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  • Four Highlights of Omoyele Sowore’s Town Hall at ‘The Candidates’

    Four Highlights of Omoyele Sowore’s Town Hall at ‘The Candidates’

    For day two of The Candidates, Omoyele Sowore and his running mate, Haruna Magashi contesting under the African Action Congress (AAC) took centre stage. Trust Sowore to carry the aluta spirit to a town hall discourse. 

    We know you’re dying to hear the things he said and as promised, here are the highlights of his conversation on Friday, November 18, 2022. 

    On CBN. 

    Sowore didn’t hide his annoyance for the central bank run by Godwin “Meffy” Emefiele. Speaking to the town hall  host, Kadaria Ahmed, he said: “One of the first things I will do as president is ensure that we do not have a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that is a glorified bureau de change.” Na wa ooo.

    On former presidents.

    One thing you can expect in these town halls is that a lot of former presidents will chop cane. Sowore came for government officials, first and said, “The biggest insecurity (challenge) facing Nigeria is government officials who are fueling poverty and engaging in corruption”. 

    He later attacked former presidents Goodluck Jonathan (GEJ) and Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) over their failure to implement a new constitution. He said GEJ failed at it because he was interested in using it to push for a single seven-year tenure for himself while OBJ wanted to use it to push for a third term in office . “The reason a new constitution didn’t come to existence is because they wanted it for personal interests.”

    On Ike Ekweremadu.

    Even though he wasn’t mentioned by name, former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, got hit by a bullet  and it wasn’t a stray one — it was live. In a direct diss to Ekweremadu, who is currently detained in the United Kingdom over an alleged organ trafficking, Sowore said,  “The guy in charge of the amendment of the Nigerian Constitution is the same person they caught in London trying to get a kidney.”

    On Aso Rock. 

    The seat of power got its own share of cane from Sowore. Here’s what he said on the cost of governance. “I agree with you that the cost of governance is too much and it includes the presidency. I wonder why our president has Aso Rock when it could be turned into a children’s hospital. Aso Rock is a zoo.”

    Sowore may have won that round but we all know that the real fight lies ahead, in 2023 at the polls. Hopefully, our comrade is still smiling by then.

    Folks, that’s day two of ‘The Candidates’. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok for more exclusive coverage of the town hall series. You can also follow @TheDariaMedia on Twitter and Facebook and @dariamediang on Instagram.

    ALSO READ: See Five of Our Favourite Disses from Day One of ‘The Candidates’

    Stephen Agwaibor

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  • Should Burna Boy Lead A Protest?

    Should Burna Boy Lead A Protest?

    Citizen is a column that explains how the government’s policies fucks citizens and how we can unfuck ourselves.

    Should Burna Boy lead a protest? Well, it all started with a tweet:

    And then Sowore replied:

    And then Nigerians started weighing in.

    1. Some think Burna Boy only likes the fun part of being Fela:

    2. Others think Sowore is the hypocrite:

    Others think he should just spare us the faux righteousness (aka Lil Fela vibes):

    https://twitter.com/Olumuyiwa__/status/1311196779757666307?s=19

    IS BURNA BOY MAKING SENSE?

    Thing is, anyone can criticize their government. Burna Boy is within his rights to be angry with Nigerians and the Nigerian government.

    But if you sound so passionate about the stupidity of politicians and the docility of Nigerians, then shouldn’t you be doing something about it? The easiest part is staying in a studio somewhere yabbing Nigeria and Nigerians, without actually doing putting any pressure on the government. Whereas, Sowore is at least doing something with his #RevolutionNow protests.

    People have to be educated about the best policies a candidate should offer. They have to be enthusiastic about voting. They have to be enthusiastic about protests. Government itself needs to see that people are angry with it. Elections need to be better. The Police needs to be reformed. In fact, there is a whole citizen and governance culture that needs to be fixed.

    The barest minimum is tweeting and singing about Nigeria. Nigeria can only work if people show up in real life to fix society’s issues. And this is not to say that making conscious music alone is bad. But we need to do more.

    So, maybe Burna Boy should join Sowore in a protest if je really means it. No?

    Check back every weekday by 10am for more Zikoko Citizen stories.

    Doyin Olagunju

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  • Every day, Nigeria Strays Further From The Light of the 21st Century

    Every day, Nigeria Strays Further From The Light of the 21st Century

    (A look at the events surrounding the protests of August 5.)

    If you’re reading this, you’re already too late. All the cool people got it a day early because they’re already subscribed to our newsletter – Game of Votes.

    We know you don’t like being a professional LASTMA, so here’s a chance to read all that happened in Nigerian politics in a way that won’t bore you to death, before everybody else. Subscribe to the Game of Votes newsletter, to get just that, here.

    So quick question: Where are we going as a country?

    Back to the late 20th century, it seems. Is the “newly sworn-in” President Bubu scared that someone that is not his clone is coming to take over from him?

    What did a great man once say?

    A great man once said, “Hell is empty, and all the devils are in Nigeria.” No, it wasn’t you, Shakespeare. That great man, whoever he is, was however correct. 

    Let’s take a look at what he was talking about: 

    President Bubucakes insists he respects the rights of citizens to protest, but described organisers of the #RevolutionNow protests “as individuals merely seeking to attain power by violent and undemocratic means”. He insisted that the era of coups and “revolutions” were over. Could he be afraid of something? Could he be having a serious case of PTSD? I mean, it was in this same August in 1985 that he was overthrown in a coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida and other members of the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC).

    A look at the backstory:

    Sowore, a human rights activist, who ran against President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 elections declared a protest on August 5. The point of the protest was to demand a better Nigeria. Incase Bubucakes was unsure, protests are an action declaring disapproval. We helped him check

    Then what?

    Then the Department of State then arrested him and said (and you’re not reading this wrongly), that his call for protest was “threatening public safety, peaceful co-existence and social harmony in the country.” The public relations officer of the DSS, Mr. Peter Afunanya then went ahead to define what a revolution was and assured citizens that there’ll be no revolution on August 5. 

    Jokes on him: While there was no revolution — revolutions tend to happen over time — there were protests which went ahead despite Sowore’s arrest.

    Here’s what happened during the protest: 

    In Lagos, the police claimed that the protest was treason, and fired teargas. They checked people’s phones and arrested the individuals they could arrest. 1998 called, they want their tear gas back. 

    They arrested protesters in Osun and brutalised a woman and a journalist.

    • What the hell is going on here???

    Under the sun and in the rain…

    Despite heavy rain, protesters in Abuja weathered the storm and went ahead to protest. And if the rain couldn’t stop them, surely the police taking over their original venue the Unity Fountain, did not stop them. All they had to do was change locations. If the NYSC anthem was the theme for their protest, there would be a consistent emphasis on this part of the lyrics: “under the sun and in the rain.”

    In Ibadan, the police laid siege at the main gate of the University of Ibadan to prevent the protest. They were successful in doing this but also succeeded in creating fear in the students and University occupants. Counteractive if you asked me. 

    In Kaduna, the story is quite different. It is suspected that residents of Kaduna State may have shunned the protest because of the court ruling on the foreign medical trip request of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky. Do you know who was excited all this time? Bubucakes of course. A report has it that that President Buhari was elated that Nigerians “ignored” calls to join the #RevolutionNow protests.

    Is this time any different from Occupy Nigeria of 2012? Not really. According to the National Secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Olayinka Folarin,“The word revolution is a predated statement that was even used by the people in government today, including President Muhammadu Buhari. In 2012, Goodluck Jonathan did not stop our nationwide protest at Ojota, and the people in the present government participated. They have become tyrannical and have started unleashing mayhem and terror on the good people of Nigeria after they took office.” 

    What’s that you said? Gbas-gbos. 

    As of today, a court has ordered the detainment of Sowore for 45 days while the police investigates the allegation of instigating the public and seeking a change of the present administration order than the provided constitutional means of doing so. against him.

    Meanwhile, while Buhari is claiming that the Era of coup is over and that the ballot box was the only constitutional means of changing government and a president in Nigeria, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams has pleaded with Buhari to not take us back to the military era.  

    What’s it gonna be Nigeria?

    We love you like family, that’s why we’re telling you to share this story with your friends and get them to subscribe here. Read past issues here.

    Ope

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  • We Re-imagined Some Presidential Aspirants As Secondary School Students

    Election season is upon us and we’ve never had a more interesting and more diverse crop of presidential aspirants.

    And because politics in Nigeria reminds us of secondary school we couldn’t help but re-imagine some of our 2019 presidential aspirants as secondary school students.

    Fela Durotoye is the smart kid who is always the first to put up his hand when the teacher asks a question, whether he knows the answer or not.

    Teacher: What’s 2 plus 2?

    Fela: If you really believe in yourself, the answer will be 22.

    Oby is the kid who will write names of noisemakers, put her best friend’s name and submit it to the teacher.

    She’ll even add x2 if she catches you talking again.

    Donald Duke is the fresh kid everyone likes and is very popular.

    He was Social prefect once and everyone loved him. The whole school thinks he can do no wrong.

    Sowore is the one all the teachers used to call useless boy and now he wants to prove them wrong by becoming head boy.

    He gets called into the principal’s office every single day.

    Moghalu is the smart kid who always comes first and everyone thinks he has two heads.

    But the day he came second he went to report to the Principal that the person who came first didn’t deserve it.

    Eunice Atuejide is the transfer student who came in SS2 and nobody knew until she said she wanted to become head girl.

    The boys like her because she refused to join the Girls’ Guide.

    Atiku is the rich kid who was Assistant Class Captain once and has now made it his life’s mission to become Class Captain.

    He has been trying since JSS1, he is in SS3 now.

    Buhari is the one who has been trying to become class captain since JSS1, when they finally gave it to him in SS3 he decided to show the whole school pepper.

    And he’ll continue to show us pepper till he graduates.

    Eighteen other Nigerians have also come out to say they want to run for president. Who else do you think we should add to this list?

    Toketemu Ohwovoriole

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