Nasarawa: Billboards galore as 2019 nears

The 2019 general elections are just two months away and campaigns are on. In Nasarawa State, politicians vying for different offices and their supporters have been producing and erecting large posters in the state. It is a battle for space to place massive posters in Nasarawa State; from the boundary of Abuja with the state, […]

The 2019 general elections are just two months away and campaigns are on. In Nasarawa State, politicians vying for different offices and their supporters have been producing and erecting large posters in the state.

It is a battle for space to place massive posters in Nasarawa State; from the boundary of Abuja with the state, otherwise called “Cheking Point”, to Lafia, the state capital, and all around the state.

Some of the posters which advertised candidates for the primaries of the parties have not been removed long after the owners lost out, and now that the general elections are around the corner, more posters are being pasted, which have defaced many public signposts.

While the politicians spend lots of money to erect these billboards, printers and computer centres are smiling to the bank.

The governorship candidate of Kowa Party in the state, Architect Suleiman, said, “I paid N140,000 for 100 copies of A1 size and N90,000 for 1,000 copies of A2. I have produced 10,000 copies of posters and hired 10 people in each ward at N10,000 to 15,000 to paste them.”

The posters and billboards of the PDP governorship candidate, Dave Umbugadu aka Davematics, are of three types: one has his pictures with a cap placed on his forehead, another has his pictures looking on a crown and the other is his life size portrait in blazers.

The posters of a former Deputy Governor and former Minister of Information and two times governorship candidate of APGA, Mr. Labaran Maku, in brown traditional caftans show him looking at his wristwatch, with the slogan: “Time”.

A former Member of the House of Representatives, Sen. Mrs. Patricia Akwashiki, who contested in the PDP governorship primary but lost, decamped to another party, and has her posters with her pictures in traditional attires with large multi-coloured headgears depicting a woman who has arrived.

One of the large posters is that of a young politician adorned with so many slogans, among which is; “Not Too Young to Run”, and he is contesting for a seat in the Senate.

One thing of interest in Nasarawa State is that the people along the roads erect structures in front of their farm houses and wait for politicians to hire the spaces and paint their messages soliciting for votes.

Meanwhile, a paint artist, Friday Ayuba, said he charged N150,000 for a six by four coloured paint for politicians and that he completed the job in two days, adding that he had been busy recently because of the demand for his work.

The Manager of New Heritage Computers, a company in Mainaira Plaza on Shendam Road in Lafia, Abdulhadi Tauhid Mayowa, said, “The largest posters cost N17,880 and the smallest N350; which is called flier.”

The Manager of Jades Pictures in Laifa, Mr. Light Auta, said, “We have customers in Nasarawa State, but most prefer to go to Abuja because they want to show off. But we make extra money from women politicians who come and snap pictures and select the best and order us to edit the pictures using photo-shop.”

The posters of the richer politicians are erected on tall poles so that they cannot be defaced by thugs.

However, interestingly, the people of Nasarawa State are politically peace-loving as they do not deface posters.

The Chairman of the Nasarawa State Internal Revenue Service (NSIRS), Alhaji Ahmed Y. Muhammad, said his office was not responsible for the generation of revenue from the erection of the posters.

A source in the Nasarawa State Urban Development Board (NUDB) told Daily Trust Saturday on phone that they were trying to regulate the erection of posters and that they were charging fees as many politicians did not pay for erecting posters, especially in rural areas.

Many people in the state are of the opinion that posters on public structures like road signs and buildings should be sanctioned.