Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City, has assured the Nigerian community of including them in governance, if elected mayor in the November election.

Adams gave the assurance at a virtual meeting with the Nigerian community, coordinated by the Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN) and the Nigerian-Americans Public Affairs Committee (NAPAC).

“We want members from your community on that transition team to give us résumés and other communications of those prominent personalities – people that can be helpful in governing.

“We don’t only want you to help us when we need you to govern, we want members of your community on the Transition Team as we figure out policies and people to move our city forward.

“I can’t thank you enough for your commitment and dedication. For you were clear that I was your candidate and you committed to this victory we are celebrating right now. Thank you very much,” Mr Adams said.

The Nigerian community had on June 5, endorsed Adams as the New York City Mayoral candidate for the general election after a series of debates with the candidates and consultations among Nigerians.

The mayoral nominee is projected to win the November election as New York City is traditionally a Democrat city and the party usually produces the mayor.

Adams said that a transition team was being put in place ahead of the November 2 election and that the Nigerian community should prepare its members to be in the team.

Adams further solicited the support of the Nigerian community in the general election.

“I need you to get the job done, the mobilisation effort that you will put in place, the thousands of phone calls, reaching out to the various groups, raising the money and other campaign activities.

“We were successful in raising the money during the primaries, raising 11 million dollars by having small groups hold events and we want to do it again.

“We need to raise 7.2 million dollars that we need; we want to encourage you to reach out to your constituency and tell them that we can raise that amount of money,” he said.

Earlier, the chairman of NAPAC, New York, Gbenga Omotayo, said the Nigerian community had delivered bloc votes from different associations that made up the community.

“For us here at Nigerian community, it has been a pleasure forming and building a coalition toward engaging our people in the civic process and mobilising our votes into bloc towards your mayoral candidacy.

“We are proud to say we delivered on our promise. Among many things, we did an endorsement, we organised a fund raiser and we launched an SMS banking campaign targeting 10,000 African voters.

“We also coordinated campaigns in churches, mosques and ethnic associations.

“We believe this is just the beginning; our goal is to work to make sure that your nomination translates into a landslide victory in November,” Mr Omotayo said.

He advised Mr Adams to implement a people’s plan that would deliver on security, assistance in housing and support for working families across the five Bureaux of New York.

Mr Omotayo said that the Nigerian community would need a direct communication channel with Adams to manage access and that the community had been discussing with his team to hold a fundraising event soon.

“Our coalition will like to continue the mobilisation by inviting you to attend the major Nigerian churches and mosques to engage our religious leaders,” he said.