The Publisher of the online news
platform, Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, has declared his
interest to run for president in 2019.
In this interview published on
his site, Sowore explains why he is joining politics, how he will defeat
President Muhammadu Buhari, how he will run Nigeria if elected, and what he
will do with Sahara Reporters once he becomes president.
Read excepts of the interview
below
PT: You have indicated you
might run for president in the 2019 election. Why are you crossing into
partisan politics?
SOWORE: I’ve always been in the
forefront of the agitation and struggle to move Nigeria forward – first as a
student and youth activist during military regimes. Since 1999, my focus has
been on improving and sanitizing the democratic space. This is a natural
progression of my commitment to moving Nigeria forward. This will not be
politics as usual. I have always been a part of the movement to move Nigeria
forward. I have always played a leading role in that movement.
This is a movement. It will be
the largest mobilization of Nigeria’s ignored and dispossessed people. It will
be the most direct engagement of a people in their own political future. I’ve
always offered Nigerians a platform for amplifying their concerns and dreams
for Nigeria. I am continuing that struggle. Yes – we will be part of a
coalition of parties. These will all be progressive parties – committed to
nothing other than the advancement of the Nigerian nation. It is Nigeria’s
moment to see revolutionary politics in action!
PT: Are you not abandoning
activism that way?
SOWORE: Activism is simply
advancing a pro-people agenda. For too long we have focused on using borrowed
voices in the political realm while we’ve focused on creating awareness. That
has failed. Since 1999 – the progressive movement has been disappointed by the
actions and inactions of those we have left to handle the affairs of Nigeria
while we reduced ourselves to election monitors, NGO leaders, and street
protesters.
In the course of doing these, we
have inadvertently supported some of the cruelest and mediocre to occupy
political power. Sometimes the most revolutionary thing to do is to get into
the ring. Obama was an activist who became president. Mandela was an activist
who became president. Everyone will agree that their principled commitment to
struggle continued even when they were in office. So it is possible to stay
committed to an activist agenda even when in office.
PT: Are you saying Buhari
has failed and not worthy of being re-elected?
SOWORE: Just a little over a week
ago – over 100 young girls were taken by Boko Haram in Dapchi. Buhari’s appeal
was supposed to be a tough stance against corruption and an ability to address
the security crises posed by Boko Haram. No single major victory has been
notched in the anti-corruption fight. Boko Haram is still alive and kicking.
And the president’s inaction and lack of leadership are causing the
herdsmen-farmers conflicts to take on an even more dangerous dimension. The
Nigerian state is in shambles.
PT: Election is less than a
year away. Are you still holed up in your base in New York? When are
you going to find a party and then mobilize support for your candidacy?
SOWORE: I think it is
incontrovertible that in and out of Nigeria, I have been an effective
contributor to the struggle for the advancement of good governance in Nigeria.
The efforts to mobilize progressives and to form a coalition of progressive
parties and organizations is underway. I am using my time in the U.S. to
mobilize diaspora Nigerians. This weekend, for instance, I will be holding a
town hall in Maryland with Nigerians. I am also spending a great deal of my
time meeting with my strategy and policy teams – members of whom include some
really accomplished Nigerians. Unknown to many I have been on the ground
Nigeria in the last two months.The work goes on. I will certainly be spending
more time on the ground in Nigeria.
PT: Prosecuting election in
Nigeria is known to cost several billions of naira. Where will you find the
resources for this project?
SOWORE: Elections are always
expensive – that’s true. However what is also true is that monies spent in
Nigerian politics are not mainly focused on political mobilization or
electioneering campaigns and organization. As a political movement for true
change, we will not be spending money on buying votes or distributing rice to
the electorate. Our monetary needs will be greatly reduced. We will be sourcing
funds directly from the Nigerian people. Nigerians have demonstrated a capacity
to devote their resources to projects that they believe in. The recent team
that represented Nigeria in bobsledding at the Winter Olympics raised almost
$200,000 – a lot of it from Nigerians. We are already seeing and receiving
commitments for support. Our approach will revolutionize the way politics is
funded in Nigeria. There is also a lot of support that is coming in the form of
goodwill donations. For instance – I’ll be in Maryland this weekend at a town
hall. A group of concerned Nigerians are funding that event. We also have
something that counts for a lot – an army of technology savvy supporters and
media platforms that will amplify our voice to the Nigerian people.
Barack Obama raised millions of
dollars from Nigerians in the US alone in 2008/2009 and subsequently after.
100,000 Nigerian contributing $200 per person can help fund a clean election
devoid of dirty money. With that, we can win the presidency and bring them back
a lot of change!
PT: You are from the south
of Nigeria. There are those saying you should wait until 2023 when Buhari
or any other northerner would have completed the North’s turn of leadership
rotation? What do you say to that?
SOWORE: Where has our “Turn – by
– Turn” politics gotten us? I’m a firm believer that when it comes to the life
of a nation – all sentiments must be set aside and only the most capable hands
should be employed to manage the affairs of Nigerians. If I believed in
Buhari’s ability to lead NIGERIA, I would have supported him. When Jonathan – a
Southerner like me was in office, I had a principled opposition to the way he
was running Nigeria. It was Albert Einstein that said, “it is madness to keep
doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome.” Nigeria has a unique
opportunity in 2019 to elevate competence over tribalism, elevate character
over dishonesty, principle over indecisiveness. I’m sure when the dust clears
there will be candidates from across Nigeria expressing an interest in the
presidency. Let Nigerians decide who should lead them.
Our patriots from across Nigeria
won’t bother about zoning when they realize the person running the country is
completely detribalized and doesn’t treat anyone different because of their
tribe, religion, creed, and class. We have had it all. Mediocrity hiding behind
zoning and a wicked, selfish sense of entitlement. The only thing zoning does
is empower political actors to enrich themselves and plug their friends and
cronies in the position of authority to steal, kill and destroy. For the rest
of us north or south, we are zoned to misery.
PT: Recently Garba Shehu, a
spokesperson to the president, said Buhari’s followership in Kano and
across Nigeria is so huge and phenomenal that it has to be studied by political
scientists. How can you defeat such a man in 2019?
SOWORE: Buhari’s followership is
large – but remember that it took four tries and an alliance with the
South-West and with progressive democratic forces before he was able to become
president. We are all witnesses to the unprecedented set of circumstances that saw
an incumbent president defeated at the polls. If there is anything we have
learned in the last few years, it is the fact that the Nigerian electorate has
become impatient with purposeless leadership. My candidacy is generating
significant interest across Nigeria, especially amongst the youth. The youth
demographic is the largest single voting block. The coalition of progressives,
youths and previously disenfranchised Nigerians that we are building will be a
force to reckon with. I have been in the business of building movements since
my time as a student activist in the late 80s and early 90s. I am confident
that we will be able to build a broad coalition of Nigerians committed to
taking their country back and setting it firmly on a path to prosperity and unprecedented
progress.
PT: What will you do
differently if elected president of Nigeria?
SOWORE: Nigeria struggles because
past presidents have had three major issues. Firstly, there is an abject
absence of a clear vision as to where the country should be headed. Where
should Nigeria be in the next five, 10 or even 50 years? Where are the national
plans that map out the country’s vision and the paths to their actualization
aside from the propaganda we see on NTA? Today, we are impressed by China’s
sustained growth, but since 1953 China has produced a series of 5-year plans
that has guided their growth. Now they are on their 13th five-year plan
(2016-2020). With that China became the most powerful and prosperous nation on
earth using its populace as its best resource. China solved its housing crisis
and even now boast of unoccupied apartments in “ghost cities” built in the last
10 years. China built one of the fastest rail services with an amount of money
equivalent to the sums stolen during the oil imports scam. Same goes for the
UAE. Dubai was built into the architectural marvel that is now a magnet to
Nigeria’s thieving elites. I will be instituting a series of four-year plans to
overlap with Nigeria’s political tenure system that will chart our path to growth
and progress. Secondly, even where a clear vision might exist, nepotism,
tribalism, and favoritism has robbed us of the service of our best people. I am
a completely detribalized Nigerian. My antecedents are that of an activist that
has worked to build alliances and networks across this nation over the last 30
years.
I understand first hand the value
of having competent and capable people in the right positions. I’ve created a
world-class media company in the last 12 years and taught in a private college
for eight years helping to mold some of America’s greatest minds.
Thirdly, corruption has crippled
us as a nation. Where past presidents have been slow in tackling this issue and
sometimes even complicit through their actions or inactions in promoting corruption,
I will be decisive in dealing with this cancer that has ravaged the Nigerian
nation.
PT: You are a long-term
activist and indeed a very popular figure across Nigeria. But Gani
Fawehinmi
was an activist who served Nigerians all his life. He made to be president in
2003 but the same people he served for almost his entire life abandoned him at
the polls. Are you not worried you might get a similar treatment?
SOWORE: Gani was, as you said, a
household name across Nigeria. The reality was that in 2003, there was still
some hope and expectation by the Nigerian people that the status quo political
system would be able to lead Niferia to progress and growth. It is now clear
that those largely naive aspirations were ill-founded. After numerous failed
governments, Nigerians have demonstrated that they are ready to try new
concepts and ideas and to go beyond the status quo in seeking solutions. That
led them to pick a south-south Ijaw man as president in 2011 and in electing an
opposition candidate who had failed to win the presidency three times before,
in 2015. Gani came before his time. Also, there are other factors now present
in our current political reality. For example, the power of social media
helping young people to engage and interact, the power of technology to help
change election outcomes, an accuracy of results, real-time reporting and
capture of results.
It is also important to state
that elections in 2003 and beyond under Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic
Party were not worthy to be referred to as credible elections. For instance,
just imagine if Nigerians seized the opportunity offered by Gani in 2003 and
thus elected him over an Olusegun Obasanjo, just imagine where will be today.
Imagine, an Obafemi Awolowo or Aminu Kano over a Shehu Shagari. There is an
appetite by the Nigerian people for candidates with character, and a proven and
demonstrable track record of being able to drive for real change. The APC has
failed Nigerians in this area. The movement we are building will be offering
revolutionary change.
PT: On the platform of
which political party are you planning to run?
SOWORE: That is something we are
working on. We are currently in discussions with progressive groups and
parties, the goal is to have a broad coalition of progressive parties that
could lend their structures and ideologies to defeat the old order. When the
time is right we will be announcing what party platforms that will be utilized.
PT: You have spent over 12
years of your life building SaharaReporters into a formidable news and
anti-corruption platform? What becomes of the website now that you are crossing
into partisan politics?
SOWORE: Sahara Reporters will
continue to speak truth to power. The platform is more than just Sowore. When I
win the presidency, I will be turning over all of my assets to a blind trust
that will run it. Sahara Reporters will continue to be run by
independent-minded citizen activists. Even now, the website is managed by
several others who have been groomed and schooled in the founding traditions of
the website. That is what Sahara Reporters is and that is how it will remain.
SaharaReporters is driven by its ever loyal readers and users!
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