He said many Nigerians are calling for secession because they cannot find dignity within the system.
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has said Nigeria’s large population should not be used as an excuse for its governance failure.
Nigeria is the most populous black nation with about 200 million people, and some people have argued that the country's large population is one of its undoings.
Sowore during an interview on Wazobia FM on Tuesday, however, said India, which is highly populated like Nigeria, is one of the most successful countries in the world.
"India was also colonised and they are one of the most successful countries in the world,” he said.
"China also has a big population so population cannot be used as an excuse anymore. All the excuses our leaders are using are not tenable as a reason why Nigeria is not successful; any country that votes or selects their enemies as their leaders cannot succeed."
According to Sowore, Nigerian leaders have failed to achieve anything tangible since the country got independence in 1960.
He said many Nigerians are calling for secession because they cannot find dignity within the system.
"I agree with people that call for self-determination because they did not find acceptance that covers their dignity and identity inside the system. Nigeria was not created as a nation; it was created as a company.
"So many of the institutions in Nigeria, like the police, for example, were not created for the Nigerian people, it was created for the queen. At a point, it was referred to as the queen constabulary, it was also called Askari at a time.
“The police originally were not created for the Nigerian people, it was meant to protect the colonial masters against the citizens. We did not quite make the transition that we ought to make; that's why I said Nigeria never became a nation.
"The opportunity to make Nigeria become a nation was altered by our internal disagreement,” the AAC presidential candidate said.
He further noted that Nigeria is under two colonial masters, saying, “We are under two slaveries, we are under the colonial control. Our independent colonial masters have not left and we are still under internal recolonisation by our own people.
“The second one is worse because these are our own brothers. Under the white colonisation, we can complain that they should leave but you can’t tell your own brother to leave your country even if he does worse things, that’s the problem we are facing. In this new colonisation, our internal colonial masters are more wicked than the white colonial masters.
“The democracy of Nigeria was hijacked by morons; their salaries get high while the salaries of the voters don't mean anything. They stay in nice houses while citizens live in shacks. Some of them take the money meant for 1,000 students in secondary schools to send their own children to schools outside the country.
"Economic inequality gives raise to terrorism and banditry and kidnapping. I give this background because of the question of succession and self-determination. Restructuring is a call for a system that's accommodating them. Some don't even know the meaning of succession but anything that can be used to threaten the system to open up the system to accommodate them, they use it.
"That's why we are in the situation we are in; the truth is that bad leadership is the one causing it."