In life, when men of position blow their own trumpets no one wants to listen. But in a case where other men see their works and decide theirs is a trumpet worth blowing, then the world stops to listen; just as it has happened in the case of Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, All Progressives Congress (APC) Gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State.
On Sunday, Lagos streets were set agog in several locations simultaneously as Street Voices, an initiative of communications strategist, Razaq Ivori, stepped out to campaign and share branded items in support of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to voters who do not participate in campaigns for several reasons.
Street Voices, which has a concept reminiscent of a voicebank that collects voices of concerned individuals to loan out to fast-breaking public issues made quite the spectacle in locations like Surulere, Ikeja, Somolu, Lekki, and diverse locations.
Razaq Ivori, founder of the initiative shared with The Lagos Times that “BOSYOURSTREET simply tries to attract those voters who never come out to campaign grounds; who see campaign grounds as a violent place where people fight and shoot guns.
“A lot of well-meaning, upwardly mobile people, working class people, and students run away from campaign grounds where there is normally violence. Most of these people are indoors and undecided in their voting decisions until the final hour. So I designed BOSYOURSTREET to cater for such people.”
On how the initiative works, Ivori explained, “It is on social media. BOSYOURSTREET starts with the advertisement on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. We tell people that if you wish to campaign for Sanwo-Olu on your own street, your own personal campaign, then we will come to you. The definition of BOSYOURSTREET is actually self-campaign. So if you wish to do a self-campaign or selfie campaign, all you need to do is retweet the post on BOSYOURSTREET, share it, and you will be provided with brand items to campaign on your street.
“Presently, we have received over 7000 retweets and request for brand items. Some came from Surulere, some came from Ikeja, some from Somolu and other areas of Lagos. So the team splits ourselves, calling these people who provided their numbers after we made contact and started dividing Tshirts and other campaign materials to them. It has actually become a street slang where you have young people asking each other, ‘have you BOSed your street?’ The idea is that Sanwo-Olu is coming with a beneficial package once he gets in.”
The Lagos Times further enquired if Ivori had plans to run for office sometime in the future, to which he replied, “I’m just the founder of Street Voices, which is like a voicebank where people loan their voices for different kinds of causes. Babajide Sanwo-Olu campaign is just one of those causes. Street voices initiative has been on for about eight months now, and in that time, we have done some successful campaigns. The Sanwo-Olu one started about a month ago.”