9 Nigerians running in Tuesday’s U.S. elections

By NAN

No fewer than nine Nigerian Americans are on the ballot in Tuesday’s general elections in the United States, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Running mostly on the platform of the Democratic Party, the candidates are bidding for different offices at the federal, state, and local levels.

NAN reports that besides the presidential election, governorship polls are holding in 11 states and two territories, in addition to other state and local elections.

Congressional elections are also holding on Tuesday with all the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate up for grabs.

At the federal level, Mr Oye Owolewa, whose father is from Kwara and mother from Oyo, is aiming for a ‘shadow’ (non-voting) seat in the House of Representatives.x

Owolewa, a Ph.D. holder in Pharmacy from Northeastern University, Boston, is seeking to represent the District of Columbia (DC) under the Democratic Party.

From top left to bottm right: Oye Owolewa, Yomi Faparusi, Yinka Faleti, Paul Akinjo, Adewunmi Kuforiji, Esther Agbaje, April Ademiluyi, Ngozi Akubuike and Benjamin Osemenam.
Also at the federal level, Mr Yomi Faparusi, an Ibadan-born native of Ode-Ekiti in Ekiti State, is vying as an independent candidate to represent the state of Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.

Faparusi holds a doctorate in Medicine from the University of Ibadan, a Ph.D. in Health from Johns Hopkins University, and Juris Doctorate from the Widener University School of Law, Delaware.x

This is not his first shot at the U.S. Congress. In 2014 and 2016, he vied for the Republican Party’s ticket to the House of Representatives but lost in both occasions

Faparusi’s priorities include being a positive voice for all Nigerians in the U.S. Senate and inspiring Americans of African or Nigerian descent to seek public office in the country.

In Missouri, a Republican-controlled state, Mr Yinka Faleti from Lagos is the Democratic Party flagbearer in the election for the office of Secretary of State.

According to Wikipedia, Faleti was in the U.S. Army as an active-duty officer from 1998 to 2004. He served in Kuwait, first under Operation Desert Spring and later as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.