My brother Streetcyph please be careful about these unfounded allegations. It seems to me that you may have something personal against Jimi Agbaje. Why? Is it because of the debate? Honestly, Jimi Agbaje did nothing wrong by asking the question that he did. And it seems to me that Pedro has handled the situation better than you. Pedro has sought to demonstrate to Nigerians that he has no integrity issues but I have not heard him rain abuses on anyone. Like I said a while back I was curious about the GTB thing and I asked questions. My husband actually worked in GTB at the relevant time and I was able to reach my own conclusions after I had spoken to him. And for me, I was quite concerned that Pedro was not promoted for almost 6 years, which is very unusual for a progressive bank like GTB (please refer to his resume somewhere on this blog) and that was enough for me to wonder about his competence. My husband did very well while at GTB like many others and a few did better than him. And he was promoted every single year but one! I refrained from publishing my viewpoint on the issue because, in truth, I did not want to unfairly colour anyone's opinion on this page. At the very minimum I was satisfied that Pedro's superiors and the management were not as enthusiastic about his performance as he regularly suggested, and I was genuinely concerned about that.  On the Osibodu allegation, he is a man who built his businesses long before Tinubu came into reckoning. I would be very glad to confront him (he is someone I know very well) with any information you may have about your allegation, so please if you do know something please share it. I am an apostle for integrity and transparency. So please, if you know anything that is verifiable, I would like to take it up with the group I got involved in (which supported Agbaje's candidature) I hope I have not been rude. I just wanted to calm you down and try to get you to focus on the issues. There is no need to get upset with anyone. Even if someone tried to provoke you, I still believe you should remain focused on the real issues (which you should be able to given your journalism background) It would be nice to see your article (please make sure it does not contain abuses o). Will your identity be revealed? I am so curious to know who you are!

Please please everyone I am appealing; please let's not be disrespectful to one another. PLEASE, it's not worth it. I was horrified when I read the mosr recent postings. It's just not right. It's not civil and I'm sure Fashola, Koro, Agbaje, Pedro etc would be shocked to read these most recent postings. Please put on your thinking caps. There are so many issues with Nigerian politics and governance but for God's sake, let's just move on and pray for our leaders to serve. Please please please TWO WRONGS HAVE NEVER MADE A RIGHT! My dear brothers Streetcyph and hoao62 I am on my knees, e jo o!

Where is Streetcyph?

hello hoao62 not sure why but I'm reluctant to post my email address openly. why don't you send me yours and i will contact you by email immediately

Congratulations to AC and Fashola. Our prayer is that his regime will be successful, that he would resist pressure to serve a few rather than serve all and that our dear state and nation will grow. i pray that one day we will take our place among the great nations of the world. jimi agbaje has a genuine complaint that his photo was omitted from the ballot paper. i do not believe it is enough to call for cancellation of the election and i don't believe that he has joined anyone calling for a cancellation. he left the venue of the press conference before it took off. i believe INEC owes him an explanation and indeed duty to let him know exactly how many votes were invalidated because people thumb printed the column for his photo instead of the 3rd column. but that is that. we must put the collective good of all above any individuals. but i do think we should not forget all the weaknesses and problems of the elections and aim for better next time.

I am proud that i voted. i am proud that many came out and exercised their right to vote. i pray the government in power will deal decisively with our under development and poverty in the land. no governor of Lagos who does not tackle the menace of joblessness and drug abuse will leave a legacy of good. what it seems to me is that our leaders have over the years preferred to window dress and not dig deep. they prefer to have area boys multiply across the state so that they can be used to perpetrate their (that is, the leaders') dastardly and selfish goals. i was born to middle class parents and although i did not grow up swimming in money, i have never lacked. but i have from a very tender age been sensitive about what goes on all around me. i can choose to ignore the decay and focus on enriching myself and immediate family but that Will not be right. yesterday on my way home from church so many beggars littered the streets. my heart broke as i wondered within whether our leaders really care about the plight of most. i constantly ask myself whether as these leaders drive around town in their jeeps with tinted windows, they feel for the people. during voting a family friend asked whether i would vote for his candidate. when i said no his response was "se iwo o fe jeun s'oke ni?" (meaning quite literally "wouldnt you like to chop up" most unfortunately that is the mentality that prevails today. with no hope for real change, many are content to have their "boy" or "person" be governor, president, whoever, - at least that assures them of contracts and opportunities to make themselves rich. but let us not forget tomorrow. it is rumoured that when mko abiola's dear wife lay in pain her body riddled with cancer, he wept saying something about how "money has been put to shame".

The people have spoken. A governor has been elected. As a lawyer myself i congratulate Governor elect Fashola. May you be blessed with the courage to truly serve the people. very soon we will have a new president. lets pray our new leaders will do well for us all. amen.

i have just voted. unfortunately it wont count. first agbaje's picture was left out and INEC hasn't told us why. several people called me to say they were being told by AC agents at their stations that his pic was omitted because he defected to AC which we all know is a lie. A lot of people who intended to vote for him were confused (especially the semi illiterate or illiterate voters). I live in a residential area of ikoyi and can confirm that the elections will neither be free nor fair. the INEC officials in our station appeared to be acting in concert with some thugs whose parties i will leave unnamed for fear of my life. they were issuing more than one governorship ballot papers to the thugs and their friends. the policemen stood by and watched. it took us several hours to figure out where exactly we were supposed to cast our votes (we must have visited at least 6 stations in the neighborhood before we got ours). the whole thing is a sham and a big big joke. one day Nigeria go beta. unfortunately it wont be today. someone called me from lekki to say her area was dominated by thugs of a particular party and they paid people N200 per vote for their man. do we not desire change? do we not desire a better future for our kids. God will judge. I went to vote believing that my candidate stood a good chance but certainly did not believe it was a do or die affair. and i would have been happy to see a fair result even if he did not win. but knowing now as i do that whoever is the next governor of this state has rigged his way in, its a huge shame. i will never participate in any election in this country moving forward UNLESS ITS AN OPEN system like that adopted in 1993. anything else will be a waste of our precious time. Let me take this opportunity to say bye to all the "friends" i made on this blog. its been nice talking with you all, I'm sure i will cry at some point today. maybe shedding tears for the sorry state of our country will lift my depression, my sister told me her colleague this week said "may the best rigger win", and i thought to myself no let's be prayerful and optimistic. but hey, cest la vie. i guess the best rigger will win. take care guys and ladies! maybe we'll meet again in 4 years time!

Dear Friends,
Now that it is 2 days, 15 hours, and 10 minutes or so until Local and State elections are over, please take a minute to watch Jimi Agbaje’s pre-election address:

http://www.jimiagbaje.com/core/node/13

or


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7jIDvV1uWQ&mode=related&search=

Streetcyph, speaking objectively, and I hope I dont offend you, I would urge you to be more temperate in your exchanges with others. Pedro should be commended for maintaining his decorum as far as his political speeches (with the exception of the outburst on the channels debate); unfortunately it seems that Streetcyph's campaign strategy may be running counter to pedro's. You have such a strong personality: it could be a good thing (re you are passionate and could be convincing) but once the boundary is crossed, the result could be to put potential voters off. Clearly the potential danger with avenues like this blog is that they are more powerful than the candidates' campaigns themselves. I have read many a post that were uncharacteristic of the candidate they purported to support! Nigerians are stubborn by nature; they have their own minds and emotions and I doubt the average person will be bullied or railroaded into voting a particular way. I mean no offense o, just a word or two as counsel, seeing as voting day is almost here.

wow guys i don't think i can keep up with your posts! you should see the smile across my face - - i am amazed by how seriously passionate each of you is about your positions. trust me guys it would be crazy if we all supported the same person. to that extent i am not worried about whats going on. i only wish our country and state had developed to an extent where we know we can get the minimum from each candidate. then it will be a question of picking the best from good candidates. my worry is that corruption has eaten into the very fibre of the way we do things. instead of responding in detail to all you've said, I'm more interested in pleading with everyone to respect others' views. streetcyph is really passionate about pedro i can see that. thats fair. but be careful what you say about pastors and leaders. i know more than you probably realise i do. but even if my pastor asked me to vote pedro or else, i still wouldn't. and I'm pretty confident that he and many others know that it takes much more than declaring oneself to be a Christian to merit the job. i watched the debate and i saw a man who crossed from confident to arrogant and when the steam came on handled it badly. his comments were denigrating of the pharmaceutical profession and that wasn't right. afterall he has only ever been an employee his 50 or so years. we all know it takes a lot to pay salaries of even just 10 people. small business is the bedrock of a country's economic development - any development economist would know this. i have spoken to a few people who worked in gtb at the relevant time and i know what i have been told. anyway i will stop now and step back into readership mode. oh before i forget someone said i shouldn't waste my vote. thats a shame really, as no vote is a waste. my vote is my right and my responsibility. at the heart of true democracy is the right of every man and woman to choose who they want to govern them. even if i was the only one who voted for a particular candidate it remains my expression of choice and confidence in that person. well i wish everyone the best. I'm happy someone wrote that whoever wins lets be alive to our responsibility to remind him or her of all the promises. For anyone who's undecided I recommend Jimi Agbaje see today's Guardian http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article04, but like i said before it's not a do or die thing.

just wanted to say hello everyone and encourage you all to remain respectful in your exchanges. afterall we are each entitled to vote for our choice. the truth is lagos will get a governor it deserves. i will cast my vote for jimi agbaje, as i am convinced by the seriousness of his plans, his passion for change, integrity and professionalism. but i certainly do respect others' choices. if we will be fair its clear fashola's mandate is to protect his boss and other members of the cabinet from an exposure of details of their unjust enrichment. koro charmed me somewhat during the channels debate but the real deal is that he has issues of integrity. my colleagues have said big deal about his falsification and all that but if we must truly make progress as a people we must begin to place importance on things that are important. we need real leaders, governance is serious business. femi pedro visited my church 3 years ago. i have a lot of respect for pastor wale adefarasin (at whose request pastor tony rapu accepted to have pedro speak to us) but i was shocked by his evasiveness and seeming lack of depth. i could tell he nursed governorship ambitions at the time but something about him made me uncomfortable. years on i can see he is a good debater (on the surface) and does a damn good job of playing to the gallery but i wont vote for someone who brandishes endorsements by pfn etc. thats too shallow. the truth is, he wasnt endorsed. pastor adefarasin gave him a letter which i hear caused a lot of furore at the pfn meeting (the others said he lacked the authority to do so) the question is where is God in all of this? why such desperation? focus on issues. pfn has had unity issues lately anyway. politicians should resist the urge to make these men of God compromise their position. i hope i havent offended anyone. just trying to air my views. may the best man win