By Ishaya Ibrahim
Presidential candidate of the African Action Alliance in the 2023 election, Omoyele Sowore, has advised secessionist advocates, Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho to reconsider their stance.
Kanu seeks a Biafra state while Igboho wants an Oduduwa Republic. But Sowore advised them against traveling that route, according to a report by Pulse.
Sowore said his #Revolution Now campaign does not align with the political agenda of Igboho and Kanu, adding that his movement doesn’t seek to break up Nigeria.
Sowore after the 2019 presidential election, launched the #RevolutionNow campaign to challenge corruption in Nigeria’s political system. He was arrested for that.
Sowore said his revolution campaign does not seek to divide Nigeria but to shift power from the political class “who are robbing the people.”
“My revolution doesn’t break up Nigeria. It doesn’t target the entity known as Nigeria. My revolutionary struggle is an African revolutionary struggle that started in Nigeria. I want to liberate the continent of Africa entirely. So where I differ from them, which I have explained both individually and collectively publicly, is that you cannot solve Nigeria’s problem by splitting Nigeria into different regions. The problem is leadership from all over Nigeria shortchanging the people.”
He said when he met Kanu in 2019, he told him to stop “wasting his energy in trying to divide Nigeria and creating another mini-Nigeria inside Nigeria.”
Sowore said he told the lPOB leader that Nigeria’s problem is not the ordinary Nigerians hating on each other, but the ruling class who are “using ethnic and religious tools to cause division and confusion among the oppressed.”
The activist further said even though he does not support Kanu and Igboho’s agenda, he believes they should be allowed to express themselves.
He added that many Nigerians think he supports their political agenda because he stands for them.
“No, I believe that Nigeria can work as one country that would lead the continent of Africa to unity, glory, and prosperity and that there is no need to break it up.
“I stand up for them because I also believe that within the Nigerian context, they have a right to express themselves fully, and they should not be suppressed or muscled,” he said.
Sowore said if the country breaks up, politicians will go back to their various regions to continue the misgovernance “because they are the ones who have the empowerment to actually suppress you wherever they find you.”
