Pirate Confraternity Clears The Air On Tinubu’s Candidature

<h4>Pirate Confraternity Clears The Air On Tinubu&&num;8217&semi;s Candidature<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>OpenLife Nigeria reproduces a statement by the Pirate Confraternity and signed by Abiola Owoaje&comma; NAS Cap’n&comma; in which it distances itself from being labeled as supporting Peter Obi of Labour Party and working against the candidature of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress&comma; APC&period; The statement reads in full&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>In the last 48 hours&comma; our attention has been drawn to a viral video of a song that has raised concerns and commentary across Nigeria&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>For the avoidance of doubt&comma; between August 4 and August 6 2022&comma; the National Association of Seadogs &lpar;Pyrates Confraternity&rpar; was in Ikeja&comma; Lagos&comma; for our 46th Annual General Meeting&period; This event was attended by over 2&comma;000 of our members who came to Lagos from all over the world&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>As part of the activities we were at the Isheri Primary Health Centre on Thursday 4th August&comma; where we provided free medical services to the Isheri Community&period; Over 300 people were assisted with various forms of medical treatment&period; We were also at the Police Hospital&comma; Area F&comma; Ikeja&comma; where we donated substantial quantities of PPEs and other medical supplies&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>These were part of our NAS Medical Mission which was founded in 2010&period; In the 12 years since then&comma; we have organised over 50 free medical missions that has made a difference to many disadvantaged communities across Nigeria&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Part of the annual general meeting was the review of our entire advocacy&comma; humanitarian and operational activities for the year&period; This&comma; then&comma; as usual&comma; culminated in a celebratory procession&comma; an aspect of this yearly process that we have undertaken for the last 46 years&period; In our view&comma; it proceeded without event&comma; until this extremely limited video made this appearance&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Quite contrary to the manner in which certain aspects of the video are being portrayed&comma; no aspect of this procession or the event itself was political&period; Rather it was the typical climax of our annual general meeting&period; At no time in the history of this organisation has this event&semi; or indeed any of our events had any slanted political leanings&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Let it be known that the National Association of Seadogs &lpar;Pyrates Confraternity&rpar; does not mock or discriminate against the physical condition of any person&period; Never&excl; It is an unfair characterisation and offends everything that we stand for&period; Indeed&comma; this would cause offence to even our own members that are also&comma; unfortunately&comma; afflicted that this would never be condoned&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>We must stress that we are apolitical&period; As an organisation&comma; we have never had a preferred candidate in any political elections including the upcoming 2023 general elections&period; We have members who belong to different political parties and are absolutely free to support any candidate of their choice&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>It is most unfortunate that political capital is being made of this with interpretations that are totally at variance with the philosophy of the Pyrates Confraternity&period; Unequivocally&comma; we condemn this in very strong terms&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>We understand that political merchants desperately seeking media mileage are all over the place misinforming and twisting events to suit their political agenda&period; However&comma; we wish to reemphasise that the National Association of Seadogs &lpar;Pyrates Confraternity&rpar; is not supporting or backing any candidate for the office of the President or any other office in the 2023 general elections and beyond&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>As an organisation in tune with disadvantaged and voiceless people&comma; we are committed to the enthronement of a just society in which no one is discriminated against based on tribe&comma; religion&comma; gender or disability&period; We are against conventions that are moribund&period; We have always stood for Humanistic ideals&comma; comradeship and chivalry&period; Nothing that has happened can and will change that posture&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>We are determined to continue to use our social programmes&comma; intellectual platforms and our compelling songs to advocate for good governance and accountability&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;