2019: Kanu Nwankwo Declares For The Presidency, ‘To Make Nigerians Happier
The Oasis Reporters
April 4, 2018
The footballer who made Nigerians happy by scoring the goals that beat Brazil hands down with a 4-3 defeat and went on to bring the Olympic Gold medal to Nigeria as a youth, Kanu Nwankwo, says he wants to be Nigeria’s President by 2019 for the happiness of his country men and women.
“My presence here today is about the future of our country and the happiness of our people,” Kanu, 41, said on Goal.
“The last 18 years of leadership has witnessed a decline in all critical sectors of life in Nigeria, plus general insecurity in the land.
“Also, I’ll do all it takes to wrestle corruption which has become blatant and widespread. The rest of the world looks at Nigeria as the home of corruption.
“If I get your mandate, I promise to do things differently and restore honour and integrity to public service by keeping the best and attracting the best.
“George Weah’s victory in Liberia is a pointer that this dream is very realistic with you all on my side.”
Nwankwo Kanu, who went on to become the Super Eagles captain is drawing inspiration from Liberian president,George Weah, who also had a glistening international football career and at retirement became a Liberian senator and now president of the first independent West African nation that emerged from a ruinous armed conflict which destabilized much of West Africa some twenty years ago.
Kanu Nwankwo’s life and career is even much more distinguished, for as a young Nigerian from a rustic rural side, he played football to global acclaim and while plying his trade internationally in Europe, a keen and brilliant football team doctor noticed that he had a serious heart condition and if allowed to play without corrective surgery, he would one day collapse and die on the pitch. The bypass surgery was successfully done and this was the first inspiration that Nwankwo Kanu had. He devoted his football income to flying Nigeria’s children with heart conditions irrespective of tribe, religion, region or otherwise to first, Europe, then India and other medical destinations to have successful surgeries at his own expense, hundred percent. At the same time, flying Nigerian doctors with the patients out to gain practical experience in heart surgeries while assisting hospitals at home gain necessary capacity to do the work at home.
This is unlike current Nigerian President who ignored the hospitals at home and treats himself and son almost exclusively abroad while the rest of the citizenry languish in “mere consulting clinics”, part of General Buhari’s coup speech in 1983 ushering in a devastating military dictatorship of musical chairs from one army general to the other until 1999, yet they solved no single health infrastructural challenge.
Back as civilian President since 2015, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha has been quoted as saying that the Aso Rock clinic that guzzles more budgetary allocation than all of Nigeria’s Teaching Hospitals put together does not have simple analgesics. This was the same State House clinic that was patronized by previous presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan.
