 Tonight on Plus Politics, we take a look at the SDP's reaction to the outcome of the governorship and state assembly polls. And we address the problem of inclusion of persons with disabilities in political and electoral process in Nigeria. This is Plus Politics, my name is Nyam Buu at Gadji. You're welcome back. The Social Democratic Party has condemned the outcome of the governorship polls especially conducted in Lagos State. According to the party's governorship candidate, Kunle Utman, the election is fast. The party also debunked the news of its candidate stepping down for the all-progressive Congress just before the conduct of the elections. It is to be recalled that the governorship candidate of the Labor Party in Lagos State, Bade Borot, has also vowed to challenge the results of the Saturday's election announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. He also said that he was saddened by the reports of violence and gross disenfranchisement of voters who came out to perform their civic obligations. Well joining us live to discuss this is Kunle Utman himself, the governorship candidate of the SDP Lagos State. Good evening and welcome to the program, sir. Thank you very much. Okay. The elections have come and we do not know if they have gone. What's your own assessment of the whole process? Well I believe that everything spoken about this election are different for our first war. There was no election in the sense of a free, fair, and credible election. Because we're also on live TV, technology has developed. We saw fetishism at play. We saw fetish things being placed all around areas to scare people away. We also saw people being shot and being shot dead. We also saw places where ballots, boxes were physically carried. And all this is determination of the patting power to ensure that they won at all costs. So there wasn't an election. What we had on Saturday was a fast. It failed the test of election anywhere in the world. And globally, locally and nationally, it has been acclaimed to be the worst election in the history of the federal republic of Nigeria. And this is very sad. Because the government of the day did all that was humanly possible to ensure that Aine gave us a good election. The Bivas was devised as a system whereby people would not be able to vote for other people. But what happened was a complete nonsense. Let's put it that way. There were areas where they showed that they believed that they were not popular based on the result of the last election. You're talking of Riteosa area, you're talking of going down Alemosha and other places. They made sure people did not come out to vote. And this new device that they have brought up in their election of bringing Oro out in the afternoon. Because I'm a Yoruba man. I never knew Oro coming out in the afternoon. It's a traditional thing that is always done in the night. So the determination and the desperation of Babak Desongwu Lu and his government to return to power was clear in this election. There was no election. So in the real sense of it, if we look at, if we feel the pulse of the people and we're able to look at it credibly, I think there should be a re-election. And in that re-election, the APC should not contest. Because they have brought us back into the stone age of politics we have never ever, in the history of the further Republic of Nigeria, seen what we saw on Saturday. So basically speaking, whatever was published was a rogue result. And this idea of we go to court to challenge it is the mantra that they will always alter. Because they know how to deal with the court system. And INEC itself should come out and say what they conducted was not a proper election. This is my view. Okay. Why are we really so pained? I know that it's painful if an election that raised so much hope was not conducted well. But we've seen a lot of snatching in the past. We've seen a lot of things that happened in Saturday's election and even on the 25th of February also happened in other elections. What is that very, very critical thing that makes this one the worst if we have seen all these things? Well, I need you to guide me of the election we have held in this country where they put fetish things everywhere. I also need you to guide me of an election we have held in this country where the master talk of Africa, MCO Luomo made a proclamation that people should not go out if they were going to vote for a political party. I need you, the man didn't say it, it was live. I also need you to tell me any election in the cosmopolitan state of Lagos state where a certain set of people have been branded, you understand, don't come out, if you don't vote for a party, you don't come out or else we deal with you. We have also seen an election where there were going shots, we saw it, you understand, first attack on other areas. We also saw ballot snatching live. It's not in the past when you do things and it is giving a colored report. We saw these things live, everybody saw it, everybody. It was on all the television channels covering from one point to the other. Every one of them. How do you now talk about a credible election? How does somebody now come out and say I'm the winner? Winner of what? Because the man was the one who corrupted the system, the man was the one who organized all these mafiasis to take place and can even win the election. There was no election on that day. What we add on that day was a disgraceful display of inhumanity of man to man and desperation. Politics is not about desperation, my brother, because it has been notoriously described as the government of the people fought the people and buried the people. The ballot belongs to the people. It doesn't belong to a pack of people who will say we are a government and we must continue. But not we want to, we must continue because for us, we said it too many times in different places that this particular government in Lagos state that is there now does not deserve to be reelected. And I think they hate us. We said it. I heard Jando say it. I heard that body boy say, even Akim, what do they call him, Dixon, also said it. The same thing with everybody said this was the process. We had debates, the man did not show up. It never came for any of the debates. This was the only election I know in Lagos state where there was no governorship debate and the governor did not participate. So what are we talking about? The election and the post-election have been completely nonsense. Let me put it that way. Okay, but you just expressed some worry about the court system that the party will always tell you to go to court. That has become their mantra. Does it mean that as some people are heading to the court, you are not thinking about going to the court? For me, I'm a legal practitioner, first and foremost, and I practiced law since 1985. So that shows me that I have faith in my own legal system because this is what I've been doing the last, that is something, yes, and I have faith in it. Where we are now, there's not about the court system. First and foremost, what has been put in place, does it pass the test of credibility? This is number one. If we didn't pass the test of credibility of a free, fair election, I never ought to know that what's there put in place, that election will save us all. Clear, let's be clear. So there will be no basis for them to declare a winner. Whether or not I will go to court, we are looking at it holistically, all of us, all the political parties involved, apart from the party in power and those people who have joined them. There's a likelihood that we're going to five proceedings to test the veracity of this election in court. But how much time do you have? We have 20-something days, and we still have a window of time to do that. It doesn't take time to go to court. When you go to court, you brief last two days, you're in court, because all the documents are there for us to present. What we are doing now is we're doing an ammonization, and ammonization is not one party will come as many of us as possible to test this election in court. And for the court to declare that there was no election, so they should do a re-election. Maybe. Just for Lagos or for the country? Well, I represent Lagos, so really, I'm not concerned too much about the problems of other areas. Other areas are their own processes, they are their own problems. Maybe some of those places, they are credible in election, but for me, it's only reasonable that I confine myself with being my geographical space, which is Lagos. There was no election here. Now, when we want to blame someone, like, permit me to use the word blame, who do we blame in this instance? The political party, the empire, the security agencies, and all that. All of these people needed to come together to make our election credible enough. So even if we want to blame, or we want to find out where to start the reforms, where do we go to? We start from INEC. We start from the empire. Because the empire is the one that set the date for the election. The empire is the one that worked out the modalities for the election. There were also the ones that supervised the election, the organized, and they conducted it in all these areas. Proud to election, we were given certain assurances. The bill was to work. It worked. We were told that the result would be online prime time. It wasn't so. We still saw a minor collision. They actually came out and said, this idea of some people coming to a count and count will be in the past, that was exactly what happened. And what they gave us, what we saw. Because if you look at the frenzy that they reacted to going to conduct election day two in Vigissey, they didn't do it because they liked the people that were there. They know the number of senior advocates that reside in that place. And they know if they don't do what they have to do in Vigissey, they will be in real trouble. Now, was it only in Vigissey? Because Vigissey was just one case. One estate, being nice, sophisticated. What about other areas where they snatched ballot boxes? What about areas where they shot people dead? What about other areas in Lagos, where people are not allowed to vote? What did they do? They discarded those areas. They discontinued it and they went out to announce a perverse result that does not represent the will of the people of Lagos there. Because why I ask the question is that something like an election is a national assignment for everybody who, those who are voting, because like you said, the... I'm sorry, you talk about political politicians. I've dealt with only one. You talk about political politicians. Yeah, politicians, the security, you know. The security, man. Of course, they were incompetent. They displayed lack of capacity to enforce laws and they acted as if they had been compromised. As for the politicians, which politicians are you talking about? We have two categories, basically. The governor that is there now and others that want to sit. The governor that is there now, by the day, did all that was humanly possible to do everything that he ought not to do. Because for us, he ought to have just given the opportunity to, if he performed well. This is the first time in Lagos state that we are having a governor that is so desperate. And we understand his apprehension, which is due to the fact that his political godfather had just lost massively in Lagos state. And if they had lost that election in Lagos state, it would have been a statement that they wouldn't have found comfortable. But truly speaking, we should still have allowed the democratic process to go. What do you want people to do? For the first time in the history of this country, we seem to be on a verge of those factors that took us to war. For the first time in this country, we are being told Ibo people, we are being told I us our people, how did we get there? How did we get there? This is a cosmopolitan part of Nigeria. People have married Ibo people, Ibo people have married Yoruba. There is investment here that belongs to Ibo people and to Yoruba people. Django Te is not the name of a Yoruba man from anywhere in Yoruba land. It's from Kano. It has the largest investment in this state. Nobody say Django Te is outside way back. So we cannot behave like this. We cannot get ourselves into this obelisk state of dehumanization. We cannot draw back. We've made too much progress in this country as a nation. Then for one desperate Baba Yoruba and his people to decide to turn us one against the other, that was absolutely irresponsible. No government anywhere should do that, basically. It's wrong. Okay, but you said something in opening that this government did everything to make sure that INEG delivered a very credible election. They gave everything. But do you think that really the federal government did everything just because they released the money that was supposed to be given to INEG, especially after the elections and statements coming from the presidency? The incumbent president of Nigeria said that every opportunity that he could see, that one of the things that we legacy would like to leave behind is to organize a free and fair election, an incredible election, as his legacy when he's leaving government. He said this and truly speaking, the way Amana is sounding, we believed him. We believed him. And I believe that by the time they made the necessary amendments to the electoral act and it was signed, we also thought they believed him. And when INEG chairman went to the Charterhouse to discuss this election, he also gave the impression that there was going to be a completely credible election. We believed him. So when we went for the presidential election and national elections, we were comfortable with the fact that, yes, this man made what he said and he was going to do exactly what he said. So when we approached that election, it was with a very, very positive mind. But by the time the election was over on that day, we knew that inasmuch as it could be the wish of the president to deliver a free, fair election, Mahmoud and the chairman of INEG and his people, they were not on the same page with him. What they did was nonsense. But the president has come out plainly and openly to say that the election was credible. Maybe the election that he watched was confined to a certain place where he sat down. But if he watched the election all over Nigeria, I am sure he will not see what he said. He said, I didn't read what you said, but if he did, possibly he was just somewhere watching his own election and voting and preparing for some trips abroad. But for here, everybody saw locally, internationally that that was not a credible election. So I don't think we should spend too much energy on whether or not it was credible. But it's a recipe, the facts speaks for itself. Okay. Now we have reached this point in this electoral process and everything. President-elect has been declared, governor-elect has been declared, senators-elect and everybody, they have been declared. Especially or finally we have somebody from Abia State who is of the Labour Party who has been declared OT, has been declared as governor. But the process goes beyond just voting. Once you say democracy and we know, it's for the people, by the people, you know, it's the government of the people. So now that it has reached this stage, there are litigations and every other thing, how can the citizens, who are also pained or who may also be pained, it depends on where you're standing anyway, how can they be a part of this process to either reclaim the mandate if it was taken or to strengthen the process of electioneering in Nigeria or to see that justice is being done if they're seeing it as justice not being done. How can they be a part of it? Because now everybody who is going to court is either someone who contested or a political party that feels aggrieved and all that. But what about the people themselves? What can they do? First of all, we have used the correct acronym. You said president-elect, governor-elect, senator-elect, everything-elect-elect as it were. That shows you that the party is not over because that elect between this time and the accredited time, it may just be removed and somebody has to replace it. This election can also be affirmed and there can be a cancellation and there can be a re-election. This is for the courts to decide based on available evidence in respect of these elections. Now, what would the people do? For the people, what can they do? Basically speaking, we are a civilized society. We are a democracy. When we suit sorts, we say we are one Nigeria. So let's assume for the purpose is that we are mentally one Nigeria, but we are spiritually not one Nigeria. Because when we start this World War, it's not good for this country because we have paid a price. There was a civil war in this country and if you follow the civil war process, this was how it started. One tribe suspecting another tribe and they feel unsafe in that geographical space and going home to go and go down to fight. We pray that will never, ever happen in this country. That is nonsense. We'll be doused and we can continue as a people. This is number one. What are the tribes do the people have? We pray that we forget and forgive the idiosyncrasies of this election. And we look at it from a point that we are a nation where we can move forward. For me, for example, one of my friends, my very good friend, I've known this guy since 1973. His name is Abdulrahman Aramideh Twins. It's like a father to my children. What he has done to me during the course of this election is unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. It shows that this election has conducted and as the result was, can actually tear two friends apart. I also have a member of my family, my own brother. The same thing happened. It's my immediate junior brother. His name is Fatih. The same thing he did. You can't find any other election due to people what this is doing to us. As a matter of fact, you find some of these people pervading speech, sending videos that should never, ever be circulated in any system. They don't care. They want to be more Catholic than the pope. Somebody said to me, it doesn't matter because I work in Lagos State government, I can be stupid. It's not the way people should act. Family is born, brotherhood is born. We have found ourselves in this situation where brother doesn't talk to brother. Brother is fighting brother. Sister is fighting sister. People aren't married. If you marry an Igbo woman and you're a Yoruba man, and this problem starts, what do you do with your wife and your children? People worship in churches. They don't talk about Igbo. They don't talk about Yoruba. They talk about Nigeria. What happens in this situation? We worship in mosque. Nobody cares who you have. We go to the mosque. We do our karawi. We work away. Now, what this has done to us, it has become extremely divisive. So what we now need to do, let's leave election and let us look at our nation from the national perspective of a good nation. And what we need to do now is we need to heal the wounds. We need to ensure that we go back to where we have proud to this election. We go back to where we have. My best friends are Igbo people. My mentors are Alsace. My people I worship with every time. They are Alsace and they have Muslims, they are Yorubas. So what do I care where you come from? What matters to me is that you are my brother and the brotherhood has been fought since the year 1900 when Nigeria came into existence. And people have paid the price for these independence. They have paid the price. So if we have some desperate politicians, we have some insane human beings who simply believe that what they now need to do is to be controlling the system and destroying what we have. We need to be careful. We need to be very, very careful because we cannot allow a civil war to start. We cannot also allow a capital flight from these Lagos. Lagos is called Spobolitan. We don't want to go into this no man's land, no man's house. It belongs to us as indigenous of the state. But the prosperity that Lagos has is because other people have come from other states to invest in the state. They have come and their foreigners that are here, we have Lebanese people that are in Nigeria that generations of them have not been home. They have found Northern Nigeria to be their home. I have friends, my best friends are Lebanese. Now I sit back now, I start doing some spiritual, what do you call the distillation? When I want to talk to you, I want to find out about your evil. When I want to speak to you, I want, no, we shouldn't do that to our country because some people have shared their blood for our independence. So it should not be about election for the Social Democratic Party. For me, when I went into this election, it was not winning at all costs. And if you listen to me everywhere I spoke I continuously emphasized this. It's not winning at all costs. I was going to contest the election to defend the integrity of my race. And I think I've succeeded. I came here, I went everywhere, saying things that I can feel that I change it. I said the same gross market was not developed, was abandoned. Me, I passed there two weeks ago, they have started building the market. So somebody's listening to me. I've been speaking about this, they're a real wave line thing. And I've heard that is going to be done before May 29th. Somebody's listening to me. I spoke at about Tawaya, government is listening to me. So for me, it's victory. Because to remove an increment will not be the easiest process for me to do. So what I wanted to do was to test waters. And I succeeded in this. I remember, remember even in our party, there were moles there. We had to contain with different misinformation by the APC. There was a dead end. There's a criminal, it's mine. I stepped down for Babajideh Saulo. It was everywhere. And nobody has shown me proof of where I sat down with anybody to step down. There was also this man, when the election was over, he says he's the acting chairman of the SDP. And every paper carried this man, seeing that SDP is congratulating Babajideh Saulo. Now, what they succeeded in doing, even our House of Assembly members, they planted moles there. So they should try to be a fair-minded political party. They shouldn't do this. Why, what is your business with SDP? Every information that they released was on the official platform. There was a time, they carried all of it. One time she was not wearing her ear, she was saying, hey, hey, I'm living in SDP. Another one they carried to their secretary in Alousa to also say, I'm living in SDP. Why did they not mind their business? What was this? It had meddled someness with their fears of SDP. Now we are going to rebuild our party. We are going to bring incredible people. All these moles, we find their way and we'll be ready for the next election, inshallah. Before then, we have to start running the selection whether or not it is fair or fair. Just finally, so that we wrap up now, you talked about the healing process that has to begin. Where do we begin from? Where do we begin from tonight? Tonight is Karawi. So we of the Muslim women, we are going to fast for 30 days and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala enjoined us in the Holy Quran before you start Ramadan. Forgive! Forgive whosoever had wronged you so that you can find the pleasure of Allah. Number one. Number two, the Christians are also fasting now. Is that not correct? So you see, we're in a period of spiritual healing and during this spiritual healing, we all must pray for our nation, more importantly, to remain one indivisible nation. Also pray for whoever emerges as rulers either in the assembly or executive in this tenure to love the people. We should not have this ostentatious mentality whereby government is just a place for you to make money. Go there, serve the people, work for the people and let us have a better rewarding future. We cannot continue like this, put drugs in the hospital, do what you have to do, make sure the traffic moves, do the railway line and do all these things. It doesn't matter whether it's Kule-Od-Mainatis, whether it's Babakdesanguri that is there, whether it's Adedino that is there, whether it is Berkut-Oduati. What matters is we most love our state and we that have the state orders here, we want a good state. We don't want to drive out investors. We don't want buildings to collapse. We want a state whereby people all over the world will come and invest and we will have a better life for our children and for generations after us. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you so much. That has been a maritone one with Sakun Lewudman, the governorship candidate of the SDP Lagos State, talking about challenging what happened as the election of Saturday. If it is credible enough, then we'll see what the coming days will hold for us. But that's how it's been with him this evening. I'd like to thank you, sir, for coming on the program today. Thank you. It's always a pleasure. I sincerely appreciate this station for what they have done to democracy because throughout the democracy, they've been having people from different political parties. And I am grateful for this opportunity. We all mighty God continue to bless all of you in this station. And I wish you well and I wish the management of staff of this station very well. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Amen. Okay, we'll take a short break and when we return, we'll be talking about inclusion of persons living with disabilities on the program. Stay with us.