AS the date for the governorship and state assemblies elections draws near, politicians have restarted campaigns after a brief pulse during the presidential and national assembly elections.

Many have resorted to the old campaign strategy of sharing food items to voters in a bid to woo them to vote for them on election day. The governorship and state assemblies elections will hold on Saturday, March 9, 2019.

A video clip has emerged on the social media showing citizens falling over themselves as they struggle for small bags of rice that had been donated by a politician.

The incident took place in Lagos State and reports say the bags of rice came from Jide Sanwo-Olu, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

Sanwo-Olu is the favourite to win the election, having beaten the incumbent governor, Akinwumi Ambode in the APC governorship primary election. Sanwo-Olu also has the backing of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and one of the national leaders of the APC.

The video, which was shared by The Punch on Twitter, showed some men throwing out the bags of rice from a lorry while the people struggle to catch them. Some were seen fighting over who would take possession of the bags.

There is real hunger in land.
To think this actually happened in our dear Lagos 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️pic.twitter.com/8gCBlwq0Yt

— MissteryWoman (@So_naughty12) March 1, 2019

“Naija stomach infrastructure, that’s what most politicians want from the people they govern. Till next four years again. Sorry,” wrote one Okpala Emmanuel in reaction to the video.

Another Twitter user, Idris, wrote: “And you think this country will be better? When they use poverty as a tool.”

But some others disagreed that the people were struggling over the bags of rice because they are poor or hungry, but because they were not content with what they have.

“This isn’t hunger in the Land… Most of these people do not need to rush for food if they were contented with what they have,” wrote someone with the username ‘Grill Magic‘.

Another user, DJ, wrote: “Looking at the people fighting for that stuff being thrown, they don’t look like they can’t afford them. People will naturally jostle for anything free. The same way people jostle for free stuff musicians throw at the crowd in their shows. But blame it on the fact [that] they voted APC.”