The presidential ambition of the founder and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, received a boost on Friday as students, youths and groups from all parts of the Southeastern region at a town hall meeting in Owerri, the capital of Imo state, promised to join efforts by the presidential aspirant to take Nigeria back from the hands of the incumbent bad government at all levels in the 2019 general election.
In his address at the town hall meeting, Mr. Sowore, assured the mammoth crowd mostly made up of enthusiastic young men and women that Nigeria will be rescued from the hands of the current set of clueless leaders in 2019: "We are leaving Egypt and no longer going back to Egypt, we have left them and power has also left them. We are going to take back our country from them. Analog mentality cannot rule digital generation. I was a student union leader at the University of Lagos and we mobilized against military rule in 1999. 2019 would have been twenty good years we drove military away and had democracy.
“Our democracy must hit a landmark next year when the young people who have been fighting for this country will taste power for the good of Nigeria. There is a vacancy in Aso rock, power has left them and we are taking it back. We are tired of turn-by-turn politics in Nigeria. Enough is enough we tired of divisive, ethnicity and religion politics."
The presidential hopeful also took a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari over his recent comment In London that Nigerian youths are lazy and only wait for free oil money.
While vehemently disagreeing with the assertion, Sowore told the youths emphatically: "We are not lazy, they are the ones who are lazy, and if you look very well, they never worked in their entire lives, they steal, loot and destroy our country. What about what happened to our president's son who has never worked before.
"Where did he get the bike he was riding in Abuja and had an accident.? Somebody who has never worked before and they used our money two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to ferry him from Abuja down to Germany for treatment and he came back and his father has the effrontery to be calling us lazy. We are nice people because if you do this to young people in other countries, they will shut down the country.
The presidential aspirant also used the occasion to reiterate some of his promises and how his administration will improve the lot of the citizens, if he is given the opportunity of becoming Nigeria’s president in 2019: "The workers will be paid 100,000 as minimum wage. We have been working on the calculation of how many students we have in higher institutions. Can you believe that the Nigerian University Commission does not know how many students are in our higher institution? They don’t know. But we have figured it out and we want to invest N50,000 each on every student so that when you cannot pay your school fee, you’re not denied your final result.
"Our youth corpers will also be paid N50,000 as allowance, instead of giving our money to those useless senators who are paid N13 million and who are the bunch of laziest thieves you can find in the world. If I have my way I will abolish the Nigerian senate. The Senate is a waste of time, waste of our resources. And will have just one House of Representatives member per a local government and will make it a part-time, if you don't come to work, you won't get paid."
The presidential aspirant reminded the audience that he has been around for 47 years and has the necessary experience and qualifications to lead Nigeria.
He added that it is time to stop electing wrong people with dubious experience and qualifications into government.
"The only experience they have is stealing, looting, corruption, assassination, nepotism, and tribalism which they have continually used to deceive us. It’s time to take back Nigeria. Somebody who has been a president since 1984, you think when he became a president in 2015 will still know what he is doing.? They don't have the capacity to do better than they are doing. This is the best they can give us, they have nothing to offer you, but there is still hope come 2019.
"We have a duty to form our zone, which I called zone seven which they called geopolitical zones. They rotate power among those zones and we are creating our own zone seven and power is not going to be rotated for us, we are going to fight for the power and take it back. Look at Imo state, the man known as Sam Mbakwe built this state, but since he died and left as a governor they can't even maintain the roads he built. People who cannot do new things and maintain the old ones are the people who are lazy not our Nigerian youths. That statement alone is enough to incite a revolution.
"You must go and obtain your permanent voters' cards, (PVCs) and get set to chase away this corrupt and bad government come 2019 and install a government the youths can call their own. People tell us about the southeast that they want to leave this country, they want restructuring and Biafra, we must address it. You are not the only people who have left this country, most Nigerians have mentally seceded from Nigeria because of injustice and the injustice is huge.
"We cannot continue to have people who have war mentality, they have not finished the war they started in the 60s, that is while the Southwest and Southeast are broken down and they want it to remain so. They are still fighting the war in their heads. One of the first things we will do first as the Federal Republic of Nigeria next year is to apologize to the people of the Southeastern part of Nigeria. Nigeria must apologize to you for the injustices done to you, we must accelerate development of the Southeast. There's money in this country to develop it. Within four years of coming into power, not only would we complete the second Niger bridge, but will do a third Niger bridge with a fast train lane that can carry goods and services. It’s possible and achievable,", Sowore said.
A cross-section of the students and youths who spoke during the town hall meeting commended the presidential aspirant for championing the Take Back Nigeria Movement.
They also affirmed that the time has come for them to take their destiny into their hands while vowing that come 2019, they will vote out bad government at all levels with their PVCs and a better government that has the interest of the youths at heart in the person of the Sahara Reporters founder will be installed.
Meanwhile, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Imo state, Prof. Francis Dike, has commended the founder of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore over his bold step of coming out to contest for the Nigerian presidency. Prof. Dike described Sowore as the hope of the young generation that has come to liberate the people from bad leadership: "Our country and I am so happy. Nigeria is failed state, nothing is working and I am happy to identify with you."
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN), who gave the commendation when he played host to the presidential hopeful at his country home in Imo state shortly after the town hall meeting lamented the sorry and bitter state of Nigeria where nothing is working as a result of bad and failed leadership by successive governments in the country.