Presidential aspirant of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has admonished Nigerians to ignore the ruling parties on the idea of zoning to region, ethnic, or religious directions.
The activist noted in an interview with Kaftan TV that zoning is dubious and a scam, as “corruption is never zoned.” Sowore believes that the only people deprived of power so far are “the oppressed.” He noted that Nigerians have never benefited from the zoning arrangements of both the PDP and APC other anguish, pains, and mass poverty.
When asked about zoning to any of the regions in the country by Anabel Orji; Sowore said “it’s one of the most pathetic things we have to deal with. I think it happens in every election…they just bring in one bossy words that distract everybody’s attentions from what is needed the most to determine a good leader which is character and several other great things…Power has been zoned before to the North, what did Northerners get from it except insecurity? Buhari has been in power for seven years and the North where he comes from is swamped in insecurity. Obasanjo when he was in power couldn’t construct a good road from Lagos to Abeokuta where he lives. Jonathan who everybody says is the candidate of the third largest ethnic group in Nigeria became president and what do you get, they are still stealing crude today. What if the real competent people are not allowed to run in those places you zone to. When it comes to corruption, they don’t say; look it’s the turn of the South East to just take all the Nigeria money for the next four years! What I will say conclusively is that, if we want to zone next time, lets zone power to the oppressed- the class that is always at the receiving end of these bad governance’.
Omoyele Sowore is the founder of Sahara Reporters; the newspaper with the largest followership in Nigeria, which he set up in 2002. He participated in pro-masses struggles from when he was 19 in 1989 at the popular Anti-SAP national protests led by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS); to the June 12 Six-Year Revolt which led to the defeat of the military regimes and restore democracy in 1999. He popularized and participated in all the major mass actions especially the January Uprising Against Subsidy Removal; led the 2Face\EiE February 2017 Protests in Lagos after the popular musician backed out due to pressures from the secret police; and also led the first major protests of the #EndSARS from his house arrest in Abuja to the Police Headquarters on October 7th, 2020. #EndSARS became the largest mass movement of youths against police brutality and bad governance in Africa.
Credit: Tundun Kwali