Highs and lows of 15th Daily Trust Dialogue

Yesterday’s 15th Daily Trust Dialogue which had in attendance participants from the political class, professionals and other walks of life was one to be remembered. The event had Alhaji Sule Lamido as one of its guest speakers who came well prepared for the 2019 campaigns with his political crowd.  Lamido created an entertaining atmosphere as […]

Yesterday’s 15th Daily Trust Dialogue which had in attendance participants from the political class, professionals and other walks of life was one to be remembered. The event had Alhaji Sule Lamido as one of its guest speakers who came well prepared for the 2019 campaigns with his political crowd. 

Lamido created an entertaining atmosphere as well as a tense one. It was entertaining in the sense that he had people cheer and other throw jeers at him. Lamido in his speech indirectly threw innuendos at the representative of the president and members of the ruling party. It also got interesting when a participant got up to disagree with his statements and Alhaji Lamido snapped at the individual and said, “Keep quiet my friend and sit down, mumu.” His supporters greeted the remark with a loud cheer.

Another interesting aspect was when another guest speaker Kate Henshaw took the stage and cracked a joke before presenting her speech. She said her job would be at stake if Alhaji Sule Lamido decided to join Nollywood because of the way he displayed acting abilities during his speech. Things however took a dramatic turn during the question and answer session. While the INEC National Commissioner Deji Soyebi was responding to questions, a participant was throwing questions from the floor which the INEC office randomly answered. Alhaji Sule Lamido then took the stage to respond to questions and this particular participant was still asking the INEC spokesperson a question. From nowhere, the Lamido boys surrounded him and one gave him a dirty slap from behind. In a twinkle of an eye, the whole place became rowdy. The participant who was harassed became agitated and wanted to retaliate but was stopped by other participants. Security agents were called in and both participants were led out with most of the Lamido supporters following closely behind. The question and answer segment went on with some participants shouting at every given opportunity,‘Lamido for President 2019’. 

The general view from most participants was that if things could be this heated then the 2019 elections are going to be tough indeed.