…why I adopt meet-the-people on the street strategy, she explains
The 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 cast their votes for her in the forthcoming presidential election so as to change their fortunes in particular and 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 and during campaign.
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 all other persons. 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 we just keep waiting and seeing how it is going to unfold.
