The much-anticipated presidential and gubernatorial elections have come and gone. However, the conversation surrounding the election has not phased out and different controversial positions have begun to spurt with people discovering new career paths in politics. Some of the trending ones include:
The 25% ‘Palava’
Who knew the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would be the star of the just-conducted 2023 general elections? The ongoing rhetoric regarding if 25% of FCT votes is required to win a presidential election is still causing an uproar on social media. On Twitter alone, there were over 55,000 tweets of people giving their personal inputs, and also linking it to passing five subjects but failing Mathematics and/or English in WAEC. Such instances were mentioned in this tweet.
The genesis of all these controversial positions began when the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and has since been issued his Certificate of Return without getting 25% in the FCT.
Now, whether a Presidential candidate must score at least 25% of all the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja (FCT), is the present discourse amongst legal pundits and self-proclaimed ‘legal’ professionals.
Reduction of fee for guber nomination ticket in LP
Ahead of the governorship elections coming up later in the year in Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo states, the Labour Party (LP), is under fire for fixing the price of its expression of interest and nomination forms at N25 million.
This news gave way to meaningful conversation and led to this question being asked; How expensive should a presidential/gubernatorial nomination ticket be?
The news of the Labour Party ticket was one of the trending topics on social media last week, generating a whopping amount of more than 98,000 thousand tweets, most of the tweets against the high cost of the gubernatorial nomination fee.
Following the backlash, Julius Abure, National Chairman of LP, announced a reduction in the cost of its nomination fees from N25 million to N15 million.
He made this known while addressing journalists after a meeting with its elected Senators and House of Representatives members in Abuja. Abure said that the decision was reached after consulting with the party’s national leader and the presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
PDP suspends National Chairman
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu was suspended by the party on March 26, 2023.
Nigerians took to social media to discuss the dispute between PDP wards and its party chairman. Recall that Ayu was reported to have been suspended on Sunday by the ward executive for alleged anti-party activities, failure to pay his annual subscription fees, and failure to vote during the just-concluded elections.
Ayu, however, responded on Monday, March 27, 2023, by asserting that those who had suspended him were uneducated and ignorant of the PDP constitution’s requirements.
The story took an interesting turn when a High Court in Makurdi, Benue State, issued an interim injunction restraining Iyorchia Ayu from presenting himself as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
See how Nigerians reacted:
Interim Government Plot
On March 29, 2023, the Department of State Services (DSS) announced that it had confirmed political actors’ plans to appoint an interim administration in Nigeria.
The spokesman for the DSS, Peter Afunanya, said the DSS “considers the plot being pursued by these entrenched interests as not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into crisis. The illegality is totally unacceptable in a democracy and to the peace-loving Nigerians.”
The DSS spokesman added that the plots to impose an interim government are being planned through protests in the country and court orders to block the transition of power to the next government. This was reported by The Guardian
#Interimgovernment trended with over 50,000 tweets with various narratives across social media. Here are some of the highlighted tweets:
Tinubu the President-elect
Topping the trend table this week is the President-elect of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu. Multiple hashtags varying from #TinubuTheDrugLord, #WhereisTinubu, #Bola, and #Tinubuand52. These hashtags had over 300,000 tweets, with #TinubuTheDrugLord and #Bola topping the trend table.
One of the prominent issues discussed was the allegation that Tinubu had been linked to a drug case in the United States of America (USA). This started after various media articles revealed that Tinubu was announced as a drug baron by different countries of the world.
Recall that this conversation regarding the drug case sprouted when the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, filed his petition to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 25 February election.
In his petition, he stated that Tinubu’s forfeiture of his funds to the US government over a drug trafficking allegation is an indication that the former Lagos State governor committed infractions that should disqualify him from running for an election in Nigeria.
Although the case is still in court, this has not stopped Nigerians from running their own account regarding this issue. In our bid to educate the masses regarding this story, we produced a fact-check debunking some of the trending allegations made.
Conclusively, these are some of the trending issues on social media, trailing the just-concluded presidential and gubernatorial elections.
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