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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