Banky W: I’m contesting to reform PDP… not defend its past

Banky W, the singer cum politician, says he did not join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to defend its history but to reform the party’s future.

The musician spoke in a chat with Arise TV on Wednesday.

PDP held the Nigeria presidential seat from 1999 to 2015, when it was ousted by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Throughout its 16 years in power, PDP controlled swathes of states and resources in the country.

Many Nigerians, particularly the youth, have blamed the situation of the country on the party’s past administrations.

Queried about PDP’s past, Banky W, who is vying to represent the Eti-Osa federal constituency in the house of representatives on the party’s platform, said a “system is only as good as the people that are involved in it”.

He also said the longer good people sit out of the process the worse it gets.

The actor further called for the involvement of more “good people” in politics to ignite the change desired.

“We have to acknowledge the pain that some of the youth feel and some of these are caused by the PDP. But I think the system is only as good as the people that are involved in it. A system is just a collection of people that are pushing for a kind of result. The longer that we sit out the process, the more the system will be bad,” the musician said.

“I am not here to defend everything bad that anybody in the history of the PDP has ever done. I am here to reform it. I am here to build a bridge into the mainstream of politics — starting from Lagos and Eti-Osa. 

“We are not saying there is a perfect [PDP] history or defend it, we are here to reform it.”