By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
2015 presidential candidate of KOWA Party, Prof. Remi Sonaiya, has said that she would change the Nigeria narrative if given the opportunity to lead.
Also she urged Nigerians to change their attitude regarding choice of candidates, while advising voters to go for credible and competent aspirants with fresh ideas rather than recycling those already sucked into corruption.
Sonaiya, who has indicated interest to run for the Presidency in 2019, spoke during her book lunch at the Nigerian Institute of International Affair (NIIA) in Lagos on Thursday.
She said that the time has come for Nigerians to take their destiny in their hands and vote rightly.
Her words: “I think the time has come for Nigerians to change their voting mentality. Real change is possible when we vote the right people in office. We must rescue our society by instilling the value we used to have.
“I will change the nation’s narrative if given the opportunity. Of course, I will not do it alone but the truth is that we have a lot of qualified Nigerians the worldwide that could be assembled.
“Nigerian people must resolve to make the change happen because I cannot do it alone. We can’t continue with the frame of mind that KOWA party is a small party. We should ask what the big parties have given us rather than bad governance. We should not be afraid to be different.
“I decided to run for the office (President) because the people who were running our affairs over several decades were not doing a good job of it.”
Sonaiya also said that she was not running on any gender platform rather as a concerned Nigeria.
“All through my professional career, I had competed on an equal footing with men, never seeking, expecting nor accepting any concessions on account of any gender,” she said.
On why women are afraid to run for political positions, she said, “violence and great emphasis on money among others keep women out of politics.”
Sonaiya expressed worry on the male domination of the political space with few women, insisting that “nobody needs to dominate another person. We each have different value. Women have to be part of the political decision making process and they should not keep women out.
“Maybe we should begin to think on how to legislate on women being carried along, making sure women are involved in politics. To deny them such opportunity is dangerous for governance,” she said.
The renowned university teacher expressed disappointment on the state of the nation, lamenting, “We were living through a shameful and absurd situation where we were known to be a country with huge resources, but where today the overwhelming majority of our people live in abject poverty”.