Human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has explained how he will end Nigerian insecurity problems if given the chance to lead Africa’s most populous nation.
Speaking in a recent interview with Symfoni, Sowore accused the Nigerian ruling elite of weaponising poverty and overseeing a security architecture more loyal to personal gain than national protection.
“They (Nigerian leaders) have failed and we have told Nigerian people, but they don’t want to listen to advice. They came here to take care of business — their own personal business,” Sowore said.
Sowore added that under his leadership, the Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, would be history.
“If I am in their position at this time, there won’t be Boko Haram anymore,” Sowore asserted. “We have to solve the problem by attacking the root cause of the problem. The root cause of insecurity is first and foremost inequality. That is the first reason.”
Sowore, who has repeatedly clashed with the Nigerian government over issues of corruption and misrule, also laid into the country’s top security officials, accusing them of complicity and incompetence.
“The second aspect is to get our security agencies to do what security agencies do — not to be aiding and abetting criminality,” he said.
“You cannot have an IGP who is tired and ought to have retired and expect insecurity to end, it will not end,” he added.
He mocked the Nigerian military hierarchy, describing it as a system where connections to traditional rulers and pastors outweigh combat experience.
“We have all these military generals who don’t go to war. It is only in Nigeria that someone who has never fought in a war becomes a general in the army,” Sowore said.
“It is about the number of traditional rulers he knows and the number of General Overseers that he knows. That is how he becomes a general. If you see an Israeli general, it’s because they have fought in a war,” he added.
