In a marked departure from the norm, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday kick-started his gubernatorial elections campaign by an engaging in a live tweet-chat session with Lagosians.

The session, which followed a kick-off rally in Badagry, started with videos of the APC gubernatorial candidate personally reading tweets asking questions about his person, capacity and experience. The session started at about 2:30 p.m. and trended for hours.

During the session, Sanwo-Olu provided insights into his plan for the state in his responses and offered practical solutions to some of the issue raised. The online real-time interactive session touched on topical issues such as traffic management, waste management, inclusive governance, health, education, infrastructural development, the candidate’s expertise and experience.

The online convergence, which attracted notable voices in the Nigerian Twitter space, started like a playful engagement, with Sanwo-Olu saying: “They say Twitter is savage… and wow, they are not lying”. It turned out to a very fruitful interaction that facilitated exchange of useful ideas between the APC candidate and stakeholders.

Commenting on the innovative campaign kick-off, an official of the Sanwo-Olu campaign said: “Unlike the jamboree that usually characterises campaign kick-off, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu launched his campaign in a methodical and highly engaging manner, which allowed for frontal engagement on pertinent issues.

“By this, Sanwo-Olu has demonstrated his readiness and commitment to running an issue-based campaign, whereby he can be engaged on any subject or matter of concern by Lagosians, who will elect him as the next governor of the state.

“Similarly, this matter-of-fact approach signals Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s view on governance and his resolve to bury bureaucracy in state administration through innovative deployment of technology.”

News Express reported that, at some pre-campaign engagements, Sanwo-Olu had declared his intention to run an accessible government, where the governor is reachable by every willing electorate. “Ours won’t be a government that will shut out the state by just sitting in the government house. We will be available, reachable and accessible to Lagosians, even when they live very far from Alausa,” said Sanwo-Olu.

Ending the live tweet-chat session, the APC gubernatorial candidate urged Lagosians to note down their concerns and issues pertinent to them for another live discussion on Twitter at this same next Saturday.

“Let’s keep the conversation going next Saturday. Let’s do like an opinion poll to identify the most important issues you want me to talk about when we converge next week,” he said.

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