Former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili has said Nigerians have no business being poor if quality individuals are voted into leadership positions.
She stated this at the official launch of the Red Card Movement at the popular Berger bus stop in Abuja yesterday.
Ezekwesili, who emphasized the power citizens wield, maintained that unless Nigerians wake up and stand against the “failure of government” the country would remain the same.
The Ex-Minister said: “Nigeria is a country that does not have any business being as poor as it has been.
“The Red Card Movement is not a political party. We are citizens that have decided that if we work together, we can change the quality of leadership that go into all elective positions. Because we are not happy with the quality of leadership, we are determined to change that with our red cards which is our PVCs.
“We are here today to activate the office of the citizen which is the office that every Nigerian citizen occupies. A citizen doesn’t have to be in government in order to have a voice as to how they are governed.
“We want to mobilize citizens so that they will know that they have the power to determine the kind of government that will lead this country. Government that is competent, capable and has character.”
“When citizens don’t put their voice in how they are governed, then we are going to stay as a failed country forever. We decided to use our red card as a way of saying to people who have failed in governance to go and get out of the field of governance,” she declared.
Ezekwesili, who said she can’t serve in the Muhammadu Buhari government, also disclosed plans to have a similar launch of the movement across the thirty-six states of the federation.
Similarly, another member of the movement, Aisha Yesufu, said the vision of the movement was to lay the foundation for a new Nigeria.
Yesufu dismissed insinuations in some quarters of the movement being sponsored by a political party to discredit the current government.
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