Ben TV founder Soyode nominated as Yes Party's presidential candidate at its Abuja convention

BEN Television founder and chairman Dr Ali Soyode has formally become a Nigerian presidential candidate after his Yes Party elected him as its flagbearer in next year's presidential polls following its congress in Abuja.

A successful businessman, Dr Soyode, the chairman of Ben TV, the largest black TV station in Europe, which he founded in 2003, has served as chair of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe and currently chairs and leads a mentoring and coaching organisation committed to youth entrepreneurship and empowerment. After clinching the Yes Party ticket over the weekend, he said, the party might not have the financial resources to slug it out with dominant parties but has all it takes to edge out President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general elections.

Dr  Soyode said: “We don’t have the money to compete with them but we can beat them based on ideology and the crop of people we have in our party. Our manifesto is not above the constitution, Nigerian extant laws is supreme and that is what we tailored our party constitution towards and the supremacy of the rule of law is our cardinal objective in the party.

 “We will deliver basic amenities to the people as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We don’t have money to give the electorate and cannot continue to mortgage our future for N500 per year with the N2,000 they dole out to the people during electioneering process but we will provide them with quality healthcare, education and basic infrastructures, amongst others."

He reiterated, that the Yes Party is deeply rooted in ensuring Nigerians get what rightfully belongs to them and not just some crumbs falling from the masters’ table. Dr Soyode urged the youth to brace up for the challenges ahead as the onus lies on them to determine if they want to continue with the perpetual poverty ravaging the country, which has placed the country on an unenviable position as the world’s capital of poverty.

On whether the Independent National Electoral Commission can deliver credible polls ahead of the 2019 elections, Dr Soyode said that for every election, lessons are learnt. He added that he is sure that the electoral umpire must have seen some challenges it has to perfect before the elections in February next year.

Dr Soyode becomes the second diasporan media guru to join next year's presidential race after Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters. Mr Sowore has created a lot of excitement with the launch of a campaign centred  around the youth and the need for change.