The reason why corruption is endemic in Nigeria is because of the way our political parties are formed and funded. It is because of the way they recruit their candidates and the way they get into office.- Omoyele Sowore at the big debate.
“There is no reason why an average nigerian cannot tell how much we are making in the so called TSA, how much is there on a daily basis. We are entitled to it: how much are we spending; how is money moving? – Omoyele Sowore at the big debate.
One characteristic importance of the 2019 elections is the increased participation of the Nigerian people in the matters of politics. There is also increased national discourse and engagement with more intense scope. The town hall meetings springing across the nation, the number of people that have obtained their PVC, followed political events on social media, and attended political events is telling as regard this submission.
This is arguably linked to the audacious political strides of Omoyele Sowore and the African Action Congress amplifying the truth of the people’s rule in a democracy. This people’s rule is the way Omoyele Sowore’s political ambition has been positioned to engage the Nigerian people. He continue with the political engagement today at the presidential debate organized by Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) ably supported by MacArthur foundation and was graced by five political parties.
Absenteeism of Most Presidential Candidates.
Interestingly, the only party that does not come for this debate is suppose to be the party that fight corruption but they are not here because they want to perpetuate the biggest form of corruption of this era in the next few weeks which is vote buying – Omoyele Sowore at the big debate
APC should come and explain to us how they will fight corruption while their party is padded with the most corrupt people in Nigeria – Omoyele Sowore at the big debate.
Although only two of the six presidential candidates expected showed up for this important debate, five political parties participated in the debate. It is important to note that only President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress, APC, was absent and did not send a representative. This is quite surprising as the central topic of the debate was corruption.
One would expect an eagerness from a person who won the presidential election in 2015 on the promise to fight corruption and currently lead a government with a loud castrated mantra of fighting corruption to cease the stage in order to expound on what the fight has been about and what it intend to achieve in the future.
To adequately think about this, one may consider the fact that on the 12th of January, 2019, neither President Muhammadu Buhari nor Atiku Abubakar was present for the presidential town hall meeting organized to discuss the state of Housing Market in Nigeria.
This was a prestigious event hosted by University of Lagos, an opportunity to showcase the importance of one’s candidacy. But like the case of the Big Debate, both Atiku and Buhari were absent. One, in the least, is therefore tempted to simply say these two individuals have nothing to say about housing and corruption?
The trends of absenteeism from public engagement by these two presidential candidates demand public scrutiny. It suggests they have nothing to tell Nigerians; no ideas to share on the germane issues bedeviling the Nigerian people.
Among the five political parties that participated in the Big Debate are People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alliance Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and Youth Progressive Party (YPP). These parties send representatives to speak on their plans to fight corruption.
The Big Debate: Highlights and The Corruption Discourse.
Glowing moments shone through the discourse the debate engenders. The presidential candidate of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party, ANRP, Tope Fasua, spoke boldly on how technology can be deployed to fix corruption problems. He humorously said broom and umbrella cannot solve corruption problem and alluded to the African Action Congress’s two hands logo as an emblem to be taken seriously.
The debate afforded the debaters opportunity to debunk the claim of the spokesperson of Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organization that says it will take time to employ technology in the fight against corruption.
Delving further into the discourse, Sowore declared, “I have worked in the capacity that has fought corruption, as an individual, in the last twelve years”.
He said, “We do not have anything preventive to ensure that corrupt people don’t lay hands on our resources. Most times we go after them after they have taken whatever is available for everybody for themselves.
“Where we try at all, is that of law enforcement. Law enforcement has become theatrical process in Nigeria. It has to be dramatize and at the end of the day the people who are really corrupt never get caught. Even when they are caught, it depends on which part of the aisle they belong.
(We need) … to ensure that a lot of assets that belong to individuals of the country is also publicly available. The land registry of Abuja, you cannot find it, because the whole of Abuja is own by a few people.
The asset declaration of our public officer should be something you can download without having to go through the eye of a needle.
Omoyele Sowore speaking on corrupt leaders awarded National awards says, the last thing I will say is consequences. Our party and I will remove from everybody who has national award, who are shown in this movie by CDD today; we will remove all their national awards, take it back from them.