Why I Joined Politics Despite Being A Successful Musician – Banky W

By Oladosu Oluwagbenga

Bankole Wellington, better known by his stage as Banky W, revealed on Wednesday why he decided to joined politics despite being a famous musician and businessman.

He claimed he entered politics in order to change things beyond activism and added that this was the only way to alter broken systems.

The musician, who is running for the PDP‘s House of Representatives nomination in the Eti-Osa Federal Constituency, claimed that the longer young people stay away from traditional politics, the more dysfunctional society will remain.

“We must engage with the system from where it is and fight for what we stand for and what we want to happen,” he said when he appeared on Arise TV’s The Morning Show.

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On why he joined politics, Wellington said, “We need more people to participate in politics. I have participated in peaceful protests just like anybody that I know among my peers.

“But the goal of activism and advocacy is improvement and if you haven’t seen the impact you seek, then that activism is not enough.

“So, for me, the message started changing from just raising awareness via activism and advocacy to saying we have to start moving from protests to politics.

“We have to start taking these energies and channeling them toward getting like-minds into the government and using that consensus of like-minds to get a change and that is where my mindset started changing and in 2018 I started feeling like the problem in Nigeria is top-down and the solution is from the bottom up.

“So we need to start focusing on the National Assembly, the Senate and House of Representatives, and the States House of Assembly. So, when I ask young people about their representatives, most of them don’t know who is running for office in their constituencies.

“And I started thinking that if with my education, success, background, audience, following, and voice and I can’t stick my neck out that I can be a part of this system and can bring a solution to the table, who am I waiting for to get involved in the system?

“So, in 2018, I prayed about it and I informed my wife and what she told me was that ‘you know politics in Nigeria is dirty and I know your heart and I know the system is what it is and I don’t want anything that will soil your hands’ and I told her that the truth of the matter is politics will always be dirty and dangerous until good people start to be intentional about putting like-minds in the system.”

The reviled old system would continue to exist, he continued, as more Nigerians abstain from participating in politics out of fear of the influence of godfathers.

Regarding the governor’s race in 2023, he predicted that the results of the Lagos State governor’s race in 2019 would surprise everyone.

He claimed that Dr. Olajide Adediran, also known as Jandor, the PDP candidate for governor of Lagos, has begun preparations for the upcoming election.