Opinion: Why APC & PDP Should Lose The 2015 Lagos Gubernatorial Elections

When leaders can’t keep to the rules and regulations of the land especially those ones which they postulated, they should be kicked out of office. When aspiring leaders go against the rule of the land, they should not be voted into office by the electorate.

The 2015 elections are almost here and politicking of all sorts is at an all-time high. Some political parties are already conducting primaries for some of the elections and various stories of electoral malpractices at party level are making the rounds. Parts of Lagos which are known to be always clean and well groomed are looking unkempt, dirty and crazy. Yes, the posters are littering the walls of major roads in the state and this would make one wonder: “What party does the LASAA (Lagos State Signage and Advertisement agency) belong to”. Several years back, it was common place to find movie posters and all sorts of advert posters litter the Lagos metropolis. That was nipped in the bud during Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s tenure as Lagos state Governor but his successor, Babatunde Raji Fashola made sure that this ugly trend was effectively curbed to its barest minimum through LASAA.

Well, it appears all that is about to become history as All Progressive Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidates in the state and Federal House of assemblies, and of course gubernatorial aspirants have made sure the streets of Lagos have been flooded with their posters. Not even the state capital, Ikeja is spared from this alarming trend. While driving towards Maryland from Ikeja, you will notice campaign posters of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro who is a PDP gubernatorial aspirant in the state placed just beside a LASAA signpost (on the wall of the bridge) which reads: ‘Posters are prohibited’, that’s the height of our supposed leaders flouting the laws. Around the Maryland bus-stop, you will also see several posters of Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon (GOS); this is one of APC’s gubernatorial aspirants for next year’s election and yes, he is also a serving senator just like Obanikoro. There are posters of other governorship aspirants littering everywhere in the state but I can’t even remember all their names. There are also posters of those running for seats in the state and federal legislative houses; those of Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, Obanikoro’s son (can’t remember his name), Solomon Olamilekan and others all across the state.

It is surprising that these posters all belong to members of Nigeria’s ‘top two’ political parties, APC & PDP. I have not seen a poster of another political party anywhere in Lagos. This is why we should vote for candidates of the ‘smaller parties’; they appear to be the only ones keeping to the laws of the land and adhering to instructions.

What hurts the most is that the common men who are working so hard for their daily bread cannot advertise the works of their hands on these walls and roads because there is a law against such actions but they wake up every day to see those who formulated these laws go against it without giving a damn about how anyone feels about their actions.

What is most confusing is the fact that LASAA has been removing SOME of these posters. Last Friday, some LASAA officials who were with their water trucks were busy wiping off some posters around Maryland while I walked past. Good job you may say but first you may wish to note that it was just one of the candidate’s posters that were being taken off. Yes, the posters bearing the photo of one of the less celebrated APC gubernatorial aspirants were being washed off rigorously while those of other candidates were left to seat on the walls. I was tempted to take pictures of the officials as they angrily washed off the posters but I couldn’t as my phones were off since the electricity guys had not provided us with electricity for days. Could this be victimization or selective ‘justice’ of some sort? We can’t really say until we hear LASAA’s side of the story. Until then, some of us will keep wondering what political party LASAA belongs to and who their candidates for the 2015 elections are.

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Article written by Augustine Ogwo

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