We Remain Non-Partisan, But We Have Our Candidate- Lagos NANS

Naij.com recently spoke with Sanusi Sulaimon, President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Lagos Chapter and he explained who their preferred candidate fortomorrow’s gubernatorial election is.

As a student’s body, does Lagos NANS have a preferred candidate for the gubernatorialelection?
Yes, that’s for sure. Akinwunmi Ambode is the man we are rooting for. This is because we believe in the progressive and in the fact that they can also effect the change we want for the Nigerian Students. The progressives listen to students and it may interest you to know that of recent, a bus was given to each of the student union government in Lagos State. Besides, Ambode is more experienced in government, his level of experience will help in taking Lagos to a greater height.

READ ALSO: Lagos Governorship Race: Ndi Igbos Choose The APC

Does that mean the students are happy with the LASU fees issue, which was only returned to normal a few months before election?
Yes, we are presently okay with the arrangement on ground as regards the tuition fees increment and its eventual reduction. Moreover, there is an agreement with the Governor that the fees will not be increased again.

When was that agreement reached? And who were those present at the time of signing the papers?
Well, the agreement was reached after the reduction and in the APC candidate’s manifestoes, it was one of the things that made us align with him as the incoming governor of Lagos state. LASU student union president as well as a few others can also testify to this.

But, as a Students’ Union body, are you supposed to sway towards one particular candidate, seeing that your colleagues may also have other choices?
That is very true. Every one is free to make his choice because we are not partisan since we are not registered in any political party. However, we only support the government that has the people at heart especially the students and presently, the only one we can talk about as far as Lagos state is concerned, is that of the APC.

What does NANS say to the statement credited to the Oba of Lagos as regards the Igbos voting for Ambode?
Honestly, going by the way the whole drama turned out, I do not think that the Oba of Lagos has any hard feelings towards the Igbos in his kingdom. Besides, majority of them who are traders use his shops at Isale Eko, so why would he have issues with them? The issue has already been ironed out and we are saying that this is more about the place where we reside and make a living than tribal sentiments. Also, we are in the era of democracy and we hope to see a time when a Yoruba man will run and win an election in the eastern part of the country and vice versa.

READ ALSO: APC In Panic Mode Ahead Of Today’s Polls -Fani-Kayode

So, what are the students’ expectations from the incoming Governor?
We cannot wait to have the new governor. With all the things he has reeled out for students in the state, we are definitely hoping to see the best and I am sure that when that time comes, students under the Lagos NANS would be relieved that they made the right choice.

Oba's Speech: "Flagrant Disregard Of Performance"

Following the uproar caused by the comments by the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, in which he threatened Igbos resident in Lagos to vote for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Akinwunmi Ambode, the popular writer, Chimamanda Adichie has added her voice to the discourse.

The piece was published on olisa.tv. Read below:

A few days ago, the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbo leaders. If they did not vote for his governorship candidate in Lagos, he said, they would be thrown into the lagoon. His entire speech was a flagrant performance of disregard. His words said, in effect: I think so little of you that I don’t have to cajole you but will just threaten you and, by the way, your safety in Lagos is not assured, it is negotiable.

There have been condemnations of the Oba’s words. Sadly, many of the condemnations from non-Igbo people have come with the ugly impatience of expressions like ‘move on,’ and ‘don’t be over-emotional’and ‘calm down.’ These take away the power, even the sincerity, of the condemnations. It is highhanded and offensive to tell an aggrieved person how to feel, or how quickly to forgive, just as an apology becomes a non-apology when it comes with ‘now get over it.’

Other condemnations of the Oba’s words have been couched in dismissive or diminishing language such as ‘The Oba can’t really do anything, he isn’t actually going to kill anyone. He was joking. He was just being a loudmouth.’

Or – the basest yet – ‘we are all prejudiced.’ It is dishonest to respond to a specific act of prejudice by ignoring that act and instead stressing the generic and the general. It is similar to responding to a specific crime by saying ‘we are all capable of crime.’ Indeed we are. But responses such as these are diversionary tactics. They dismiss the specific act, diminish its importance, and ultimately aim at silencing the legitimate fears of people.

READ ALSO: Femi Fani-Kayode Reacts To Oba Hate Speech

We are indeed all prejudiced, but that is not an appropriate response to an issue this serious. The Oba is not an ordinary citizen. He is a traditional ruler in a part of a country where traditional rulers command considerable influence – the reluctance on the part of many to directly chastise the Oba speaks to his power. The Oba’s words matter. He is not a singular voice; he represents traditional authority. The Oba’s words matter because they are enough to incite violence in a political setting already fraught with uncertainty. The Oba’s words matter even more in the event that Ambode loses the governorship election, because it would then be easy to scapegoat Igbo people and hold them punishable.

Nigerians who consider themselves enlightened might dismiss the Oba’s words as illogical. But the scapegoating of groups – which has a long history all over the world – has never been about logic. The Oba’s words matter because they bring worrying echoes of the early 1960s in Nigeria, when Igbo people were scapegoated for political reasons. Chinua Achebe, when he finally accepted that Lagos, the city he called home, was unsafe for him because he was Igbo, saw crowds at the motor park taunting Igbo people as they boarded buses: ‘Go, Igbo, go so that garri will be cheaper in Lagos!’

Of course Igbo people were not responsible for the cost of garri. But they were perceived as people who were responsible for a coup and who were ‘taking over’ and who, consequently, could be held responsible for everything bad.

Any group of people would understandably be troubled by a threat such as the Oba’s, but the Igbo, because of their history in Nigeria, have been particularly troubled. And it is a recent history. There are people alive today who were publicly attacked in cosmopolitan Lagos in the 1960s because they were Igbo. Even people who were merely light-skinned were at risk of violence in Lagos markets, because to be light-skinned was to be mistaken for Igbo.

Almost every Nigerian ethnic group has a grouse of some sort with the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state has, by turns, been violent, unfair, neglectful, of different parts of the country. Almost every ethnic group has derogatory stereotypes attached to it by other ethnic groups.

But it is disingenuous to suggest that the experience of every ethnic group has been the same. Anti-Igbo violence began under the British colonial government, with complex roots and manifestations. But the end result is a certain psychic difference in the relationship of Igbo people to the Nigerian state. To be Igbo in Nigeria is constantly to be suspect; your national patriotism is never taken as the norm, you are continually expected to prove it.

All groups are conditioned by their specific histories. Perhaps another ethnic group would have reacted with less concern to the Oba’s threat, because that ethnic group would not be conditioned by a history of being targets of violence, as the Igbo have been.

READ ALSO: Oba Of Lagos Causes War On Twitter

Many responses to the Oba’s threat have mentioned the ‘welcoming’ nature of Lagos, and have made comparisons between Lagos and southeastern towns like Onitsha. It is valid to debate the ethnic diversity of different parts of Nigeria, to compare, for example, Ibadan and Enugu, Ado-Ekiti and Aba, and to debate who moves where, and who feels comfortable living where and why that is. But it is odd to pretend that Lagos is like any other city in Nigeria. It is not. The political history of Lagos and its development as the first national capital set it apart. Lagos is Nigeria’s metropolis. There are ethnic Igbo people whose entire lives have been spent in Lagos, who have little or no ties to the southeast, who speak Yoruba better than Igbo. Should they, too, be reminded to be ‘grateful’ each time an election draws near?

No law-abiding Nigerian should be expected to show gratitude for living peacefully in any part of Nigeria. Landlords in Lagos should not, as still happens too often, be able to refuse to rent their property to Igbo people.

The Oba’s words were disturbing, but its context is even more disturbing:

The anti-Igbo rhetoric that has been part of the political discourse since the presidential election results. Accusatory and derogatory language – using words like ‘brainwashed,’ ‘tribalistic voting’ – has been used to describe President Jonathan’s overwhelming win in the southeast. All democracies have regions that vote in large numbers for one side, and even though parts of Northern Nigeria showed voting patterns similar to the Southeast, the opprobrium has been reserved for the Southeast.

But the rhetoric is about more than mere voting. It is really about citizenship. To be so entitled as to question the legitimacy of a people’s choice in a democratic election is not only a sign of disrespect but is also a questioning of the full citizenship of those people.

What does it mean to be a Nigerian citizen?

When Igbo people are urged to be ‘grateful’ for being in Lagos, do they somehow have less of a right as citizens to live where they live? Every Nigerian should be able to live in any part of Nigeria. The only expectation for a Nigerian citizen living in any part of Nigeria is to be law-abiding. Not to be ‘grateful.’Not to be expected to pay back some sort of unspoken favour by toeing a particular political line. Nigerian citizens can vote for whomever they choose, and should never be expected to justify or apologize for their choice.

READ ALSO: I Will Not Discriminate Against Any Religious Or Ethnic Group – Ambode

Only by feeling a collective sense of ownership of Nigeria can we start to forge a nation. A nation is an idea. Nigeria is still in progress. To make this a nation, we must collectively agree on what citizenship means: all Nigerians must matter equally.

Meanwhile, some of the Igbos in Lagos in reaction to the Oba’s recent threat have promised not to vote for  Ambode in the forthcoming Saturday election, daring the monarch to go ahead with his threat.

How Buhari’s Win Alters The Equation In Rivers, Abia

Rivers State, for very obvious reasons, will be the main theatre of today’s governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

The violence that wracked the state during the March 28 presidential elections did not come as a surprise to political pundits, as events leading to the day showed how it will go.

Naij.com political analyst, Chidi Okoye expresses his views in this written piece.

Former cabinet member and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the state, Nyesom Wike, is widely seen as a brute willing to do whatever it takes to edge out the anointed candidate of the incumbent Governor Rotimi Amaechi. However, Mr Wike remains a very popular man in the state and has been tipped by various polls to emerge winner; despite the impressive war chest of his major challenger, Dakuku Peterside, of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

READ ALSO: About 50 Armed Soldiers Deployed To Wike’s Residence

The loss of the PDP at the presidential level may also favour Mr Wike on Saturday, as it has been used by various support groups to fan the embers of tribalism in the state. Propaganda in the wake of the ruling PDP’s loss at the centre has centred on the allegations that the APC is a Muslim party and has succeeded in removing a Niger Delta man from the Presidency; thereby calling for punishments on the party and Mr Amaechi by voting for Mr Wike.

Several respondents in the state who did not vote during the presidential elections have sworn to come out on Saturday and vote. While some say they intend to vote for the APC to ensure the state is aligned with the centre, the majority plan a protest vote against the party being widely seen as anti-Niger Delta. A contest that was previously seen as a close race between the two major parties in the state seems to have turned into a walk in the park for the PDP.

In Abia, the emergence of former Diamond Bank Managing Director, Alex Otti, as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has renewed calls for the Igbos to work hard at sustaining the regional party. Mr Otti, widely seen as a technocrat capable of turning the state’s fortunes around, emerges as the major challenger to the PDP candidate, Okezie Ikpeazu.

READ ALSO: As #NigeriaDecides, APC, PDP In Epic Battle

Abia has always been a PDP state and looked set to continue this tradition on Saturday; however, the APC win at the centre has muddied the waters a bit. Voters are beginning to consider the fact that an Otti win strengthens the so-called Igbo party, as APGA would then control two states in the South-East (Abia and Anambra). This consideration is also being fuelled by propaganda that the APC would be unfriendly to Igbos. Secondly, Abia always voted the PDP to align with the centre. In 2015, the party has lost the centre.

The breakaway faction of APGA that recently adopted Mr Ikpeazu as its candidate may also have caused him more harm than good as the backlash from previously undecided voters showed growing support for Mr Otti ahead of Saturday’s polls. Despite its impressive grassroots support in the state, the PDP will no longer be approaching the elections with the cockiness it had before the March 28 presidential election.​

As Nigeria Decides, APC, PDP In Epic Battle

The All Progressives Congress (APC) may buttress its success at the recent presidential election by winning governorship elections in many states across the country today. The polls are held in 29 states.

The Nation Reports

However, only the House of Assembly elections will be held in Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo and Kogi states.

Some factors which may swing the pendulum of victory in the APC’s direction include the mass defection from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the main opposition party following the party’s electoral defeat, the effects of unresolved post-primary disputes in many PDP states, the violation of zoning or rotational principles by the PDP in some states, and other local issues.

READ ALSO: Document Reveals How PDP Plans To Rig Governorship Poll 

According to political watchers, the APC is expected to win handsomely in the Northern states and the Southwest, while also giving the PDP a good fight in Rivers, Imo and Akwa Ibom states. But, the PDP is tipped to win in Cross Rivers, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and Delta states, which have been its strongholds since the restoration of civil rule in 1999.

In the Southwest, governorship elections will only be held in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states. During the presidential elections, the people voted for the APC candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The pattern of voting will be sustained in today’s election, with little or no difference.

In Lagos, voters will choose between the APC candidate, Akinwumi Ambode, and the PDP flag bearer, Jimi Agbaje. The battle will be fierce. Although the APC won the presidential poll, thePDP made an impact in four federal constituencies, which were previously the stronghold of the APC.

As in previous elections, ethnicity is likely to be a factor, although it also has its limitations. The progressives have been dominating politics in the metropolis since independence. Now that the APC has won the presidential election, many Lagosians are of the view that, for the first time, the party that will control the centre should also retain Lagos.  However, unlike 2011, the ruling party may not be able to win all the House of Assembly seats.

In Ogun State, the die is cast between Governor Ibikunle Amosun of the APC and Gboyega Isiaka of the PDP. In the presidential election, the APC won the Egba and Yewa senatorial seats. The PDP won Ijebu/Remo District, the base of Isiaka. But in general, the governor enjoys a high rating because of his performance in the last four years.

Many people who worked for the PDP during the presidential election may not work for the party in today’s election.

About 50 Armed Soldiers Deployed To Wike’s Residence

News just reaching us indicates that about 50 heavily armed soldiers mounted a barricade around the family residence of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers state, Barrister Nyesom Wike as early as 6am today.

Vanguard reports that vehicles were thoroughly searched before being allowed to drive through Wipey Junction, a busy intersection close to the family residence.

At about 6.40am the soldiers were seen unloading sand bags from one of their trucks.

It was reported that efforts to take pictures were impeded by one of the soldiers who appeared to be the head of the troop.

READ ALSO: Polls: 760 Candidates Jostle For 29 Governorship Seats

The report also revealed that pedestrians were seen raising their hands as they walked pass the soldiers who took strategic positions with their riffles.

Meanwhile, following the tension brewing in Rivers state over the gubernatorial and house of assembly elections today, the police yesterday deployed special units to the state as part of efforts to address security concerns.

INEC Staff Caught With Thumb Printed Ballot Papers In Niger

An ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) found with two thumb printed booklets of ballot papers was arrested on Friday night in Sambo ward, Rijau local government area of Niger State.

The nation reports that the INEC staff, a supervising presiding officer, Ibrahim Tanko was arrested with the ballot papers in favour of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate,  Mohammed Umar Nasko.

It was gathered that a source in the town said the electoral officer after collecting all election materials went back to complain that there was a shortage of ballot papers given to him.

READ ALSO: About 50 Armed Soldiers Deployed To Wike’s Residence

Unknown to Tanko, some people had seen him hiding the two booklets in a car allegedly owned by a former minister in the state.

The suspect was immediately arrested and handed over to the Divisional Police Officer in the town.

When contacted on phone, the head of Voter Education Unit in the state INEC office, Malam Mohammed Wase, confirmed the incident, saying investigation to ascertain those involved in the incident was ongoing.

Fayose Refers To Jonathan As "That stupid president"

The Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose is said to be parking out of the States government house following his impeachment saga.

According to abusidiqu.com, Sources inside the Presidency alleged that Fayose’s trouble with President Jonathan started during his re-election campaign. It was alleged that Jonathan entrusted his N21 billion campaign fund into Fayose’s hand which he allegedly mismanaged.

Fayose’s Federal private jet

READ ALSO: As #NigeriaDecides, APC, PDP In Epic Battle 

PDP sources said the President is angry with Fayose over mismanagement of campaign cash and image problem the governor caused him by his relentless attacks on the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, which soared support for the retired General while diminishing the profile of the President.

Security sources said Fayose compounded problem for himself while condemning President Jonathan for not using soldiers for the election.

“Security officers were holding a meeting with the governor and he was told to ensure adequate security to douse tension. Carelessly, the governor said he was not sure whether “that stupid President will agree like he refused to do during the presidential election”.

“Unfortunately, Fayose did not know that he was being recorded. The tape was sent to the President who after listening to it decided to leave Fayose to his fate.

Yesterday, Governor Ayodele Fayose was said to have sensed the danger coming for being rude to his political god-father, the man who brought him back into Ekiti State House from exile.

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He reportedly moved almost all his property from the Ekiti State House. 4 Hilux vans were seen moving his personal belongings from the Governor’s lodge to his Spotless Hotel.

Each Hilux van made 4 trips between the State House and the Spotless Hotel on Thursday.

2 Weeks before now, Fayose was said to have moved some beds to his Afao and Ibadan homes.

Another source said Fayose’s behaviour betrayed his intention in recent times, citing his last week secret journey out of Ekiti State and today’s recorded broadcast to Ekiti people.

“He likes loud life, but his behaviour recently suggests he is greatly troubled. He sneaked out of Ekiti State last week and quietly entered. Today, he presented a recorded broadcast to the people as a live broadcast.

Something is wrong with oga. The way he is moving his property out of the Government House confirms he is up to a game that is known only to himself,” the source said.

Another source in Abuja said Fayose has been running from pillar to post in order to seek President Jonathan’s forgiveness, citing that the opposition party leaders are the ones using black power to force him to disrespect Jonathan.

READ MORE: http://www.naij.com/419006-fayose-refers-to-jonathan-as-that-stupid-president.html