Group advocates for ‘citizens’ party’

A non-governmental group, Project Free Nigeria, has called on the people to come together and form a citizens-based political party to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

The group, yesterday, organised a National Citizens Conversation in Abuja, where it marked the Democracy Day with a theme ‘The Task to Free Nigeria from Underdevelopment is the Duty of Our Lifetime.’

National Coordinator of the group, Evangelist Edward Olutoke, said at the event that Nigeria’s problem was neither regional nor social, but “with the bogus federal system we are currently running.”

He said ordinary citizens did not know what to do because they were overwhelmed with problems and wondered if democracy was actually working.

“The problem is between us and them, between the ruling class who are always in control of the situation and the poor.

“For instance, they’ve started the same narrative for 2019; they’ve started playing on our intelligence, a set of people who determine our future at every point in time, they plan ahead, and they know where they are going,” he said.

He said Nigerians needed to sit down now and say no. “We should now say the new president is going to emerge from within us; we don’t need existing structures. We are going to form a citizen’s party, no godfather is going to determine for us who will be what,” he said.