Nine Nigerian contesting in U.S. elections

No fewer than nine Nigerian Americans are on the ballot for 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, Oye Owolewa, whose father is from Kwara and mother from Oyo, is aiming for a ‘shadow’ (non-voting) seat in the House of Representatives.

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

If elected, the 30-year-old, whose agenda includes fighting income inequality in the U.S., would be the first Nigerian congressman in the country’s history.