When Ibrahima Sow came to Columbus from Africa in 1998 with his mother, he was only 8 years old. Now, he could become a Councilman in just a few months.
But Sow, who was a consigliere to former Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder, got his work cut out for him trying to unseat Columbus city council incumbents, all Democrats.
He knows that. He also knows that he is going to make huge history on multiple fronts if elected. What’s more important to the African immigrant from Senegal though, is not the history he will make if elected but the difference he hopes to make in the lives of many residents of the city he said are not currently well represented by City Hall.
“There’s a huge population in the city of Columbus that does not have proper advocates, proper representation at the City Hall. That would be one thing to bring to the table,” Sow told Onumba.com, in a wide-ranging interview, recently. “We are going to bring City Hall to those that need it and make City Hall work for the people that pay for it.”
Sow, 24, is endorsed by the Republican Party. A recent graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in Political Science and International Relations, he is one of a bevy of Republican candidates running for city council, hoping to halt the years of partisan monopoly of the city council by Democrats. Currently, and it has been that way for years, there is no Republican on the council.
Sow, of course knows it is going to be an uphill battle dismantling the Democratic hegemony of the council, but he is counting on the force of his message, not politics, to catapult him to victory this November. He expressed the view that local politics is all about ideas that work for the people and not about the partisan ideologies that polarize them.
Asked how he plans to fit in on a council loaded with Democrats, Sow replied, “That’s never been an issue for me. When it comes to making politics work for people, how they live their daily lives, politics does not matter, it’s all about policy, it’s all about the person with the best idea that’s feasible and sustainable, that meets the needs of the people.”
Sow, whose family owns a small business on the east side, vows to be a tireless champion for small business owners, immigrants and college graduates if elected to the council. He expressed the view that these and other groups “have put a lot into the city but don’t get a lot back.”
Asked what he would do to improve the depressing and bedraggled police – African-American community relations, Sow said that a big part of the remedy is to jettison the bane of “segregation” in our cities. While Columbus has been free of the kind of violence that recently engulfed Baltimore and Fergusson caused by police brutality, Sow expressed the view that Columbus is bedeviled by the “circumstances and the environment” capable of stoking similar cacophonies and riots, and he blames it in part on economic segregation bifurcating our major cities.
His words, “Segregation is illegal now but the realities of it and the construction of it is still around.” Sow is also urging that cops be trained to have the kind of “understanding, compassion and competency” needed to be effective and able to “approach the people that pay their check with dignity.”
Sow noted that police officers are expected to be experts at what they do, reminding them “you have a job, you have a badge, you have a gun, and that automatically makes you different from anyone else.”
He hopes to join the city council to pursue a trifecta of major priorities: “access to resources, neighborhood safety and the need to inspire young people to do more for their community.”
Sow, who is Muslim, intensely decried the violent brand of Islam that has come to define the faith for some people. He expressed profound regret that groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda and others have “hijacked” the true Islamic faith. He is calling on true ambassadors of the faith to help bombard the airwaves with the true dovish teachings of Islam to eclipse and overwhelm the violent Theravada of hate being spewed by these groups which Sow said actually represent a very small minority of the entire Muslim population.
If elected, Sow will be the youngest person ever to serve on the Columbus city council. He will also be the first African immigrant and the first Muslim to serve on the council.
As for Sow’s hope of winning a seat on the council, he replied, “I am faithful, I am praying, we have a lot of support behind us, we are making a lot of strides, so we will see.”
Sow’s website is: http://www.votesow2015.com/
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