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14- 1 – 2019

This is Zikoko’s Game of Votes Weekly Dispatch. We share the most important things leading up to the 2019 General Elections, and why they matter. 5pm. Every Monday. Stay woke. 

IT’S 33 DAYS TO THE GENERAL ELECTIONS

And a TON happened this week. oh boy!
 

LOOK HERE, TINUBU IS THE CAPTAIN NOW.

Muhammadu Buhari, the man Nigeria currently calls leader — might be joining the 20.9 million unemployed Nigerians, should he fumble this presidential bag, come February 16th.

He doesn’t seem worried about a loss though. He’s so chill —  that on January 7th —he announced he’d be taking a back seat in his own campaign, to focus on more important matters. Bola Tinubu would handle all the icky, hard-work of campaigning. Interesting.

Wait, What Is Happening? 

While inaugurating his Presidential Campaign Council, Buhari announced that Bola Tinubu, the National leader of the APC would be “fully in charge” of his re-election campaign. Now his reason laid in not wanting governance to suffer, and we’ll admit –- it suffered here, where a humanitarian worker was killed by Boko Haram, while Buhari attended a rally. And here, where he went campaigning in Bauchi, just a day after several people were killed in Benue state by herdsmen.

The reality is, this is probably just a clever chess-move to secure the votes of the South-West, a region Tinubu seems to have on lock. 

Buhari Wants All The Votes.

Chess moves aside, Team Buhari put in some work this week to secure the vote. The Buhari New Media Centre was created, to inform Buhari supporters of the achievements of this administration. A National Disability Campaign Committee was also created to mobilise persons living with disabilities across the country to support the president’s re-election.

NIGERIANS AREN’T THE APC’S FIRST PRIORITY. WHAT A BETRAYED.

On January 12th, the different factions of Nigerian Twitter united to say a collective “WTF”, when the APC’s manifesto website listed American safety as its first priority. This was followed by strange text that read like a bot ate a political dictionary and threw-up words across a screen.The site, though previously disowned by the APC in April 2018, has remained in its continued use and is a recognised information source.It has since been shut down with a newer, hopefully more patriotic site coming up on January 15th. If you missed the website faux pas, you’re lucky the internet never forgets. You can check the gaffe out here.

 

Things Got Ugly At The APC Campaign Kick Off In Lagos.

What started as a confusing kick-off to an already kicked-off  APC governorship campaign for Sanwo-Olu on January 8th, soon turned south, as rival members of the NURTW let it rip at the APC rally grounds in Lagos. MC-Oluomo got stabbed by members of a rival NURTW union headed by Sieng, putting Teni The Entertainer’s love life in dire straits.
The APC, avoiding further rally trouble, has decided to switch its campaigning tactics to a door-to-door campaign instead.
 

Maybe Sit Out The Next APC Rally Invite?

On January 12th, the supporters and members of the APC, attending its women rally in Imo State got a little more than they bargained for. Supporters of rival governorship candidate – Uche Nwosu of the Action Accord — still very salty that their candidate lost the APC primaries, worked their way into the rally and violence ensued.  How is it 2019 and violence is still happening at campaign rallies?

I REGISTERED FOR MY PVC, AND THEN I FREAKED IT.

A staggering amount of people are yet to collect their PVCs. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of people just saying “eff it” to the PVC collection struggle. INEC has noted 465 000 PVCs yet to be collected in Delta state, 500 000 in Enugu, 428 000 in Osun, 37 190 in Nsukka, 172 387 in Yobe, and 1 whole million  PVCs awaiting collection in Lagos state.

We Just Want You To Vote.

 

From the 16th-21st of January, the PVC collection centres will be moved from the INEC Local Government offices, to the wards/registration areas. The PVCs can be collected between 9am-3pm. From the 21st, the collection of PVCs will be made at the INEC LGA offices, up until February 8th, which INEC warns will be the absolute last day. Okay?

Here’s How You Vote.
 

On January 11th, INEC released a 7-step procedure to guide voters during the 2019 elections. Because why make voting steps quick and easy, when you can make them heptagonal and confusing to remember. I made a terrible acronym to maybe make the steps easier to grasp, titled- O SO LONG. You should just check out our Instagram, really.

THE EURASIA REPORT DID NOT HOLD BACK ON BUHARI AND ATIKU.

The Eurasia Group, a leading political risk consultancy- released a report on the likely outcomes of a Buhari or Atiku victory and wow, they did not take it easyzi at all.
Dropping digs at everything from Atiku’s policies to Buhari’s age, they described Buhari as ”lacking energy, creativity and the political savvy to solve Nigeria’s problems”.
Atiku, they described as ‘another gerontocrat, out to enrich himself and his cronies”.
Regarding policies, they noted Atiku’s to be “unclear and untested’, poking holes in his plans for deregulating the oil sector. They also worried Buhari’s win might have little impact on key policies like tax reform and the restructuring of the energy sector. Sip the full cup of tea here.

Atiku Is Campaigning Campaigning.

Atiku went HAM on his campaign train, visiting 4 different states within last week. On January 7th, he held a rally at Kogi. January 9th – Niger made some noise for the ex-VP.  He also held a rally in Nasarawa on the 11th and visited the Bukuru IDP camp in Plateau state on the 13th. #Securethesevotes.

How The Candidates Will Fix Nigeria’s Housing Crisis.

On January 12th, UNILAG organised a Town Hall Meeting with the presidential candidates to discuss Nigeria’s housing sector. Buhari and Atiku didn’t show up (boo!), but here’s how the candidates that did, plan to fix the sector:

Moghalu (YPP) will cut housing prices by a third, using low-cost housing materials developed by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Oby (ACPN) will lift 80M Nigerians out of poverty so they can afford homes. Durotoye (ANN) will create a ₦1 trillion emergency housing fund. Will build 3.75m houses in his first term and temporary homes for the homeless

Did You Catch The Lagos Governorship Debates?

On January 13th, the Lagos state gubernatorial candidates slugged it out at a debate organised by The Platform. Here’s a quick rundown of what went down.
 

What we liked:

The candidates kind of came correct for this debate. While Sanwo-Olu and I still have beef for those life-size cut-outs, he had smart sounding plans (currently hidden from Ambode?) to solve Lagos’ traffic problem through an intermodal system, as well as a plan to provide health insurance to Lagosians. Agbaje has the sound ideas to make the local governments more independent of the state and to provide internet services for students.
Keeping it a buck however, the real star of the show was Babatunde Gbadamosi, the relatively unknown candidate of the Action Democratic Party. The candidate showed clear workings on his plans for Lagos, with everything from barges for container transport and opening up water transportation in the state. Plus he gave the ruling party well-deserved uppercuts when he rightly noted that that the state budget website no longer runs, and called them out for failing to complete the light rail project. He backed most of his points with facts and figures and even gave us some international comparisons. We stan a factual king. And we might never have appreciated his abilities, had this debate not gone down.
See what happens when you let everyone debate, NEDG/BON?
 
 
 

 

What We Weren’t Feeling.
For someone whose third run it is for governor, Jimi Agbaje didn’t come particularly strapped for the debates. He stuttered, fumbled in his delivery and wasn’t on 100 like previous debates he has participated in. Our fave Gbadamosi, who has a primary plan to increase the pay of the public workers in his first 100 days, kind of, sort of forgot to let us know how it would be funded. And is it just me or does Sanwo-Olu’s energy not match a person whose posters probably require their own printing press?

AD’S Candidate Has Jokes.

The candidate of the Alliance for Democracy- Owolabi Salis , who may or may not have come strictly to catch cruise, gave us 3 things to take away from the debate:
1.    He’s an attorney in New York.
2.    He thinks Lagos, which still struggles with rail and even road transport can pivot to a subway or tube system.
3.    Did you hear he’s an attorney in New York?
Surprisingly, this is his third time running for governor of the state, can third time be the charm? Nope.
 

 

Ministry is moving

The dispatch is growing. If you enjoyed reading this, share this with someone,
you hear?
 
Boyin
Z!KOKO

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