By Ruth Zubairo
People are tired of Nigeria.
Tired of not having “light”.
Tired of fuel scarcity.
Tired of increased toll fares on bad roads.
Tired of bad education.
Tired of politicians playing “kalokalo” with their destinies.
Religious houses are packed full with people praying for a miracle.
Drive by an embassy and see the number of Nigerians waiting in line to get a visa to check out, not knowing that having a Nigerian passport in a foreign land is like being recognized as a criminal, but they’re waiting for you to commit a crime, so they can throw away the key.
Nigeria is not working. Many people have offered different opinions on how to solve our problems; restructuring, resource control, federal character. The answer is not in all this English.
We need someone who will make us believe in Nigeria again and get us, all of us, to make it work.
We need a New Nigeria.
It is election season again, and every body with a political itch to scratch has come out of the woodwork believing they can be President.
It is a game of musical chairs, swapping one bad person for another, recycling old politicians and packaging them as new.
I don’t know about you. I want someone new, someone who has never been a politician, and someone who has never held public office, but has offered public service. Someone like Fela Durotoye.
In 2006, Fela saw the results of the NECO examinations and discovered it had over 85% failure rate. It wasn’t “his business” but he did something about it.
He created Project RAISE (Revive Academic Excellence In Schools & Educational Institutions), went to Oyo State and trained 48,150 public secondary school students, over 4000 teachers, gave them books, food, materials & raised volunteer teachers for two weeks straight. His project took Oyo State from #29 to #4 in one year and before I forget, Fela did it for free, but it cost him over N170 million.
He is not from Oyo State and was not running for office.
This man, as far back as 2009, went to Mushin and got 2000 volunteers to paint 296 houses, the median strip and all the bus stops on Agege Motor road for free! He also took 100 unemployed people from the community and got them trained by Berger Paints so they could become painters and earn a living. He spent over N60 million of his money; and he was not running for public office.
If an ordinary Nigerian has been doing what governments should be doing, imagine what he would do if he was in government?
This man has given his life to building a New Nigeria since 2004.
Fela Durotoye has been declared the candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria party (ANN).
Just like a woman who is unaware of when she first conceives her baby, there is no celebration, but as she nurtures her pregnancy and keeps it to full term, it will definitely be delivered.
The New Nigeria has been conceived with Fela Durotoye, it’s our responsibility to deliver it.
