By Sunday Ani, Lagos
The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom has invited the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, to a stakeholders’ meeting on religious freedom.
At the meeting, holding in Washington, DC, Adebayo will also be meeting with ambassadors, State Department officials, university officials, and the National Black Chamber of Commerce, among others.
He is also scheduled to attend a national presidential prayer breakfast committee luncheon in Arlington.
“The United States is an important ally to my country. It is an honour to have this chance to make my case to the American people and seek ways to further build on our international relationship,” he said.
Adebayo is campaigning on accountability and a good governance platform in a country where corruption is historically a big challenge.
Adebayo is the only presidential candidate who has accepted the challenge of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to declare his assets publicly. No other presidential candidate has accepted the challenge.
His candidature has ruffled feathers in the old political order and has become a great excitement of hope among the young Nigerians, at home and abroad.
His party, the SDP, won the freest and fairest presidential primary election after democracy icon MKO Abiola won in 1993.
The US is a principal foreign investor in Nigeria and two-way trade in goods and services typically exceeds $10 billion.
Additionally, over a million Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans live, study, and work in the US.
“We have much to learn from each other and I am determined that under an Adebayo presidency, we in Abuja, will work with Washington for heightened mutual benefit,” Adebayo said.
Adebayo’s relationship with the US is extensive, having studied law in the US and is now licensed to practise in California and New York. He has been involved extensively in litigation and arbitration cases in Australia, UK, Singapore, and other jurisdictions.
He is currently the Chairman of US-based Blueprint Global Group and Board Advisor to the National Black Chamber of Commerce.
He is also the Chairman of Sai Phytochemicals which produces drugs for the treatment of sickle cell anaemia in India and Nigeria.
As the Chairman of the Africa Dialogue Mission, he was appointed by the United Nations as a commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Liberia in 2006.
He later founded KAFTAN TV which provides news to over six million homes in 20 countries and for which he was awarded Best Media Proprietor of the Year by the Nigerian Union of Journalists.
He has sponsored the education of thousands of youths from all over Nigeria and Africa.