2019 ELECTIONS: WE MUST ALL DEMAND FOR A NEW PROCESS

2019 ELECTIONS: WE MUST ALL DEMAND FOR A NEW PROCESS

The just concluded 2019 elections were fraught with baggage familiar with Nigerian elections. First of the issues was the postponement of the elections over logistics, consequently deflating the interest of anticipating Nigerians.  Another was the President’s order to the military tasking them to shoot at sight any ballot-snatcher without any form of questioning or arraignment, and Nigeria, which once was grinded beneath military jackboot, did not hesitate to associate such plaguing of civilian communities with armed military personnel with terror. Also very troubling were the unimaginable terrors perpetuated by APC and PDP thugs across the nation. All these, amplified by social media among other factors, culminate into voters’ apathy.

The Advancement of Our Democracy and the Electioneering Process

But we associate our democracy with some seemly useful qualifiers. The most popular is its description as fledging. This qualifier forms the basis for some of our thinkers advocating for moderated expectations and mild interpretations of events. But one’s worry should be to answer the pertinent question of how the fledging would become mature and resilient to the vices of dangerous politicians and ploys. Ranges of lofty recommendations for the advancement of our democracy abound.  One is the abolition of one of the legislatives arm as proposed by the AAC presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, arguing that the bicameral legislation is wasteful and slow. But while different recommendations abound, harrowing to attentive minds is the gory of the last Saturday elections – the violence – the electoral process that puts helpless citizens in harmful and precarious situation should be condemned and considered a crime.

But beyond the violence, social media pictures and videos show how different players hacked the current electoral process, perhaps the most telling is the clip of Aisha Buhari showing her husband, the current sitting president, who she voted for. The worst of the setbacks is the Polling Unit officers manually counting the votes and how manually the votes are aggregated, from LGA to FCT, shamefully taking over 48 hours to determine the winners of the elections. Yet, to advance our democracy, the urgency for all of us must be to re-imagine our electoral process for the emergence of a peaceful process that will not only be transparent but disallow all forms of intimidation while encouraging more participation of the Nigerian people and inclusion. But without deliberate and well organised mass based action such desired process will remain a mirage.

The Question of Electronic Voting (EV)

If electronic voting (EV) is adopted some, if not all, of the challenges will be overcome. With electronic voting, there will be no need of physical moving of ‘sensitive’ electoral materials to about 120, 000 polling units. This will therefore mean that elections won’t be postponed over logistics issues. EV will also come with the advantage of comfort and inclusion: since PVC already carries Polling Unit codes which is a derivates of State, Local Government, Ward and Polling Unit, votes can be easily aggregated by Polling Units without the voters having to travel to their polling units. But on the contrary, as at last elections, some people have to travel as far as 17 hours by flight in order to exercise their franchise. The possibility of EV also speaks to another advantage which is reduction of cost; the reduction of cost on the side of INEC and on the side of the voters. There could be online facility accessible by any computer or mobile device, or one may consider a possible reliance on already existing infrastructure i.e. the ATM machines. To further make a case for cost reduction, EV process will have no need of heavy deployment of security and the shutdown of socio-cultural and socio-economic process, therefore, people can still go ahead and have their business meetings while elections are going on and also people can have their marriage ceremonies without hitch while elections are going on. In addition, all the elections can be held in one day and collation of result could be done in less than 24 hours. And most importantly, EV will completely remove all forms of violence and voters intimidation since voters will not be required to converge to a particular location in order to exercise their civic right.

Why Not Electronic Voting

The demand for EV is not a new demand. What it lacks over time is the ability to garner critical mass support. Staring at the campaigners are huddles like constitutional reforms, adoption of voters and accessibility of such platform to uneducated Nigerian. The way to think about this is around useful statistics that may inform the possibility for its adoption. For example, as at January 2018, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) reported that mobile phone users are about 146 million. This figure when merged with over 92 million internet users reported by Statista (2019) provides rare and interesting opportunities for more voters inclusion. This span of individuals included in the aforementioned data exceeds the number of voters we’ve recorded for elections since 1999. They can be educated on how to use the EV platform and how it works. They are also large number of Nigerians that can be expanded through voters education to be more representative of the Nigerian diversity. One lesson staring at us is that, giving the death toll of about 250 individuals, the maiming and stabbing, the last weekend elections struggle to garner only about 27 million voters, a figure that bares a shameful mark of decline. But for our nation to reach the utopia of election success, all actions must start right now to surmount the challenges and demand adoption of a better process such as EV. 

DG of SOWORE 2019 UPDATE: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES – A NEW NIGERIA IS STILL POSSIBLE

DG of SOWORE 2019 UPDATE: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES – A NEW NIGERIA IS STILL POSSIBLE

The Presidential vote count is finally over. Although we fell short of our goal of placing a committed and courageous leader at the helm of affairs in Nigeria, there is much that we can be proud of.

Omoyele Sowore ran a long, hard campaign that captured the hearts and minds of Nigerians. We created a movement and established a political party within a year. We recruited candidates to run for over 150 positions from the Presidency through to gubernatorial, senate, House of Representatives, state house of assembly, local government chairmanship to local councillorship positions.

We introduced the concept of town halls to Nigerian politics – where candidates engage the electorate in intimate settings that allow for deeper interaction. Our disruptive and innovative approaches to campaigning helped to force the introduction of Town Hall sessions to the national stage – culminating with The Candidates forum featuring just four selected parties. With your help, we raised about N150 million – with donations that ranged from N50 to N1 million, demonstrating that a politics devoid of godfathers and special interests is possible in Nigeria.

If elections are won based on hard work, engagement with the electorate and passion – then we would have prevailed. In the end, we were unable to overcome the establishment this time around. To begin with, there was the outright vote buying and wholesale rigging that occurred. Furthermore, we had a President who openly advocated the shooting of “ballot box snatchers” on Election Day and, as we expected, that threat of violence at the polls depressed the votes and made this the election with the lowest turnout since 1999.

In the final analysis, we did not win this time because the Nigerian people ultimately decided that they would rather choose the lesser of two evils; electing to go with the DEVIL THEY KNOW, rather than the ANGEL THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW.

While many of us might be disappointed that the elections ultimately came down to this false choice between the APC and PDP, we must listen to what the Nigerian people are saying. Their votes for Atiku and Buhari were cast reluctantly. Despite the billions of naira spent on these elections by the APC and PDP, only 27 million people voted, a paltry 32% of the total number of registered voters. The overwhelming majority chose NOT to participate.

THERE ARE TWO LESSONS THAT WE MUST LEARN

  1. NIGERIANS MUST GET TO KNOW THE ANGELS in TIB & AAC: Since 1960, our people have experienced cycles of hope followed by massive disappointment. Leaders have made promises during election cycles and they have failed to deliver. The restoration of democracy has brought nothing but economic misery and growing insecurity. No matter who has been elected – from Obasanjo, Yar’adua, Jonathan and then Buhari – nothing seems to have changed. It is therefore understandable that cynicism would set in. When a people lose faith in the expectation that changing leaders will improve their lives, they settle for the familiar. They choose the lesser of two evils. They go with the “Devil they know” rather than the angels that they do not. Our task is to ensure that by 2023, every Nigerian would have been touched by the activities and actions of the TakeitBack movement and the African Action Congress. They must have seen our impact in their lives. We must roll up our sleeves and engage. We must help shore up our schools, organise medical missions to various communities, develop policies and push for bills to be passed at state and national legislative bodies. We must call out corruption wherever it occurs and lead the Nigerian people to demand their rights in the courts and in the streets. We must practice what we preach! If we do all these things, and remain true to our mission, the Nigerian people will see us as partners who are in this fight for the long run – not just opportunists looking for votes. When they have seen us work to improve their lives in their own communities, they will trust us to do so at the national level.
  2. WE MUST STRENGTHEN OUR REACH AT THE GRASSROOTS: Although we have a commendable geographical spread, our movement and party will need to extend our reach to the grass roots. We must be present in every ward and in each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria. Our members must be in every one of the 120,000 polling units in the nation. We must have active chapters in every tertiary institution. Our engagement in churches and mosques, market squares and community centres must continue. It is how well and how deeply we engage when there are no elections that will determine our reach and acceptance.

MARCHING FORWARD – MARCH 9th and BEYOND

Over the next few weeks we will be engaging with all of you in a series of conferences, meetings, town hall sessions – virtually and in person – to chart a way forward. However, in the short term, we still have elections to win, and we must remain focused on them.

On March 9th, we have 96 Candidates that will be running for various offices at the state level – 20 for Governor & Deputy Governor, and 76 for various State House of Assembly seats. They need our support, now more than ever. We cannot and MUST NOT abandon them.

Sowore will be holding sessions on the couch on Thursday February 28th, and on March 7th and 8th to help raise funds for the candidates. They have campaigns to run and agents to support. They need resources and encouragement. Let us continue to support them financially.

Funds donated to the party account from now through March 8th, will be allocated to the candidates. Anyone interested in making donations to candidates, can find a list of Gubernatorial candidates here:
https://aacparty.com/gubernatorial-candidates/
and state house of assembly candidates here:
https://aacparty.com/state-house-of-assembly-candidates/

Donations to the party should be made to:

AFRICAN ACTION CONGRESS
Zenith Bank
Account Number 1015977493

CONCLUSION

It was my great honour and privilege to serve as the Director General for the Sowore 2019 campaign and I want to thank all of you for your impassioned support for our great candidate, Omoyele Sowore. He is the leader Nigeria needs and we are fortunate to have him at the head of our movement and party.

Aluta Continua. Victoria Acerta – The Struggle continues. Victory is certain!!

Dr Malcolm Fabiyi
DG, TakeItBack Movement
Deputy National Chairman (Admin), AAC Party

SOWORE CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO INEC’S POSTPONEMENT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

SOWORE CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO INEC’S POSTPONEMENT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Nigerians awoke to a familiar nightmare – the sudden cancellation of elections that both the government and its electoral agencies had four years to prepare for. The failure to successfully hold elections whose dates were known four years in advance, speaks to the complete ineptitude and lack of transparency of the Buhari regime.

We have seen this script before. In 2011 and 2015, our electoral process was similarly thrown into chaos by last-minute shifts in the election dates under the Jonathan-led PDP government. By repeating the same failures, Buhari’s APC government has now demonstrated to Nigerians that there is no difference in values between itself and the former PDP administration. This is yet another example of the fact that the two establishment parties, APC and PDP, are both two sides of the same bad coin.

Nigerians must not become numb to this travesty. No one would tolerate such ineptitude in their own personal affairs. Millions of Nigerians travelled to ensure that they were in place to participate in the elections. Businesses and commercial activities have been disrupted, and the sacrifices of tens of millions of Nigerians who had readied themselves to go to the polls and effect a positive change in the trajectory of the nation has been dashed – albeit temporarily.

The complicity of Buhari’s APC government in this last minute shift in the electoral process is clear for all to see. If this administration had no hand in this callous postponement, their condemnation would have been swift and their denunciation of INEC’s actions would have been screamed from every mountain top. The APC was quick to denounce similar actions taken by the Jonathan-led PDP administration in 2015. Their silence on this occasion is deafening.

The African Action Congress, our presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, and the Nigerian people are not deterred. Positive change and true transformation is coming to Nigeria, and whether it happens on the 16th or the 23rd of February, it will happen. We ask all of our supporters and party members to stay the course, reenergise their engagements in their communities, and help to ensure an even bigger turnout for freedom next week.

Dr. Malcolm Fabiyi
DG, Sowore 2019 Campaign.

Confronting the Difficult Questions: The Politics of Real Engagements

Confronting the Difficult Questions: The Politics of Real Engagements

‘We have come to see everything that is wrong with Nigeria so that we can fix it’ – Omoyele Sowore on visiting the poor along Agege Railroad.

Although the reception of about nine months crusade of Omoyele Sowore’s Take It Back political revolution now poised for a run on the new AAC platform continues to soar and exceed imaginations, there still remain small pockets of dismissals or misevaluation of his efforts, and others bunching him into the stench of the usual.

Certainly, repeated national failures, including poverty, continue to instruct the conception of the present and projections into the future by majority of Nigerians, giving rise to a numb and parochial national space. But more worrisome and perceivable everywhere is a passively muttered belief that all politicians are the same and that hope is currently an unaffordable luxury in a country like ours.

While all these escapist mental positions and coping strategies are certainly no solution to the problems we are confronted with as a people, they continue to stand in the way all political aspirations are interpreted and absorbed. One may then ask; are there grounds to seek any difference in what Omoyele Sowore’s political philosophy represents, the future it could possibly engender, looking at the implications of his crusades, metaphorically and literally?

To answer this valid question, one may seek lighthouses in his political efforts and find his unflinching will to confront difficult questions beaming through the spread of his town hall meetings that has remained archives of bold national discourse and engagements. But beyond the fact that such engagements are pioneered by his political audacity, there are a number of important examples of his engagements with the nation space that exceed the usual.

A pause to consider his revealing visit to Bakassi IDP camp, the rot it uncovers which spans from lack of basic amenities to a pathetic and yet very small pen of pigs as alternative livelihood, makes pain a raw bite and grating illumination to attentive minds.  More so, it is very important to note that on visiting this misery that is the IDP camp, Sowore had said; today I am more convinced Nigeria needs to be taken back from the bad leaders. There are times during the visit that he welled up with compassion and blurted out with renewed conviction that the leaders of this country are wicked. At another time he said, he is moved to tears but he will not cry least someone thinks he is playing politics with his tears.There, at the camp, he muttered he saw hopelessness on the faces of the children and on the faces of the adults he saw misery, while the optics of the visit remains a jarring one, provoking just one lingering word, abandoned.

Yet, there are issues this political endeavor also brings to bare, issues that no longer have space in our unbridled political arena, where interest are often corrosively selfish and rarely noble, and more importantly, this visit allows us to ask important question, for example – running through the video – one may ask, should this fate remain the lots of anyone whose land and heritage were lost to another country, not by choice or accident, but after a concession by their home country?

Could this kind of government rot show what worth the Nigerian government placed on her people? What does it mean that Sowore, a presidential candidate visited these people? Was there such thoughtful stop before now by vote seeking politicians and are there nerves or compassionate chords strummed in such previous event? Obviously, the deplorable site shows the population are merely numbered and lumped within the usually despised Nigerian communities by the political elites, and we are often numbed at sites like this and are barely provoked into compelling actions?

Engaging the people, Sowore carried one of their babies, kissed him/her and promised to ensure he/she is always fed. He also said he will help to bury the dead. But to ask further questions; is it right to reduce all these to mere political gimmick giving the background that no other politician interrogates a rot as bare as this, and if all the gazes of the people remain a prayer, can Sowore bring them their desired life in spite of their losses should he become the preside or should this provoke conscientious supports from empathetic Nigerians for Sowore’s political agenda since he is the one paying attention to these kind of issues and carrying such burden forward towards a political re-engineering?

On gleaning through those beaming eyes, I believe it is not out of place to believe the gazes of these men, women and children, though fastened on Sowore, are prayers pleading with all of us who can vote and influence political space to disrupt the status quo for the emergence of the one that will indeed respect all lives no matter where on the social ladder they belong.

We must all be awakened to the truth that says how our country treats the least of us is the value of what she truly thinks of all of us no matter what tier of life we steers. We must never forget the pain of this reality and make it a compass for our political choices. We decide.  

Sowore Challenges Social Media Users; ‘You have to drop your devices and get on your feet.’

Sowore Challenges Social Media Users; ‘You have to drop your devices and get on your feet.’

By Sename Kojah

The call was made by Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore while speaking on the “Holding Government Accountable” panel at the Social Media Week which held at The Landmark Event Center, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Young Nigerians have been asked to move from holding people in positions of authority to account on social media alone and drop their devices, get on their feet and save the country.

Sowore who is also founder of Sahara Reporters, a citizen journalism outfit, said ” I can tell you that nothing has worked as much as social media in Nigeria in terms of holding government accountable because it is beyond their reach; it is accountability beyond borders but I have to say that it has its own downside to the extent that if you think social media has all the power and you don’t do what is necessary next, government starts to adjust to social media, and so you must move from just revealing everything and holding them accountable. For you to have the best result, you have to drop your devices and get on your feet, and that was why social media was powerful in Egypt but until the Egyptians dropped their devices, they couldn’t have the Arab Spring”.

Sowore called on young people to work hard by ensuring that they get their PVC’s, vote and monitor the process around the election to ensure that there is an “Equatorial Spring” in Nigeria that will usher in a new era of politics in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He encouraged, “a new generation of Nigerians who are children of democracy. They are the secret to defeating the old brigands. The thing that happened with voters is a planned thing; they knew there are 22 million students who are voters, they had to keep you out of your school because they know that you are the angriest Nigerians and you are about to punish them with your vote regardless of what they have done to you. Please find your way to your polling unit and vote these guys out”.

SOWORE IS THE ANSWER TO NIGERIA’S PROBLEMS: VERDICT FROM “THE CANDIDATES” TOWN HALL SESSIONS

SOWORE IS THE ANSWER TO NIGERIA’S PROBLEMS: VERDICT FROM “THE CANDIDATES” TOWN HALL SESSIONS

The Candidates – the presidential town hall co-production between NTA, Daria Media and the MacArthur foundation, drew to a close last night following Atiku’s appearance with his vice-president, Peter Obi. If it is fair to say that a leader’s true worth shines forth under pressure, then we can state categorically that there was one winner from the series and that was Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress.

Although Buhari and Atiku have artfully dodged a frontal debate with Sowore, The Candidates placed all the candidates on the same platform, with the same interviewer. And for 2 hours, Nigerians had the opportunity to hear the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the four leading political parties in the country talk about their plans and programs for Nigeria, as well as answer questions about their past. The town hall series was revealing. Nigerians have now had an opportunity to weigh their candidates for the highest offices in the land.

Buhari demonstrated a worrying cluelessness about many of the goings on in the country. He frequently had to be prompted by his Vice President, as he failed to hear or comprehend most of the questions asked. Buhari seemed neither mentally present nor interested in Nigeria. The APC has no ideas for how to steer Nigeria away from the crippling problems of insecurity, power sector failures, growing unemployment, farmer-herdsmen conflicts and lack of affordable healthcare access that continues to plague Nigeria. One could almost be moved to sympathy for Buhari after his catatonic performance, if it weren’t for the vicious wickedness that is the intention of foisting a second term that would extend and double our misery, on Nigerians.

Kingsley Moghalu and his running mate demonstrated that their ideas were as dated as those of the establishment they seek to replace. There were no bold plans to create jobs or to light up NIGERIA. There were no clear policy positions on how to address the challenges of insecurity and corruption. The town hall session also revealed the glaring lack of preparation of his vice presidential candidate. Suffice to say that his policies and heavy reliance on his previous stint as the deputy governor – a position that makes him complicit and responsible for a lot of the financial rot that Nigeria faces today – reveal him as being part and parcel of the establishment.

Atiku and Obi proved yesterday, that all of our fears that electing the PDP would simply replace one layer of corruption with another more complex and pernicious one, were true. Atiku could not satisfactorily explain his part ownership of a company that did extensive business with the Ports Authority when he was still in the Nigerian Customs service. He could not explain the money laundering indictments and allegations made by the US Senate Homeland Security Committee. Peter Obi squirmed and faltered as he attempted to convince Nigerians that he was doing Anambra state a favour when he invested billions of the state’s money in a venture in which his family’s NEXT International Nigeria, was a major shareholder. It is now clear that Atiku and Peter Obi complement themselves well. They are two vultures with the same corrupt feathers. They had no clear plans for any of Nigeria’s most pressing issues. They were clear on one point though – they were willing to offer amnesty to all corrupt persons.

We are thankful that despite the attempts to prevent Nigerians from seeing and contrasting Sowore with Buhari, Atiku and others on the national stage, the NTA – Daria Media Town Hall series provided objective points of contrast. Sowore demonstrated a masterful grasp of Nigeria’s issues. He showed amazing clarity in his vision for the country. Nigerians were able to learn first-hand that Sowore has been involved in the fight to move Nigeria forward for 30 years. Nigerians saw the courage of his plans and the strength of his conviction. Nigerians were reminded that he is the only candidate that committed to increasing power by 17,000 MW, doubling Nigeria’s road network from 200,000 km to 400,000 km, boosting our rail system from 3,700 km to 8,000 km, creating 5 million new jobs, paying workers a living wage of 100,000 Naira and creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Nigerians also got to see that in Dr Rabiu Rufai, Sowore has a running mate who equally understands Nigeria’s challenges and has the intellect, integrity and political will to be a strong partner in the task of positively transforming Nigeria.

Nigerians now know what their options are. We have seen all of those offering themselves for the leadership of our nation. The choice is clear. There is only one team that can move Nigeria forward, and that is the Sowore-Rufai team of the African Action Congress!

Dr Malcolm Fabiyi
DG Sowore 2019 Campaign

The illuminating session of Omoyele Sowore and Dr Rabiu Rufai on The Candidates with Ahmed Kadaria

MEET SOME OF OUR STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES, DELTA STATE

MEET SOME OF OUR STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES, DELTA STATE

State House of Assembly

Oburumu Tamaraukepreye

Bomadi LGA

I am Oburumu Tamaraukepreye widely known as comrade Tam Oburumu. I was born on the 26th of December 1977. I am from Ogbeinama town, ward six, Bomadi LGA, Delta state. I am a direct maternal grandson of chief T. O onduku, renowned Ijaw educationist,community leader and the progenitor to the Ijaw hierography. In 1999 I sat for the SSCE popularly referred to as GCE that paved my way to the higher institution. I have a BA Ed in English language of the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo university, Ile Ife from the Adeyemi college of education campus ondo, Ondo state between 2001 and 2005. In 2006 I was called to serve my country under the NYSC scheme in Borno state. I am a creative writer, essayist, playwright, novelist and poet with numerous unpunished works. Right now two of my books are undergoing publication. I was awarded by the national union of Ijaw students a certificate of life membership because of my selfless service is the union during my time as the editor in chief of the union in 2003. I was also recognized with an for my humanitarian services to the society by the Ayakoromo students Association in 2016.

Work and Human Rights Political Experience

I have worked as a private and public teacher since 1999 before I gained admission into the university. I was the Chairman Ijaw youth council (IYC) Isoko chapter in 2003. Between 2002 and 2005 I founded the African Writers Association on campus and served as the pioneer president of the group. In 1998 I was one of the determined Ijaw youths that took part in the famous kaiama declaration that brought new phrase in the resource control agitation in the Niger Delta. Today I am social crusader of equal rights and justice. I am a civil rights activist preaching the message of good leadership and representation on radio, television and social media. this has made me the most popular candidate today in Bomadi constituency amongst the other candidates.

My Manifesto

I am going to be a very vibrant, selfless and outspoken in Parliament especially during plenary in sponsoring bills and moving of motions to the benefit of my constituency.

If elected, build a constituency liaising office where my constituents will have the opportunity to make complaints and suggestions for the benefit of everyone.

I am going to hold quarterly town hall meetings with every ward in my constituency in which the people will determine what project they really wanted.

Constituency development funds shall be made public for everyone to see. How money is spent will be published for accountability. I will lobby the executive arm of government during budget representation in order to influence human faced projects to my constituency.

I will be accessible at all times. My phone numbers will be there for anyone in the constituency to call and discuss issues that will move Bomadi LGA forward.

Education will be given top priority especially the girl child education.

Provision of instructional materials and conducive learning environment will be looked into.

Children, pregnant women health and care of the elderly ones will be part of my bills and motions. Sports and youths entrepreneurship and leadership will be given attention in other to bring self confidence in our young people.

Ikemefuna Anyasi

State House of Assembly

Oshimili north

I believe strongly that representing a people is all about the people such that improve their living standard and affect their lives positively. Com. Ikem Anyasi is determined to make an indelible mark in our LGA. He has got the vision, the contact and the strong will to empowered and give exposure to our people. He has vowed to do things DIFFERENTLY. Powered by AAC Oshimili North Exco

My Manifesto

One area where we can better the lives of our people, improve their living standard, expose them and do human capital development is through Sports. Sports is the highest employer of labour all over the world, yet we underestimate what a total overhaul and massive development of the sector will do for our people.

For a start when elected, Com. Anyasi will concentrate on four different sporting events such as:

1. Basketball,

2. Tennis,

3. Athletics and

4. Football.

I will establish four academy centres with school and boarding facilities in four different towns in the LGA. The focus target will be children between the ages of 12 and 18. Train the discovered talents with state of the art facilities in partnership’ with foreign professional schools.

The children will later be transferred abroad for further training and marketing in order for them to have opportunities in the big leagues. With this, families, towns and the LGA will be positively affected.

Foreign currency will flow into the schools and people who would have become frustrated due to lack of what to do would have made a good living for themselves and the society. Nigeria will be better for it.

John Agboifo

State House of Assembly

Ika south LGA

I am the best candidate for the IKA SOUTH, HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, because of my passionate zeal and drive for humanity especially, the good people of Ika South, my immediate Constituency. I am an indigene of IHOGBE kingdom, Agbor, IKA SOUTH LGA, Delta State, born on 6th of August, 1973, to the family of Late Sir Alexander Agboifo and Hon. Victoria Agboifo and attended Erigbe Primary School Agbor, Christ the Kings College Onitsha. My hobbies are playing basketball, reading and traveling.

I am for reformation – legislative reforms and all inclusive representation. I am grounded, well loved and believed in by all because I have an history of over 2 decades in the course for humanity, fairness and enquiry. I can boldly say a vote for John Ubaka Agboifo is a vote for better living.

My Manifesto

My manifesto is for a progressive Ika South as a lawmaker via constitutional reform/ enactment.  

Adequate Representation

The gap between the Led and their Rep, for me, is and will remain a top priority. I will therefore establish not less than two offices in Ika South Local Government Area where my constituency will be lodging complaints for my immediate attention and urgent actions, as a TRUE believer of a transparent representation.

Also, in the bid to keep a direct communication between me and my people, I will create a constituency website, where the constituencies’ progressive moves will be updated periodically for the consumption and comfortability of my people. This will also come with a customer complaint number (Helpline) and an email for my constituency t

The management of these communication channels will in turn create mini job opportunities for a few people in my Constituency.

Lobbying and Collaboration

I will work assiduously with who ever becomes the Governor of Delta State in 2019, regardless of his political party or other affiliations because, what really matters to me is my constituency and the people I intend to represent and serve.

The Private Sector Partnership Alliance Programs (PS-PAP).

I will pursue vigorously through the enactment of laws in strong partnership with the Local Government Council Chairman the implementation of my agenda The Private Sector Partnership Alliance Programs (PS-PAP).

Job creation

As a lawmaker, I intend to sponsor reform and partnership bills that will attract private and corporate investors altogether via My Private Partnership Alliance Program {PS-PAP}. The bill will cover cooperative societies too! This in turn will lead to massive creation of job opportunities in our Constituency.

Natural and Human Resources Endowment:

In this area, I intend to study the existing laws on minerals in Nigeria and find ways we can put our mineral deposits into use and without the contravention of the Federal laws on one side, and while enabling a sort of self reliance and maximum utilisation of our mineral deposits to better the living conditions of our people on the other.

NIGERIANS HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED, BUT NOT FOR MUCH LONGER

NIGERIANS HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED, BUT NOT FOR MUCH LONGER

Dear ever-enduring Nigerians

I do not need to ask if you are fine for it won’t be surprising if you are not fine at this moment, especially after watching this most distasteful of engagement any leader could have with his/her citizens. We understand how you all felt after watching Buhari and Osinbajo speak at the just-concluded town hall meeting organized by NTA/DariaTV and sponsored by MacArthur Foundation.

We understand that many of us burnt fuel to watch the ‘talking down’ because of the unrivaled darkness they keep expending our collective resources on without any tangible results.  Many had to stream live on their gadgets with very costly data rates – such expensive rates can only be found in a country with no solid economic leadership. This is not adding the fact that you probably had to pray to God for the reception of a man-made network to work fine.

We are not oblivious to the fact that the President could not answer your questions correctly. He lied about a lot of issues, about questions bordering on corruption and security. And for those he did answer, the questions had to be repeated, an average of three times each. The anchor had to continually stretch forward while asking her questions and, at a point I consider to be her threshold, she had to ask if the President was okay to run for office again. This situation of extreme lethargy is completely unacceptable from anyone who wants to lead an energetic country, a country with 70% young people, whose energies have been refocused to less productive things by unproductive leaders with disastrous results.

Can we crave your indulgence to bear with NTA for the time wasted as you have always been known as the most enduring people in the world?

On the 23rd January, 2019, Omoyele Sowore and Dr Rabiu Rufai of the AAC will be having the most  honest and brilliant engagement with you all on how to take the country back and place it on a revolutionary path in order to take it to the highest level.

Stay tuned!

Adeyeye Olorunfemi

President, Association of Citizens Who Deserve Better. (ACWDB)

The Village of Dreams

The Village of Dreams

Beyond the fact that the video below shows how an ordinary life is transformed into the extraordinary, and the power of dreams in spite of the odds, it also offers optics into the  visceral part of Omoyele Sowore’s humanity. 

The video connects all of us to the human side of the enigma that is behind those years of fight against corruption, fight for democracy and fight for social justice. The video is a call to that rare place of extra-ordinariness that we all can identify with. It says you, right there, at the state that you are, can aspire to your dreams, that the stars belong to you too and nothing hegemonic or nepotistic can truncate the trajectory of your will.  

What the video says, most importantly, although not directly, is that a vote for Omoyele Sowore is a vote for yourself. It validates your place in your country as an equal and a possible story. It helps strengthen the story, take it to a higher place where Nigerians everywhere can look at themselves or their dreaming children and say, ‘You too can be the president’. Let’s make this happen together. Let’s say yes to this story.

Francis Shonubi Speaks on Purposeful Representation and the Lagos East Senatorial Race.

Francis Shonubi Speaks on Purposeful Representation and the Lagos East Senatorial Race.

 I believe the kind of senators we have in Nigeria are just playing a kind of shenanigan that does not represent the interest of the common man –

-Francis Shonubi on TVC

Francis Olarenwaju Shonubi is popularly known as ManiKongo of Afrika. He is a graduate of History and International Relations from University of Lagos currently vying for a seat in the Lagos East Senatorial District under the African Action Congress [AAC]

On the 17th January 2019, he had a conversation on TVC with the Mr Nifemi Oguntoye as the anchor. In the interview with the link below, Mr Shonubi spoke on why he is the preferred candidate for adequate representation of the people of Lagos East people.

When the interviewer segued into regional sentiment tied to Ikorodu, stating that the region has produced senatorial candidate between 1999 and 2003, he responded by stressing that we cannot limit representation of Lagos East to just Ikorodu, although he is from Ikorodu.

I want to speak to my people, the good people of my constituency. We are not looking at Ikorodu now. We are looking at five Local Governments.  We are looking at direct representation at the red chamber. We are not (just) looking at Ikorodu because when you say Ikorodu, you are going to be marginalizing all other constituencies. I am talking of Bariga, Shomolu…etc. We are looking at purposeful representation of our people, so don’t let’s talk about Ikorodu factor now. Let’s look at the people in that constituency.

The interview also delve into the odds of winning the elections with the interviewer emphasising the fact that the ruling party is fielding a supposed experienced candidate who has been member of the State House of Assembly four consecutive times. Mr shonubi, without hesitation, argued that there is no bill passed in the entire period of time the said candidate spent in the State House of Assembly.

I am from the same constituency with him. He has been in the lagos state house of assembly for 3 consecutive times and I have not seen anything that he has done. I am not saying this to downplay him but I am saying there is no bill.  He never sponsored any bill – Francis Shonubi.

Speaking about failure of legislative representation of his region, he said:

Let me say that in my own constituency, I have not seen any direct impact. I have been in my constituency for, let’s say, for decades.

Having spoken on character, he expantiated on his trackable antecedent and how entrenched he is in his local community;

I will say this with all modesty.  I am someone that believes in humanity. I see  myself as a humanist and I feel the pulse of the common man. I am qualify for this position I am vying for. I will say it with all modesty, I have been tested and trusted from  Secondary school through my university days and in my community. As I speak to you, I am the secretary of my community which is the Igbogbo kingdom. I am organising secretary of the Igbogbo kingdom festive period that we normally have, which is a signature event.

According to the interviewer, Mr Francis Shonubi will be wrestling at the polls with fourteen other candidates.

AAC Senatorial candidate makes case for visionary leaders
I’ll Provide Visionary Leadership For Lagos East – Francis Shonubi