Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria
(ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, on Sunday took her campaign trail to
the streets of Abuja, where she spoke one-on-one with Abuja residents
about her aspiration to become the next president of Nigeria come 2019
and the need for them to vote for her.
The former Minister of Education, who distributed booklets containing
her policy action to people she met on the streets, said she was the
best candidate among those parading themselves for the job.
To this end, she asked them to only cast their votes for her in the
forthcoming presidential election so as not only to change their
fortunes in particular, but that of the country in general.
Speaking during the campaign that kicked off at Shoprite in Apo,
Ezekwesili said Nigeria was facing slow pace of progress due to
mismanagement of resources by the people that were entrusted with
leadership.
Ezekwesili explained that she adopted the street campaign strategy
because it was a disruptive strategy that would make money unnecessary
in campaign and during.
She said that she adopted the strategy to prove to people, who had been
asking her about her structure, that she had it in the streets.
The convener of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) said, “What we are doing is
distribution because a lot of people do say, ‘where is your structure?’
“The issue is that it is the distribution problem that we need to
tackle; get the message to the people, who then get the message to any
other people. That is what we are doing and you can see how successful
it has been so far.
“This is a disruptive strategy; it is a strategy that is going to make
money unnecessary to the extent that it (money) will no longer matter in
elections.”
She said, “My entry into politics is to change a lot of things. The idea
that you go and embezzle so much money and then you use it to buy an
office through politics in order to embezzle yet another round of money
must end.
“So, we are a low budget campaign. You see what I’m doing? Some of the
people who are used to the old traditional system will not understand
it. But wait and see. Just wait and see what is going to happen.
“This strategy is working. It is going to work well because the person
with the message is superior to the person with the money. The strategy
that we have adopted is a very solid strategy.”
Ezekwesili added, “It is not going to be about me, it’s going to be
about the Nigerian people sustaining it. This is the movement of the
Nigerian people and I’m the candidate of the Nigerian people. I’m not
the candidate of the political class. So, my campaign has a strategy to
it and just keep waiting and seeing how it is going to unfold.”