, adopt or raise a younger candidate to support and mentor. They should then present them to us and see if we will not vote for them so far they fulfill our 11 requirements.

Lastly, let me challenge the young adults. What are your fears? What are your excuses?

You don't have any excuse for not running for the presidential race in the upcoming 2019 general election. If you think you lack capital, maybe you are wrong, things are becoming fast changing, you don't need to much of capital to run presidential campaign.

You don't lack capital, you only lack been resourceful. Many business mogul are ready to sponsor you if you ask them to, Nigerian youths are ready to raise capital, your political group will do something and what about internet crowd funding options?

If your hands are clean and you're qualified with our 11 point requirement for presidential aspirant, nomatter what the party you are, we the Nigerian youths will support you and vote en masse to ensure you become our president.

The youth make up the largest part of the Nigerian population and are mostly on the social media where you can reach them. The social media is the cheapest way to run a presidential camapign, remember the last general election.

Wake up! Wake Up from your slumber! Nigerian youth, please wakeup! Don't say you will not participate in politics. All governmental policies are directly affecting everything you do even in the corner of your room so why not put your destiny into the right hands?

Samleen writes from Nigeria.