PoliticsSex & Gender

#bringbackourgirls activist for nigeria’s presidency

October 9, 2018
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Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili, the Harvard-educated Chartered Accountant who was instrumental in the emergence of the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign, has announced her run for President of Nigeria.

Women have previously run for the country’s highest office, but none few have Ezekwesili’s qualifications.  The 55 year-old co-founded Transparency International (a global anti-corruption body based in Berlin), served as Nigeria’s Federal Minister of Solid Minerals and Education under President Olusegun Obasanjo, and until 2012, held the post before serving as the Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa Division. She is the most the prominent women to vie for Nigeria’s top job.

Ezekwesili is running on an anti-establishment platform, as part of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN). She has borrowed Obama-era slogans, branding her as the “Hope” candidate, and has already labeled her male opponents as a members of a “mediocre political class that bumbles from one crisis to another.”

Testify!

Nigeria is but one more country gripped by rampant misogyny, so Ezekwesili’s mic-dropping opening remarks feel like a rallying cry for women not only in the West Africa nation but across the continent and the globe.

According to BBC Africa, “come February’s vote it will be a tough challenge to unseat incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, 75, or beat the main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, 72, who both have formidable party machines behind them.” Buhari (a member of All Progressives Congress, APC) and Abubakar (People’s Democratic Party, PDP) each represent parties that have supplied Nigeria with its presidents since the nation ended military rule in 1999.

Agitation among the African youth grows daily as older African politicians sideline the issues and interests of younger generations while running their countries. Even with the Nigerian political machine behind Ezekwesili’s opponents, the candidate has already appealed to Nigeria’s neglected youth (more than 50% of Nigerians are under 30) posing the question, “How can a country gifted with millions of young, vibrant, brilliant people, be satisfied with just being [an] onlooker?”

Ezekwesili’s high profile offers promise for her prospects. As a woman with political experience and a respectable international reputation, her odds are further boosted by the fact she is from the country’s southern state of Anambra, while her biggest opponents are from the North. Yet the APC and the PDP have substantial war chests, and Nigeria’s dire economic situation could lead to voters choosing the party with the deepest pockets. Or, Nigerians could see Ezekwesili as the change the country is looking for.

Black women the world over are stepping up, ushering in the global movement of “Fine, I’ll do it myself!” Oh, what a time…

Donate, volunteer and vote your way into history Nigeria.

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