Human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has said that the current state of Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu is a heavy payment for Nigerians’ decision and indecision.
Sowore, who said this while featuring on Channels TV programme, stressed that the decision of those who designed the country’s trajectory and the indecision of those who decided to do nothing were only driving Nigeria backward.
The #RevolutionNow convener said that Nigerians had never had leaders who were visionary and capable of driving the country in the right direction, insisting that something revolutionary had to be done urgently to redeem Nigeria from total collapse.
Sowore said, “We are not going in any direction. That is the biggest problem. You can only talk of direction if there is any movement. Here you see a lot of motion but there is no movement. If there is any movement at all, it is a movement that is going backwards.
“Nigerians are paying heavily for their decision and indecision. The decision of those who designed this trajectory and the indecision of those who decided to do nothing. That is why you cannot say we have a country.
“We have never had a nation. Nigeria was a transaction from the beginning. We have never had leaders who are visionary and capable of driving the country in the right direction.”
Sowore said that “We are not dealing with a country that respects laws. The laws here are like cobwebs only meant for ants while elephants walk past them without even knowing them.”
He maintained that something revolutionary has to be done urgently to redeem Nigeria from total collapse.
Also speaking, human rights activist and co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, Aisha Yesufu, said that Nigeria remained only a carcass of a country where life is short and brutish.
On the same programme, Yesufu said, “There is no country anymore. As we are today, Nigeria is gone. What we have is a carcass and life is short and British. We are all on edge and we are the victims who a lot of people refuse to see coming to us and unfortunately, we do not have a president.
“We have someone who rigged himself into office, an illegitimate President and who doesn't care. Anyone who is ready to do anything - snatch it, run with it to get into office.
“They don't care about the people. There is no empathy, that is what we are seeing today. Nigeria has gotten into a place where you are not even sure that you are going to see the next day because you might be a victim, you might be taken away, even from inside your own house. That is where Nigeria is now.”
She added that “That is an open secret that the courts are no longer the last resort of the common man. They are now like the play team of corrupt politicians. These corrupt politicians don't care. They say it openly. We saw what Senator Bulkachuwa said.”
She said that rule of law is sacrosanct and it is supposed to be on everybody but Nigerians have seen different kinds of decisions made by the courts and it has shown that the court is no longer independent.
She said, “If you see a lot of people that have given up on the nation, they know even when they go to court, they won't get anything, so they take the laws into their own hands and the rest who are law-abiding are the ones who are being punished by the state.
“The Nigerian state will rather have a conversation with you and negotiate with you when you carry arms against the country, but when you are law-abiding; it climbs on you, kills you and disposes of you the way it wants.”