By Aisha Yesufu

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I sit here before you, I am afraid at this new step I am about to take. Courage, they say, is not the absence of fear. Courage is stepping forward despite the fear.

Twelve years ago, on the day of my 40th birthday I decided that silence was no
longer going to be an option. My silence was also part of the problems that Nigeria was grappling with. On that day I made a covenant with God that if God gives me another 40 years, I will devote those 40 years to Nigeria. Four months later, on the 14th of April 2014 #ChibokGirls were abducted
And on the 30th of April 2014, I came out with other well-meaning Nigerians to
march for the 276 schoolgirls that had been abducted from their school.

Every single day, we were on the streets, marching, crying, demanding justice until the lockdown during Covid-19 in 2020 when we stopped the daily physical sit outs and protests and continued online. Today, I see my sisters and brother who walked that journey with me standing here and the fear has lessened but let me be clear: it has not disappeared.

By 2018, four years into the demands for #ChibokGirls I realised something
clearly: everything leads back to politics. Politics determine who governs us.
Politics decides whether we have good governance, or we suffer and if we refuse to participate in politics, we leave our lives at the mercy of people who were never meant to lead in the first place.

That was when, for the first time, I joined the campaign of a presidential
candidate. I was part of the campaign team of Dr. Oby Ezekwesili who has been
my aunt and my mentor. I walked the length and breadth of Nigeria, speaking to people with her and other well-meaning Nigerians. We had done the
#RedCardMovement before she joined the race, reminding Nigerians that they
had the choice, capacity, and power to choose from other than just two political
parties. In 2022, I was again in the campaign of a presidential candidate, Mr.Peter Obi. You all saw how it played out.

On the 31st of December 2025, Mr. Peter Obi officially came with his allies,
friends, and supporters and declared for ADC. That day, I told him something
very simple and very clear: I have never been a card-carrying member of any
political party, but because my leader has called, I would become a card-carrying member of ADC. Today, I am here to redeem that pledge. I have picked my ADC membership card.

Let me speak to every Nigerian listening to me. We are at a moment where our
country needs us. When I told you earlier that I am afraid, I was not joking. I am
truly afraid. I love my voice. I own my voice. I say things the way I choose, when I choose and how I choose. But I had to ask myself a hard question: Is refusing to join a political party, refusing to be where decisions are made, refusing to influence who become flag bearers of political parties, acceptable? Is it about me, or is it about Nigeria?

If I truly believe in Nigeria, if I truly believe that this country should be a place where the child of nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody, then I must step in. I must put my hat in the ring.

Many of us are afraid that our whites will be stained. I asked myself this
question: If Allah (SWT) grants me life to 80 years, will it be said that my white
remained clean because I stayed away from the mud, or because I entered the
mud, fought through it, and my white came out spotless?

Today, I make my choice.

We have been told again and again that politics is dirty. Politics is only dirty
because good people refuse to enter it. We leave it to those who believe they
have a monopoly of dirt That dirt is the only way to play politics. That must end
now. This is the time for us to enter, one by one, and clean it up. That is how we
will build the politics that produces candidates with competence, character, and capacity. Candidates who care. Candidates who will defend Nigeria and stand for Nigeria.

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