by Sola Ebiseni
First of all, I belong to the OBIDATTI movement, I firmly believe that a new Nigeria is possible and that the combination of Peter Gregory Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is the best choice to make it happen. My belief is also based on the fact that after 8 years of President Buhari in the North, it is the turn of South Nigeria, especially the South East to elect the next Nigerian President to ensure fairness and the necessary peace of the Federation. Despite INEC’s machinations , Nigerian youth remain heroes in the ongoing campaign. From the beginning, they have made no secret of their interests. They are determined to rid themselves of the evil that has befallen Nigerians, especially in the past 8 years, in every sphere of life, and more worryingly, the insecurity that has put our country in the category of failed states. They are taken for granted and vilified as a lazy and unserious bunch who do not have a voter card to express their determination through the ballot.
As Afenifere said in our communiqué at the end of our most recent conference, the results we have from reliable sources show very clearly that the youth’s preferred candidate, Labor’s Peter Obi, received a majority of the legitimate votes and was in the Commonwealth and the Federal capital At least 2/3 of each state in the district meets the 25% requirement. Obi and Labor won the two most important territories, Lagos and FCT, in an unprecedented landslide, no other party got the mandatory 25% of the vote in the seat of power in FCT and became Nigerians everywhere The existence of a hodgepodge of nationalities, nooks and crannies of the Commonwealth. So here’s the crux of the problem. Those who wishful thinking that the FCT is just one of the states, wanting to avoid the mandatory constitutional requirement of 25% of the vote in it, will inevitably lose the Lagos state governor’s seat next Saturday. In their desperate bid to keep Lagos, nothing is sacrosanct.
Above all, the youth of Lagos are their targets. They must do whatever it takes to divide informed youth, including playing the cheap national card. They believe that they were only caught off guard during the presidential and national assembly elections and are therefore now preparing for the upcoming gubernatorial elections. It is widely believed that the one-week postponement of the gubernatorial election is not only to publicize the restructuring of the BVAS, but essentially to buy time for their bleak dreams of reclaiming Lagos. Otherwise, why is it logically impossible to change the original intention of the presidential election in the face of alleged electronic equipment failure, while INEC, by word and deed, takes an oath as a guarantor of credibility for its electoral process. I am a Lagosian and I write as a Lagosian, not only because my Ilaje-Yoruba ancestors are an indigenous tribe in Lagos, not only because I am an Ajegunle boy, where my youth is rooted, not even because I have a residence there. Lagos actually shaped my existence. As young school leavers, when the port of Thican Island was built in 1976/77, a large swath of reclaimed land in Olodi Apapa was used as our soccer field, several Nigerian youths in the Commonwealth went on to become national and international football giants, and their careers Born here.
Of course, across the Olodi-Apapa Canal is the Apapa GRA, during the heyday of the Second Republic, we had free access to the residence of the sage Obafemi Awolowo in Park Lane, where to observe and serve political leaders, my innate political spirit was ignited up. It must also be mentioned that my interactions with my Igbo brothers in Olodi Apapa influenced my choice of Nsukka University of Nigeria in 1980 as my first university education experience prior to my stay in Ife. It was during this era that the legendary Lateef Jakande, the true builder of modern Lagos, not only introduced free education but ended within a year the hitherto tortuous system of primary and secondary students commuting to and from school lacking infrastructure, teaching materials and teachers.
Jakande built the Lagos/Epe Express Road, opening up the current Lekki-Ajah-Epe axis. He established the Lagos State University Ojo and the College of Education (Adeniran Ogunsanya) Ijanikin along the Lagos-Badagri Highway earlier built by the military junta. The Lagos State Polytechnic, Isolo, also founded by Jakande, offers all tuition fees free and offers bursaries to students from all states controlled by the Nigerian Unity Party under Obafemi Awolowo. It is a sad comment that while other states in the Southwest, including the Edo and Delta states with much smaller populations and certainly much less income, have established other institutions of higher education, those now mistakenly presume to be modern The Lagos build doesn’t add anything to the new additions Jakande builds. While Jakande scrupulously managed Lagos revenues to achieve the miracle of his only 4-year term (1979-1983), including awarding public transport metro lines, the main celebration of those who have seized Lagos since 1999 is Increased internally generated revenue can only be obtained through astronomical taxes on hapless citizens, including official touts allowing their wares to be confiscated.
Since pre-colonial times, long before Nigeria was born and Lagos later declared its capital, Lagos has not only been the center of political activity in the country, but also a thermometer for measuring the country’s political temperature. For the 2023 election, youth took the initiative. Their hands are on the plow, and they certainly won’t look back. Nigerian youth in Lagos are united in their overwhelming support for the Labor Party and its candidates.
For those who matter, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Lagos State Labor candidate for governor, is not only Yoruba, but he is the only true Lagosian in the race, if it now appears that the race is in His party carried words and armored personnel carriers between them. His ancestry in Lagos dates back at least to the 18th century. No one who has served as governor of Lagos since 1999 has comparable family pedigree.
His mother being an Igbo or other non-Yoruba tribe eloquently portrays the enviable cosmopolitan status of our dear Lagos, which can only be an added electoral advantage, certainly not some ignorant race A burden that chauvinists will sell to their gullible patrons.
Like most young people in Nigeria who are rightfully disenchanted with the system, Badbo joined his colleagues in the #ENDSARS uprising. So what the hell? Why some of us, members of the older generation are now celebrated as NADECO heroes, many of us are part of the most famous costume adorned by their own presidential candidates. Many of us, especially Yorubalans who hold important positions in the government, including some of our colleagues in the National Assembly, were with the late Dr Frederick Faseun when the dreaded Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) was formed .
Some APC defenders, many of whom know next to nothing about Lagos and its unique ethnography, have become teachers of social media, telling them how Lagos should continue to be part of Yoruba territory, as if This is as controversial as ever, even under the First Republic under Muhammed Ribadu, who was Minister of Lagos Affairs.
An indictment on Nigerian youth: Go out and vote across the country and show that your exploits during the presidential election were not a fluke. Reject doctrines designed to divide your ranks, including lecturers now hired to teach racial bullshit in your campuses, especially in Lagos state. Head to Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour. He is one of you.
Nigeria, we salute you.
- Ebiseni is Secretary-General Afenifere and Southwest Coordinator of the OBIDATTI campaign organization.
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