According to Rawlings, Sowore’s candidacy has demonstrated youthful power and shown that Nigeria has alternatives.
ormer Head of State and President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, has commended Omoyele Sowore’s intention to contest Nigeria’s presidential elections in 2019.
According to Rawlings, Sowore’s candidacy has demonstrated youthful power and shown that Nigeria has alternatives.
He stated this when he received members of the TakeItBack Movement at his office in Ridge, Accra, Ghana, noting that Nigeria alone commands 35 to 40 per cent of Africa’s political power. He, however, regretted that Nigeria’s leaders had, so far, been unable to utilise that power.
Sowore stated at the meeting that he had come to Rawlings, whom he described as a respected leader, to let him know that his “next door neighbour, Nigeria, is about to experience a revolution with the emergence of young leaders in 2019.”
He noted that his news website, SaharaReporters had consistently exposed corrupt politicians, but he realised that the media alone cannot change Nigeria, stating that there was also the need for people who were ready to go all the way.
Responding, Rawlings said he felt Sowore was best suited to continue his bold exposures on corruption. He went on to say the people of Nigeria couldn’t take the rot and corruption anymore when they voted for change in 2015.
“Pretty much like what’s happening in your country, people just got sick and tired and gave their vote to Buhari. It’s so unfortunate though that President Buhari’s government couldn’t fight the rot without ambushing the cost of living of the people.”
Whiles acknowledging the complexities within the Nigerian socioeconomic and geopolitical environment, he added that President Buhari’s government could have employed some intelligent flexibility working with the question “How do you fight corruption without allowing it to affect the cost of living in the country?”
He stated that African leaders don’t teach their people to put leadership in check, but rather disempower them, and advised the presidential hopeful to approach the issue of corruption with caution because Nigerians may dismiss him thinking, “even if this clean man (Buhari) couldn’t fight corruption, what about him?”
At the meeting, the former President advised Sowore to carefully think about his ambition, adding that it was going to be difficult, not because of money politics, but because some Africans tend to sometimes fall in love with their oppressors.
