ADE-ADEDEJI Adeyera, African Action Congress, AAC, candidate, Ikeja Constituency, for the House of Representatives, has promised to set up a Sovereign Wealth Account, SWA, to take care of some basic needs of the people of his constituency.

He made this promise in Lagos, yesterday.

According to him, 90 per cent of the constitutionally accruable earnings would be put in the SWA and channelled into infrastructural developments, capacity building schemes, skills acquisition programmes and other interventions.

Adeyera explained that the beauty of the SWA initiative was in its transparency, adding that the account would be managed by the people without any pressure from anywhere.

According to him, the account managers would be transparently appointed or elected by the constituents.

Adeyera also spoke on the problem of god-fatherism in Nigerian politics, saying it did not exist in his part.

“We do not have financiers, sponsors or godfathers, godmothers anywhere.  In fact, our campaigns have been supported absolutely by the people –men, women, children, artisans, traders and generally the common people.

“We thrive on the kind and generous support from family members, friends and our folks in the diaspora who form a large percentage of our support base. So, we’re not under the influence of any individual or some groups who would decide the fate of the over 180 million Nigerian people. We have no financiers, sponsors, godfathers or godmothers. The people are our sponsors,” he said.

He stated that it was regrettable that in Nigeria, political offices were not for the poor.

“Reaching out to voters and registering into their sensibilities require huge resources that most of us new breed politicians do not have. Campaign materials cost a fortune because of the prevailing economic situation of the country today. Posters, souvenirs and all cost a lot.  Then the publicity itself takes the highest sum after one has spent a lot on the materials. All these don’t come cheap.”

Meanwhile, Adeyera has declared that the coming election would be a good opportunity for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to prove that it could conduct a free and fair election under its current leadership.

“We call on the government to stay committed to equity, justice and fairness. There should be no intimidation whatsoever. We have seen how instruments of state have been used to intimidate voters and those in the opposition.  Such must not be allowed any longer,” he said.

– Feb. 14, 2019 @ 11:39 GMT |