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Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, said he does not subscribe to the political agenda of the Yoruba Nation leader, Sunday Igboho, and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Sowore said he does not believe in their secession agitations because there's no need to break up the country.
The pro-democracy activist said this in an exclusive interview with Pulse reporters.
He maintained that his #Revolution Now campaign does not align with the political agenda of Igboho and Kanu, adding that his movement doesn’t seek to break up Nigeria.
Recall that some months after losing the 2019 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari, the activist launched the #RevolutionNow campaign to challenge corruption in Nigeria’s political system.
Despite his arrest by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on the day he launched the movement, the campaign sparked mass protests in many states.
However, in his interview with Pulse, Sowore said his revolution campaign does not seek to divide Nigeria but to shift power from the political class “who are robbing the people.”
“My revolution doesn’t break up Nigeria. It doesn’t target the entity known as Nigeria. My revolutionary struggle is an African revolutionary struggle that started in Nigeria,” the activist said.
He continued, “I want to liberate the continent of Africa entirely. So where I differ from them, which I have explained both individually and collectively publicly, is that you cannot solve Nigeria’s problem by splitting Nigeria into different regions. The problem is leadership from all over Nigeria shortchanging the people.”
He said when he met Kanu in 2019, he told him to stop “wasting his energy in trying to divide Nigeria and creating another mini-Nigeria inside Nigeria.”
Sowore said he told the lPOB leader that Nigeria’s problem is not the ordinary Nigerians hating on each other, but the ruling class who are “using ethnic and religious tools to cause division and confusion among the oppressed.”
The activist further said even though he does not support Kanu and Igboho’s agenda, he believes they should be allowed to express themselves.
He added that many Nigerians think he supports their political agenda because he stands for them.
“No, I believe that Nigeria can work as one country that would lead the continent of Africa to unity, glory, and prosperity and that there is no need to break it up.
“I stand up for them because I also believe that within the Nigerian context, they have a right to express themselves fully, and they should not be suppressed or muscled,” he said.
He maintained that if the country breaks up, politicians will go back to their various regions to continue misgovernance “because they are the ones who have the empowerment to actually suppress you wherever they find you.”