Nigeria Would Not Be Where It Is Now If Nigerians Had Voted For Me In 2019–AAC Presidential Candidate, Sowore
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore has said that if Nigerians had taken the bold step to elect him as the president in 2019, Nigeria would not be where it is today.
Sowore during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday said the best people have not been elected as president of Nigeria since Nigeria got a democracy.
The human rights activist noted that Nigeria would have avoided some of the tragedies and unfortunate incidents it had in the last four years if he had won in 2019.
He said, “I believe so and I believe that people have learnt their lessons, especially in the last four years because Nigeria has gotten worst progressively in the last four years and had Nigerians and I’m saying this here, had Nigerians taken that bold step in 2019 and elected Omoyele Sowore, we would not be where we are today. We would be more safe and secure.
“There won’t be an ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) strike for eight months and we won’t have the naira that has now become toilet paper and we won’t have the kind of corruption we have in place today. Our health situation would have been better, we probably wouldn’t have had the flood that’s ravaging Nigeria now because I would have started four years ago to build a dam that will be generating nothing less than a thousand megawatts and it would have been closed at least in four years like the Egyptians and Moroccans do it.”
Sowore urged the media to be fair and balanced in its reportage, saying they “should allow Nigerian people listen to all the candidates not excluding anyone of us in this 18-man race”.
He continued, “I’m not in the race to be counted as the first or the frontrunners but as the frontrunner in the race based on ideas and that’s what has led us to where we are today. We have always projected those who are the worst as the best for us.
“In my lifetime and I have said this several times that in 1979, I was about eight years old and I could feel the disappointment Nigeria brought upon itself when the most prepared person for that race, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was stopped because the system did not agree with him, only for him to die.
“I think some 10 years later and everybody was saying he’s the best president Nigerian should have had; shame and that’s what we should be discussing – ideas. The best have never gotten it in Nigeria.”
Speaking on why he thinks he’s the best person to be Nigeria’s president, Sowore noted that events have proven him to be right as most of his ideas in 2019 were stolen by the ruling party.
I believe I’m the best,” he said.
“Some of the ideas in 2019 were even stolen by the ruling party presently, I was the one who first proposed that democracy should be June 12 as opposed to May 29 and they stole the idea,” he added.
According to him, he beats other candidates in terms of intellect, exposure and education.
He said, “In terms of ideas and intellect and exposure, even education I’m better off than the candidates that were presented in 2019. Even some of the younger candidates in 2019 who came to me and said we should join together that they are better than me; they have known and discovered who’s more resilient because I’m probably the one who’s still around four years later after spending time in jail, restriction, being shot at, they know who the Teflon is by now.”
He noted that the 2019 election was not an election but a selection process.
He added that “they allocated votes and the person who won did not win because it was vote allocation”.
However, he said he believes that the 2023 presidential election will be different from past ones as Nigerians will choose the best person for the job.
“I believe strongly that it should be and it must be because if the right person doesn’t come now, Nigeria is living on borrowed time we don’t have more time left.
“This is a country and it needs a president; the president of a country should not be compared to a CEO of a country because it’s a reflection of everybody in the country, it’s a reflection of their sentiments, biases, aspirations and love for progress. And in terms of education, I have a master’s degree in Public Administration. I’m probably the only candidate in this race with a master’s degree in Public Administration.
“In terms of experience, the best experience the leadership of a country needs is integrity; experience he spent doing good, not the experience he spent doing corruption, killing people, manipulating the populace.”
“In terms of exposure, I have done some 33 decades monitoring and participating in the political process in Nigeria,” he added.
He said some of the people being paraded as front liners today participated in military rule and in sabotaging Nigeria.
