“Affirmation Of Intention To Contest The Presidency In 2019” – Jaye Gaskia
My Dear Compatriot(s),
Good day to you and I trust you are doing quite fine. I am writing you to personally inform you of my decision to run for office in 2019 as President of our beloved country, Nigeria.
Our country is in dire straits, brought to its knees by decades of incompetent, selfish, greedy and light-fingered leadership.
A frank assessment of the trajectory of the nature and character of leadership, and consequently nature and character of our fortunes as a people since flag independence in 1966 reveal a continuous and in recent times, precipitous decline the quality of leadership, the quality and integrity of the leadership formation and selection processes, as well as in the quality of conditions of living and existence as a people.
Nowhere is this more manifest than in the quality of our humanity and consequently in the quality of our citizenship of our country.
We have become a nation where the moment we step out of our so-called Local Government of Origin and State of origin, our citizenship and humanity, and the rights associated with these become somewhat diminished, so much so that we can no longer enjoy in full the rights and entitlements of a common citizenship of our country Nigeria, nor those of a common humanity that we share with the rest of humanity on our planet.
We have become a country, where our citizenship is somewhat abridged by our gender, our age – whether we are young or old; by unfortunate circumstances of disability; by our faith; by class in society – whether we are workers, or owners of the main properties in the means of production; or by our status – whether we are rich or poor.
It is this conscious, deliberate and sometimes semi-conscious processes, aided and abetted by policy and the actions and inactions of those in authority and power; that continue to diminish our citizenship rights and abridge our claim to a common humanity, that engenders widening inequality, deepening gulf between the rich and poor, and that dehumanises us by turning a majority of us second class citizens in our own country.
If we cannot run a system that guarantees our common citizenship of Nigeria wherever we are resident, whatever we are doing or engaged in; whatever our gender or age; whatever our ability and or disability; whatever our faith; then how can we hope to be able to assert our claim to, and defend and advance our right to be treated equally at the table of Humanity?
I know that because of decades of governance failure, glaring in the failure of public service delivery; as well as because of decades of concerted assault on our citizenship; a majority of our people have given up on governance, distanced ourselves from politics, and unwittingly relinquished our citizenship.
I know too that as part of a process of reawakening, stemming from recent historic levels of disgust at the crass incompetence of our leaders, and their seeming congenital ineptitude, many of us that are getting either politically reawakened or newly awakened, are coming to the conclusion that we must do away with this leadership and this system of leadership grooming, because it has failed.
I know that this is the reason for many of us insisting that we need fresh ideas and fresh individuals and platforms; often conflating this with the requirement to have new leaders only within a certain age bracket.
But I understand where this is coming from; it is from our collective yearning for freshness, for newness, for innovation and creativity, for transformational leadership and life impacting and transforming governance.
This is one of the fundamental reasons why I am running for office as President of Nigeria, alongside the determination and conviction, that we can only build a prosperous nation, when we deliberately promote and build a common citizenship; when we deliberately promote equity; and deliberately promote a situation where no citizen is too poor to have a home over their heads; to raise a family; to live a life of quality; and to have the opportunity to pursue the realisation in full of their innate potentials.
This is why I want to be President of our Country Nigeria; this is why I am asking for your support; and counting on you to enable us access to your platforms and networks; as well as to take ownership of this Mission to Take Back Nigeria.
I am looking forward to further robust engagements with each and every one of you in 2018 as we march towards the 2019 General Elections.
As we prepare for 2018, I am asking us to collectively resolve, that this will be the year that we shall begin to take concrete steps and actions towards Reclaiming Our Humanity, Reasserting Our Citizenship; Rebuild Our Country; and Restore our Dignity and Glory as a people and Nation.
My Name is JAYE GASKIA, and I am seeking your active support to become the President of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria in the 2019 General Elections.
