The Nigerian music star cum politician, Bankole Wellington popularly known as Banky W, has said that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is responsible for some of the challenges Nigerians are battling.

Banky W who is a House of Representatives candidate for Eti-Osa Federal Constituency in Lagos, stated this on Wednesday during an interview on Arise TV.

He said that he joined politics to contribute in proffering solutions to the problems of the country.

He said, “In 2018, I started feeling like the problems in Nigeria is from top to bottom, while the solution is from the bottom up. So we have to start from the National Assembly, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the state houses of assembly. So when I talked to young people then, they didn’t even know who were contesting for the seats.

“And then I started thinking, I felt this burden that said, ‘If you, with with your education and your success and your background and your following and your audience and your voice, and you can’t stick your neck out and say I can be a part of this system and I can bring a solution to the table, then who am I waiting for?’ Politics will always be dirty and dangerous until good people start to be part of the system.”

Wellington also said that he chose PDP because he considered it as the party that aligned with his principles, after a failed experiment with an unpopular party that was subsequently de-registered by INEC.

“And concerning the choice of PDP: politics is local, and you need structure to win elections. We ran in 2019 on a party called MDP. But MDP was literally myself and my friend (called) BK. He was running in Ondo State and I was running in Lagos. We were just a bunch of young people.

“After that election, INEC de-registered most of the political parties which I was fully in support of because they were 96. It didn’t make sense. And if you look at any functioning democracy in the world, like if you want to get into any office in America, you have to be a Democrat or a Republican. So also in the UK, it’s between Labour and Conservative.

“So, looking at both parties, I said where do I think that I can go into without losing my soul, where I will be able to stand on what I stand for, fight for what I want to fight for. And the PDP ticked those boxes for me. It’s truly a democratic party,” he said.

Banky W further stated that he is aware of the fact that the PDP had caused Nigerians some pains in the past and he could not defend it, adding that he is willing to be one of those who can reform the party.

“But the truth of the matter is, we have to acknowledge the pains that a lot of young people feel, we have to acknowledge the frustration Nigerians feel, some of which were caused by people in the PDP, absolutely.

“But the way I look at it is that a system is only as good as the people that are involved in it. A system is just a collection of people that are fighting for it, pushing for any kind of result. So, the longer we shun the process, the longer that the system will be bad.

“The truth of the matter is that I’m not here to defend anything everybody in the PDP has ever done. That’s not my job. I’m here to reform it,” he said.

ShenTeh:
Good idea.

If Nigerians decide to vote APC into power at the center again, then it would become a bad precedence. No political party will ever take us serious again.

The APC gave us a beautiful manifesto pre-election, which it neither reverted to nor referenced throughout its occupation of Aso Rock.

The party that claimed to be a progressive party with social programmes has ironically been the most anti-masses government in power since Nigeria's independence, only rivalled by our worst military government.

The APC rode to power on crude propaganda and press freedom but is today notorious for suppressing the press, arbitrary kidnapping and jailing of journalists, use of force against peaceful protesters in major cities, disregard for court proclamations and the rule of law, summary government sponsored ethnic cleansing, tribal and religious bigotry in power etc ...

The party is bedeviled by its inability to demonstrate capacity to fire mediocres and hire competent hands for sensitive roles, disregard for the plight of the common man, decimation of the middle class, free fall inflation and consequent impoverishment of the people, policy summersaults in border controls and macro economic management, multi-tax systems amounting to government extortion, dishonesty in tackling insecurity, overpriced contracts and the rule of institutionalized hopelessness in critical sectors such as power, education, health and agriculture.

Above all, the party would be fondly remembered for its insatiable thirst for blaming others for things under its own direct sphere of influence. Whereas for instance, there is nothing that the APC has blamed PDP for that it has not surpassed. Corruption and theft of our common patrimony are in scales novel to the ears in our nation's history, and this is while they are still in power, one can't imagine what would be found out when they are out of power.

The APC should be treated at the polls with the same disdain, bitterness and meanness with which it has treated Nigerians. And that's on the premise that we are humans capable of our own thoughts.

Dikaveli:
You can never make it in pdp

franchasofficia:
Peter Obi is the next President of Nigeria.


The only way Peter Obi will not win is if 2023 election is completely rigged, and that is if Nigerians allow it. If Nigerians allow the rigging of 2023 elections then they should never bother God with their problems that will quadruple through their usual prayers, everybody should then face the consequences of their ill decision.