MAIDEN MEDIA ADDRESS BY THE NEW DIRECTOR GENERAL, THE AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS, ADC GLOBAL CAMPAIGN Abuja
August 10th 2023.
I want to welcome my colleagues, the gentlemen of the press and to thank you for honouring this invitation.I particularly want to thank the members of the Board of Trustees of this great party, the National Chairman and his executives for their inspiring presence at this briefing and to commend their untiring efforts to keep the flames of our dedication to the unity, peace and prosperity of our dear nation alive.
Let us begin by reiterating that we are Nigerians, with history, strengths, endowments and challenges that are peculiar to being Nigerian, in the same manner every community in the world has peculiar problems.And Nigeria is the Nigeria of Muslims and Christians, of the largest and the tiniest ethnic groups, of the weak and the strong. It is God’s creation, planned by Him to be big, bountiful and compassionate.
There is therefore, enough room for all of us to grow and prosper in Nigeria, but only if we trust each other to play by the rules, and to be fair and just with each other. It is important to recall that Nigeria has had leaders whose leadership, sacrifice, statesmanship, patriotism and unwavering commitment to the interests of the people of Nigeria as a whole, has few parallels in our nation to date.
These past leaders carved a glorious path for our development as a people, and many of them had to pay the supreme price for standing by the Nigerian villager, the trader, the teacher, the farmer and the rich merchants so that every region competed with other regions, yet occassionally conceding ground and making massive sacrifices to keep the nation united and push it past critical turning points when national survival was threatened. Unfortunately, subsequent leadership role slipped into the hands of people poorly-prepared and ill-equipped to lead, except for their ambitions for power and the acquisition of wealth.
Today, not all Nigerian leaders are committed enough to work to solve the nation's basic socio-cultural problems, its regressing economy or address its precarious future. Many of our leaders today will prefer to leave the bulk of Nigerians in poverty, fighting each other, so that they can continue to manipulate them during elections, but not showing real commitment to reducing youth unemployment, insecurity and poverty, and have failed to deal with Nigerian problems, not to mention international issues.
Consequently, our people have been left in the doldrum for too long and the country rudderless. The systemic corruption insecurity and rent collection syndrome has resulted to our dear country being the poverty capital of the world and our intelligence and defence institutions stripped naked. Nigeria has become one of the most unsafe nation with the blood of the innocent flow like rivers.
Life is unbearable in the country because leadership has failed.Yet, with the right political will and quality of leadership, such as presented by the African Democratic Congress, the ADC, Nigeria can stop the current general and pervasive insecurity resulting from widespread communal conflicts; we can bring lasting peace to the South, East, West and Northern parts of the country by finding solutions to the Fulani and his cattle, to the divisive regional tensions, unnecessary separatist agitations, as well as stop millions of our children living wretched lives in the search for education, and wasting the greatest asset of the nation, which is its human capital.
The ADC's primary mission is to change the current Nigeria's political culture from one that serves only the leaders, to one which creates leaders that serve the people. The authenticity in ADC HANDSHAKE symbol, is in the confidence that with love and thoughtful we can collective design a comprehensive solution frames to the myriads of our today’s and future challenges with a solid foundations that resonate with our diversity.
As part of its mobilization strategies ADC leverages on deep grassroots and community engagement. Currently, we are ready as ever to involve every component of the Nigerian society in nation building. ADC is seriously engaging with various community leaders, youths, women and students, as well as the business community to sensitize them to become patriots and citizens that value respect each other, value justice and quality ethical orientation.Nigerians today needs to hear the truth, it should be told that it has lost the energy and impetus to take up issues that were once the major focus of its leaders.
With ADC that era is over. The ADC, which represents an initiative by truly patriotic Nigerians of all faith and all ethnic groups, is on a mission to rescue our nation from the margins of irrelevancy, impotency and inconsequence in global context. World order today runs on the basis of values and practices and leadership any nation brings to the table. With ADC, we need to understand and reconfigure our priorities, knowledge banks and leverage on our human capital by adapting and/or creating values and processes that suit our cultures, circumstances and interests. Yes, We can.
Conceptually, the ADC as a political party, revolves around a Passion. Yes I repeat, a passion of great united Nigeria with clear vision and shared values. A country where justice, equity, true brotherhood, and love reigns. Empowering our youthful population, women, PWDs and Diasporans to envisions and be all they can be. Never again will faith, class, region, tribe and religion divide us. Yes; fellow Nigerians; it is possible.
Be assured that ADC will do it. ADC is out to make a difference; introduce a new way of living, a new Nigeria and a super power economy. We need peace, education and we need to value human live and respect one another. ADC has peace engrained in its symbol; HANDSHAKE speaks Peace and Respect in almost all culture. Handshake is tradition and culture to every ADC members and so it is in our Leadership. ADC Handshake will herald peace in the country.
With peace and Justice, youth restiveness, marginalization, economic hardship and poverty will be eradicated. Peace is a sure solution to most of our problems. ADC will bring all together.Trust us ADC will.
Believe us a super power Nigeria beckons. ADC will.As the 2023 fresh round of general elections draw closer, Nigerians can see that major political parties in the contest have inadvertently taken the dangerous contours that that led to the events of 1966 which laid the foundation of the collapse of the first republic Nigerian politics and the setting in of regional, religious and tribal hatred, jealousies and distrust.
This they have done by reincarnating the process of presenting presidential candidates that tend to tilt towards a heated struggle for political ascendancy solely for regional, tribal and even religious domination and not for the unity and reintegration of a people and a nation desperately in need of leadership. This, without doubt, is a recipe for disaster and greater conflict. Fortunately, one party, the ADC, has opted for neutrality, justice and equity in chosing all its candidates for the 2023 general elections.
By choosing its Presidential candidate, Mr Dumebi Kachikwu, a young entrepreneur and social crusader from the South-South or the Niger Delta. Dumebi is not in anyway tainted or dented. ADC listened and chose generational shift and someone who has not been part of the corruption in our governments. ADC cares. Yes we listen and we care. By this, the ADC has not only presented the alternative vehicle for unification of the country, but also avail Nigerians with a candidate that is for all intents and purposes, represents the organic link between the old generation and the emerging new generation which is the natural and legitimate claimant to the task of reshaping the society everywhere. With this, the ADC is tactfully undertaking the vital task of building a nation where a Nigerian is safe and secure in Nigeria and wherever he choses to live and work in Africa and beyond, thereby making itself the only available alternative platform for Nigerians to use to replace leaders who think power is an end in itself; who mobilize the people only during elections, sowing seeds of division and leaving everyone poorer and more insecure than they were. ADC is about mass participation in the vision of a united Nigeria, a country with space for every Nigerian and every foreigner who seeks to live with, and prosper with us. It is a party committed to ensuring that the rights of every Nigerian are protected from illegal harassment where they earn their living; their rights to places of worship consistent with their means and the elements of justice; and their rights to full protection when they live as minorities among other communities in Nigeria.It has provided the opportunity to work to bring peace among Nigerian communities from which we are all bleeding and acknowledge the damage which fights between communities in Taraba and Benue States, in Kaduna State, and in Plateau State, spreading to the South, East and West are causing the entire nation.
These conflicts, as well as the Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency, cattle rustling, banditry and kidnappings in the North are our problems as Nigerians. Leaders may tell us that they are concerned over these, but every Nigerian must realize by now that leaders and governments we elected cannot or will not do enough to bring them to an end and replace it with the right environment to attract meaningful international investor confidence. Certainly, no one in their right senses would want to invest in an atmosphere of rancor, and uncertainty.
Finally, I wish to remind us that unity is the foundation of our corporate existence; diversity is part of our DNA and hardwork, honesty and service to God and the community are the virtues that have been bequeathed to us by our great leaders of the past. No one wins a religious or ethnic war; no ethnic group can dominate another forever; and no benefit comes from fights and conflicts over what God has blessed us with: our population, our land and its resources and our values.
Conflicts and disagreements have very little or no utility value, therefore, we must learn from the mistakes and miscalculations of those that have posed as Nigerian leaders throughout its independent existence if we're to avoid the costly adventures that created the current level of disunity and disharmony among our communities. The ADC in this regard, represents a bell sound for Nigerians, particularly the youth, to resist the temptation to live in perpetual blame of past leaders; do better than them by learning from their mistakes with the conviction that the past cannot be entirely remedied, but a future can be built on a strong foundation that benefits from a flawed past.Let's look ahead while being conscious of the present, and drawing inspiration from the fact that us, and only us, can make Nigeria better or worth. Thank you.
Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, Director General, ADC Global Campaign Council
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