My person of the year is the person that had the greatest impact on Nigeria in 2018 for good or ill. The year 2018 provides a marvelous opportunity to choose our next president who will cast or catch vision for leadership in 2019.
For leadership to exist, a leader must cross paths with crisis. An exemplary leader must meet his “sinister” mate. Imagine Lincoln without the Civil War. Imagine FDR without the Depression. Imagine Mandela without Apartheid. Imagine Awolowo without the Old Wild West. Imagine Lech Walesa without Solidarity Trade Union Movement.
No one of his generation like Sowore has given so much even at the risk of his own life. He has been consistent, constant, dogged, resolute, loud, unfettered, unbought, uncowered, and in the forefront of a political and social revolution to reshape and remake Nigeria and take back Nigeria.
I choose Sowore as my person of the year because of the following reasons:
1. He has the clairvoyance and perceptivity to look into any troubled situation, discern the problem, and do whatever it takes to remedy the situation.
2. For Nigeria to grow, develop, and be a prosperous and healthy nation, we need a troubleshooter not problem manufacturer. We need a president that recognizes and understands the sufferings of our people. Sowore has consistently championed a better Nigeria.
3. Going by his activism, his sacrifice and service to Nigeria, I’m convinced that he’s a leader that will hold up and not fold up. A leader who would face and work through trials and difficulties. Nigeria needs such a president.
4. From his campaigns, speeches, interviews, discussions, Sowore has proven over and over again that he knows what kind of “workout” he needs in order to turn Nigeria around. The seemingly insurmountable myriad of problems facing Nigeria will be part of his “workout.” He’ll be a president with connected brains.
5. Visions make presidents passionate, thorns keep them authentic. All his life, thorns have kept him authentic and kept him going. His passion for Nigeria is contagious.
6. As an activist, humanist, and crusader for freedom, equality, and justice, Sowore as president will not administer justice selectively. He’ll not protect his own by all means necessary. Sowore is intellectually and spiritually gifted to see a dramatic contrast between the vessel and the contents whether the container exists for the sake of the treasure or not.
7. Sowore has demonstrated the urgency and immediacy of courage in crisis a necessary leadership quality that would help him to bear the weight of over size expectations of Nigerians in solving our ancient problems.
When Sowore heard the sound of the canons, he walked toward them. His fearless ideas have sparked quiet revolution by disrupting the political space of Nigeria. He has done what Napoleon could not do!
bjoluwasanmi@gmail.com
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