Sowore said this during an interview with Olukayode Thomas of 234sportsng.com on Thursday, where he scored Mr. President poorly in sports and other areas of governance.
The 2023 presidential aspirant of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari does not understand anything going on in the country, including sports.
Sowore said this during an interview with Olukayode Thomas of 234sportsng.com on Thursday, where he scored Mr. President poorly in sports and other areas of governance.
The convener of the #RevolutionNow movement and publisher of Sahara Reporters said that seven years of President Buhari-led administration has been years of more negatives than positives.
Speaking specifically on the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government performance on sports, Sowore noted that one of the cardinal errors the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) committed in its 16 years was appointing 13 sports ministers for an industry that needs planning for a long time. APC government in seven years has appointed only two Sports Ministers.
“But the worst PDP Sports Ministers; Tamuno Danagogo, Sani Ndanusa, and Samaila Sambawa are better than the duo,” Sowore said.
He said, “I don't think the administration understands anything for that matter of which sports is just one of the things they don't understand how it works.
“I was at the National Stadium the other day and I was asking around if the Minister of Sports has ever been to the national stadium. I was told that in the last six years he's been around twice.
“The toilets in the swimming section don't work. The first thing any swimmer does is to take a shower and use the toilet. For whatever purpose, the toilet is not working.
“In fact, I was directed to the female section of the swimming area so I could use it. I just didn't know what to do. And I asked how that is possible?
“And this is just the only functional stadium in the country, the one in Abuja. The National Stadium in Lagos has been converted into a nightclub or night clubs.”
He argued that if Nigeria had leaders who understood the potential revenue in sports and how to work, the country could be living off sports alone.
With the present set of rulers, Sowore believes the future is bleak.
He insisted that there is the need to have a radical change, saying that was why he came up with the idea of a revolution as the current process is at a snail’s pace.
The human rights activist who has travelled to about 30 countries across the world said there is no country he has visited that is as bad as Nigeria.
“I spent 20 years in the US. When I was going to the US, I was 28 years old, I had no wife or kids; I went to the US and had a wife and kids. Before I had kids and a wife, I came back and ran back to the US.
“Nigerians have a very specialised pessimistic spirit. It will be telling you 'Forget about what you saw in the US. After all, it took them 200 years to have democracy.' I travelled to other countries, places like Rwanda, and Kenya, I was in Egypt and Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Mauritius,” he noted.
According to Sowore, even countries regarded as Third World countries are not as bad as Nigeria.
Sowore, who decried the general poor governance in Nigeria, said the country has rendered people hopeless. He added some people designed the country not to work.
“This is the only country in the world where you live and start questioning your sanity. It's hopeless. I would be lying to you if I said that there's anything hopeful about here. I don't think so, because there are people that have designed this place not to work, and they are vehemently opposed to those who want to try to make it work.”
He maintained that only a revolutionary situation can make Nigeria work again.
Sarcastically, the presidential aspirant said that “if the contractors that built Rome were Nigerians, there would be no Rome today, because they would have kept saying, "We will deliver next year.”