For the next few days, Zikoko Citizen has partnered with Daria Media to bring exclusive coverage of “The Candidates”, a series of presidential town halls where each candidate gets to speak to the electorate on their plans for Nigeria.
November 18, 2022, was day two of ‘The Candidates’ and the turn of the African Action Congress presidential candidate (AAC), Omoyele Sowore who showed up to answer some questions, alongside his running mate, Haruna Magashi.
Here are some quick facts you need to know:
- Sowore founded Sahara Reporters in 2011. The media organization focuses on “evidence reporting on the corruption of politicians.”
- He is the presidential candidate of his own party, the AAC. The party was founded in 2018.
- He ran for the presidency in 2019 but lost.
- Activism and revolution have been a thing for him since his university days. He was also part of the June 12 1993 protests of MKO Abiola that resulted in his exile to the United States.
- He also started the #RevolutionNow protests for which he was arrested in 2021.
- His running mate, Magashi, is a lawyer and businessman.
Now you know about Sowore and his running mate. Here are some of the promises the activist made for Nigeria:
There will be no “violent revolutions”.
With Sowore’s history with protests, it’s no wonder that the host, Kadaria Ahmed, first asked him about the possibility of more protests erupting across the country if elected.
He responded by saying that his message from 2019, which includes the improvement of national security, promotion of sustainable growth, and self-sufficiency in key areas of the economy hasn’t changed. For him, this is the “revolution Nigeria needs” but it doesn’t need to be violent.
Electricity will be used to improve Nigeria’s GDP.
One point Sowore hammered on a lot during the conversation was the need to increase the nation’s power supply to 700,000MW.
According to him, “if there’s enough electricity being supplied in Nigeria, this will increase production in Nigeria, which should therefore increase investor interest and ultimately the country’s GDP”.
If this happens, we believe that it could be a great tool for economic growth. Nigeria only transmits 3500MW out of 5000 MW to consumers across the country.
Even 5000 MW seems to fall short, as 1000MW is the international standard for a population of one million people. Now with Nigeria’s 200 million people, do the math on how much power there needs to be produced.
The rich will not profit from fuel subsidy.
Sowore schooled the audience a bit on fuel subsidy. He said that the word “subsidy” has been demonized and that the subsidy is actually for the benefit of Nigerians.
According to him, some “oligarchs” or rich individuals in society are adding their profit to the subsidy. This defeats the purpose and makes fuel products expensive.
He added that his solution will be to rebuild refineries. He said that, “building refineries would cut off all importation of our fuel from foreign companies.”
Now, while this may have some solid benefits, there may be a negative impact on Nigeria’s daily N2K.
Let’s give some context.
In Nigeria, fuel subsidy is what the Federal Government pays to balance what is being paid by the consumer and the cost of supply for this fuel. This helps you not to feel the burden of the high production costs of fuel.
However, the government has been spending quite a lot on maintaining this fuel subsidy, as N18.39 billion was spent in 2022. Imagine if that money was being used to pay off part of our N42.84 trillion debt. debt Nigeria incurred. There would be some hope of the country getting out of debt.
Women will not be treated as ‘signage’.
When asked what he thinks about the low rate of women’s participation in politics, Sowore was insistent that women are always being used as ‘signage’ in every political gathering to be discarded later on.
He also stated that women “make up 51 percent of the population”. Thus, there’s no reason why women couldn’t elect their fellow women as president or senator or any other political position in his regime. He brought up the 35 per cent affirmative action bill, adding that the percentage was too “small and insignificant” when they make up 51 percent of the population.
Although the actual percentage of women in Nigeria is 50 percent, not 51 percent, we definitely agree that there should be a rethink of the policies that affect women participation in politics.
Nigeria’s debt will be cleared by chasing its debtors.
What’s the answer to removing Nigeria’s debt? For Sowore, it’s to press the necks of Nigeria’s debtors.
He mentioned that a ‘transition team is already in place pending when he is elected. This transition team already has a list of Nigeria’s debtors, the biggest of them all being oil companies.
He claimed that these oil companies owed up to N8 trillion in debt previously to the Federal Government. Currently, N2.1 trillion has been paid.
He promised that when he is president, he will make sure these oil companies will have no choice but to pay up the full debt.
Stay glued to our pages on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok for more exclusive coverage of “The Candidates”. You can also follow @TheDariaMedia on Twitter and Facebook and @dariamediang on Instagram.
We will be back again with Day Three of ‘The Candidates’, scheduled for November 19, 2022.
