Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, has said the various secessionist movements are not the answer to the challenges facing Nigeria.
Sowore, who made this known during an interview session with the BBC Yoruba on Monday, October 31, 2022, explained that what Nigeria needed is good leadership to tackle major socio-economic problems confronting the country.
Speaking in Yoruba, the AAC candidate said, “I am not saying those that will divide should not do what they want; because Nigeria’s issue is now like if you can’t move it forward, take it back to where you took it. This is why most people say we should make it better or restructure it. But what we are saying is that even if Nigeria is divided into small countries, like the Yoruba Nation, do you have good leaders? So if we have good leaders in Nigeria, nobody will want the country to divide.
“It was because there are no plans for development; that was why many people clamoured for separation. If Nigeria is divided, those bastards destroying it will still come back to destroy Yoruba Nation because nobody can say Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba did not contribute to what Nigeria is facing. Nigerians from different towns are destroying Nigeria. So, if Yoruba nation comes, those people will come back home; until you have leaders that have the foresight to curb them.”
In response to a question about the motivation behind his presidential candidacy, Sowore stated that his goal was to tackle Nigeria’s problems.
“If you want to cash out, you should not adopt our system of politics. You know those that are cashing out, you know where they meet. If we want to cash out, we will go and join their parties. Everybody listening to us knows those parties. Someone that is fighting; speaking the truth, telling the president that what he is doing is not right; someone that went to prison because he spoke the truth; someone they fight every day. Is that a cash-out job or death trap? Our job is to fight for freedom; we don’t want the hardships that Nigerians are battling now.
“When we started politics, we met with the people and they sponsored us in 2019. Ours is to show them that if we get elected, we won’t collect money from them or spend public money without explanation. One of the reasons Nigeria is not moving forward is because most leaders do not see that people have their rights to know how they spend. Public funds are not for politicians.”
Sowore further stated if the Nigerian government did not find a way to enrol the over 20 million out-of-school children in school, the country may face a more serious security challenge in the future.”
“Insecurity has become a problem in Nigeria. The second is electricity problem; next is education. Ours is to start from education. Imagine our universities were closed for eight months and even now that they say that have settled it, it is yet to be settled. We need to start spending on education; wherever we want to see the money because our concern is not only tertiary education.
“Those 20 million children out of school should be returned to school or else, the insecurity we are clamouring for now will be worse when these kids grow and do not have anything to do; it will become a big problem for Nigeria and the whole world,” he added.
