Singer, actor, and politician Oluwabankole Wellington, best known by his stage as Banky W, has expressed a desire to improve Nigeria for the sake of his son.

The celebrity, who is running for the Lagos Eti-Osa Federal Constituency in the National Assembly in 2023, stated this in an interview with Daily Trust.

He acknowledged that juggling his roles as a musician, businessman, entertainer, and politician was challenging, but he persisted in order to create a better Nigeria for his son.

He went on to say that he will make time for his loved ones while improving society.

He said, “It’s definitely not easy juggling fatherhood and being a husband, a businessman, and a business owner. Running for the office is easily the most grueling, difficult, draining, most time-consuming thing that you could ever do.

“So it’s not so easy juggling all those responsibilities. But for me, I think that there are a couple of important things. Number one, when I look into my son’s face, I look into his eyes, I realize that he’s the reason that I’m doing this because I don’t want him to grow up and experience Nigeria in the same state that it is now, or worse.

“I want to be able to look him in the face and say you know what, when things were going bad, I tried and I did my best and I gave it the best that I could. It’s important for me to do this so that as he grows up and looks back and sees what his father did and what his parents represented and what they tried to stand for in their time, he has something to be proud of regardless of where society is.

“Hopefully, we do enough that society itself is better for for him, and the generations to come. So for me, he’s partly a reason I feel the most important thing that I will ever do is getting into our government and trying to do things better. But then the other thing which is just as important is understanding that your family is your first ministry, your family is your first calling.”

On November 11, 2018, Banky W declared his intention to run for the Eti-Osa Federal Constituency seat on the platform of the newly established Modern Democratic Party.

He lost the race to Babajide Obanikoro of the All Progressives Congress in February 2019.

The musician defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2023 general elections to run for the seat again against Obanikoro, who is seeking reelection.

YNaija