IT’S 75 DAYS TO THE GENERAL ELECTIONS

Oh and here’s an idea since we’re doing so much to make sure the 2019 elections turn out great, how about Nigeria not arrest people staging peaceful protests for just that purpose?

NIGERIA HAS HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOUR WHATSAPP BCs

If First Draft News and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting have their way, fake BCs and Facebook posts will die a swift but painful death. Like the one currently making rounds of Buhari’s finer-eared, better-looking, Sudanese body-double — Jubril, you know the one.
CrossCheck, their collaborative brainchild was launched in Lagos on the 25th of November, 2018 to check the spread of fake news and misinformation in Nigeria, ahead of the 2019 elections.
 

About damn time, but why Nigeria?

Nigerians make up 26 million of Facebook’s finest users and they are wreaking hell on it. Posting everything from the real meaning of LOL (Lucifer Our Lord, duh!), to completely made up stories that have been known to cause harm and even the loss of lives. These posts quickly find their way onto other social media. And with only 4 persons currently charged with disproving their claims, CrossCheck aims to supplement their efforts by pooling journalists from about 15 news organisations to clamp on the spread of fake
News.
 

Well, does it work?

We’re not very sure. I got only an automated response when I attempted to verify a broadcast message claiming poisonous apples from the north were gearing up to Thanos-snap the Nigerian population. You might get lucky, try here to verify your claims.

So What Else Has His Campaign Been Up To?

With no plans to rent crowds, Durotoye is putting his money where his mouth is regarding social impact. If you were chilling out in Ajegunle this week, you probably caught him giving out a ton of food and clothing to over 500 children in the area.
But he’s not stopping there, plans are underway for him to visit Kaduna, and give children free books (which we love) and also paint 15 houses (which we’re so not sure about). I mean, making a house look cute is great, but what impact will it have when the people can’t afford furniture? Can house painting really swing people to paint ballot boxes ANN?

OBY EZEKWESILI IS MAKING MOVES

For her first act, Dr Ezekwesili on the 28th of November, announced her running mate, Alhaji Abdul-Ganiyu Galadima.
 

A little about him

When he’s not leading the Allied Congress Part of Nigeria as chairman, Alhaji Galadima is a community leader and businessman. He also had the 4th highest votes in the 2015 presidential elections and has experience working with the grassroots at all level.
His work with the grassroots and integrity made him the easy choice for running mate.
 

And for her second act

We finally got a manifesto! The 47-page document which was unveiled on the 25th of November is stacked with everything from her journey to running for president, to all the indicators she’ll use to make sure her head remains in the game while carrying all the heavy presidential duties. Not left out are the sectors of education, where she lays out a plan for everyone from pre-schoolers to those with special needs; to the economy where a “catalytic facility” is planned for. See, they just might have finished work with this thing. Doubtful? Check it out for yourself.

Her third through fifth acts had her speaking at a TED X event in Enugu, holding a live Q &A on Twitter and speaking at a town hall meeting of Nigerians in the diaspora.

YELE SOWORE HAS WORDS FOR ATIKU

Making sure no one takes his place as the most entertaining presidential candidate in Nigeria- ever, Mr Sowore dropped another verbal gem this week.

The presidential candidate of the Africa Action Congress- Mr Yele Sowore, spoke at Bounce News’ #60 minutes on the 29th of November. During his interview, he likened Atiku Abubakar to a second-tier salesman, saying he would “sell Nigeria on Alibaba”. While he probably could have said this unprovoked, this statement was made in response to Atiku’s grand plan to sell 90% of NNPC if elected president in 2019.

Other gems include this… campaign video, his stand out haircut and those plans to give Nigerians better credit alerts, come 2019, to the tune of a hundred thousand naira minimum wage, if elected president. We’re going to need him to show workings with that last one though.
 

How is his campaign going?

Well, the candidate favours town hall meetings, choosing to speak intimately with the people he one day hopes to preside over. Plus, his campaign had raised $103,045 of its $2 million GoFundMe goal, as at November 30. Now you might be thinking, people are really out here using Bugatti Veyron money to campaign? Well, I’ll have you know there’s a 1 billion naira cap on presidential campaign spending stipulated by the National Assembly in the amended electoral act, so chances are, past candidates were spending more. Brazy.

Regarding actual plans for the presidency, he has narrowed down his target areas to a catchy SPICER: Security, Power, Infrastructure, Economy and Restructuring.
Now acronyms are great, Lord knows how many exams they saved me from- but just how will this translate into actual plans? Let’s wait and see.

WHAT’S POPPING WITH THE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES?

As the governorship campaigns officially kicked off on the 1st of December , let’s see how they’re doing:

Don’t bring your posters to the Mainland. 3rd Mainland.

Babatunde Sanwo-Olu of the APC had settled nicely into his role as gubernatorial hopeful/back-up governor

That’s when Yawa – as we say – gassed.

Giving printers around Lagos a profitable week, the removal and swift return of Agbaje’s poster boards on third mainland bridge might mark the start of a dirty road to elections 2019. If Sanwo-Olu and Agbaje can drop their twitter- trigger fingers for 5 minutes, maybe we’ll know what they have planned for campaigns this week.
 

You thought! Uche Nwosu might run for governor yet

With a governorship ambition spanning 9 lives, the son-in-law of Imo’s Rochas might pull a final trick in hopes of becoming Imo’s next governor. After being deliberately sacked to contest the APC primaries, then losing said primary to Senator Hope Uzodinma Nwosu; he might shoot his last shot at governorship by pitching his tent to a yet to be disclosed party.
 

Oyo state citizens really don’t give AF about the elections

If the 900 000 people yet to collect their PVCs are anything to go by, that is. This is in spite of the governor declaring work-free hours to enable citizens pick up their PVCs. With the combined figures for the 2015 and 2018 registered Oyo citizens totalling 2,582,756, that’s a worrying chunk of people to not have PVCs. Just saying, but if I were a governorship hopeful in Oyo,* cough* Adelabu, *cough* Makinde, I’d probably put in a lot of campaign time into getting people excited about picking their PVCs and voting.

WETIN GOVERNMENT DEY DO?

Again, it’s about the House of Reps and this, we’ll look at its oversight functions. 

Now, to perform its oversight functions, the constitution gives the House of Representatives a big thing called the ‘power of the purse’. While that might sound like the title of a 90s Nollywood movie, it actually packs quite the punch.

First, no matter how obsessed a state government is about a budget, if the members of the House of Reps aren’t feeling it, IT SHALL NOT PASS. What that means is, the state governors better come correct if they want the millions usually allocated to newspapers and their lunches to be approved.

Secondly, and this is the spicy part, the House of Reps through their super purse powers, can act as strict older brothers to the actions of state executives.

Let’s say the Governor of Noka State was caught on tape using both hands to stuff dollars into the back pockets of his yellow-skinny jeans.

As a member of the House of Reps – outraged by his choice of clothing and sticky fingers – you can bring a motion before the House to have his actions probed. Where this motion is adopted, a committee will be set up to investigate the claims and any findings will be made into a report. This report will be laid before the house and contain recommendations for the executive.

Say this report also finds that the governor has been into the stuffing business from time and several videos exist of him packing dollars into multicoloured clothing items, their report can suggest that the president have him impeached and banned from wearing primary colours. And just like that, your oversight functions as a member of the House of Representatives have been fulfilled. Or at least that’s the idea unless of course, the powers that be intervene.

So when you hear the post-corruption buzzwords of ‘probing’, ‘investigate’ or our personal favourite, an ‘X-man committee’, that’s just the House of Representatives making sure the Nigerian government isn’t doing a madness with Nigeria’s future.
 

One More Thing.