THE presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore, has said Nigerians have been electing leaders with inferiority complex.
Sowore, in an exclusive interview with The ICIR, claimed Nigeria’s leaders are afraid of international bodies and have allowed them to dictate to the country.
“The problem with Nigerians is that we keep electing leaders who have inferiority complex. An IMF (International Monetary Fund) director can just walk into the office of the President and start dictating policies to him. The ambassador of the United States can be making policy statements on TV in Nigeria, just like they were doing with the terror alert thing. We should be the ones telling them that terrorists are approaching, they shouldn’t be the ones telling Nigerian security agencies that terrorists are about to strike. Those are violations of diplomatic relations, but our leaders are afraid of them.”
Sowore said he will not allow that, if elected President in 2023.
“The (international) laws are there, and I am going to implement them without fear. I am not afraid of multinationals because I know them very well. I lived in America for 20 years and I know how they operate. I will ensure that they don’t bring in workers for work that Nigerians can do.”
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He added that he would ensure that foreign companies train Nigerians who have shown potential in particular areas before they are awarded contracts.
Calling for a perfect Nigerian union, Sowore stressed the need for the country to adopt a new Constitution that is ratified by the citizens.
“Nigeria has reached a point where it is either we work on a perfect union, or we abandon the union altogether and one of the ways to work on the perfect union is to sit down and frame another Constitution. Get it ratified, get a referendum for everybody to say yes or no to it and you’re good to go.
“The Nigeria Constitution of 1999 is nothing. It wasn’t made and ratified by the people, so you can’t start amending it. And at any rate, the amendment of that Constitution has become a source for corruption. The guy who has been in charge of amending Nigeria’s Constitution is in jail in the United Kingdom (UK) for trying to sell somebody’s kidney. That’s the joke the Constitution review has been.”
On whether he is worried about being the President that will supervise the disintegration of the the country, Sowore said: “Yes, I said I don’t mind because Nigeria has become a bad marriage to a lot of people. So, that’s one of the several categories of people who are tired of Nigeria.
“The South-East has reached 70 per cent of secession because you can’t hang a Nigerian flag openly in the South-East right now. Most of the police stations have closed, except at the state headquarters. The radio that’s most popular in the South-East is Radio Biafra. I was there, they don’t hide it anymore. So, for you to bring them back, you’re not going to bring them back by starting the Third Niger Bridge. No. They have passed that stage. It’s not going to be feasible. You have to bring them back by addressing their fundamental grievances. Let them determine why they should continue to stay in Nigeria, and you will be surprised that if they are allowed to do a referendum under a perfect union, the referendum might fail. I am not saying it will, but it might fail.
“You have Yorubas saying they want to leave. There are people who want seccession, whether you like it or not. So, if you put Nnamdi Kanu in detention, has it in any way reduced his power? You drive Sunday Igboho to Benin Republic and he’s operating perfectly from there.
“And you also know that there’s a fourth category and those are the people that want to ‘Japa’ (travel abroad). So, you have a country where a lot of citizens have mentally seceded. Everybody is tired of the country called Nigeria.”
The AAC candidate, however, assured that he’s not contesting to supervise the disintegration of Nigeria but rather to make the country a perfect union by addressing institutional and foundational injustices in the system.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M