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London Mayor: The story of how YouTube star could rock the nation as voting opens on Thursday

London Mayor Elections: Niko Omilana preparing to rival Sadiq Khan after endorsement by KSI and Premier League star

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YouTube sensation Niko Omilana has been predicted to win 5% of the London Mayoral votes, as reported by Savanta ComRes.

The 23-year-old influencer grabbed headlines when he announced his campaign to become the new London Mayor on April 2nd with an announcement video on his Twitter account.

In his announcement video, whilst wearing a pair of children’s orange and green sunglasses, the independent standing candidate said he is “taking this extremely seriously” before claiming that if “you don’t vote for Niko, your breath stinks”.

He said: “There is no greater leader in this country than me, so please my friends, vote Niko for Mayor of London on May 6th or your breath stinks.”

His campaign opening video reaped 1.7 million views and was liked over 80,000 times. The youngest 2021 London Mayoral candidate has been endorsed by Premier League and England star, Declan Rice and as well as one of YouTube’s biggest names, KSI.

Omilana has 3.58 million subscribers on YouTube and has totalled over 280 million views since creating his channel in June 2011.

Using his platform, he has been pushing the ‘NDL movement’, the Niko Defence League which is a parody of the EDL, to go viral by winning the hearts – and laughs – of his audience.

Since his declaration to become Mayor of London at the start of April, Omilana’s YouTube channel has gained over 300,000 subscribers and over 23 million views.

The Gen-Z candidate continues to take the election by storm with various publicity stunts.

The first of which was by parking a digital advertising board with #NikoForMayor outside of the BBC News offices in London, until he got an interview with BBC News.

His second publicity stunt occurred in a video uploaded to YouTube, giving users a taste of his manifesto.

Omilana “stopped and served” members of the public on a “five-star restaurant on a London bus” which was driven around the capital.

With help from the ‘Wind Rush Bar and Kitchen’, the YouTuber raised awareness regarding the reported institutionalised discrimination in stop and searches in London.

With good intentions at the forefront of Omilana’s actions, all proceeds gained from the video were matched and donated to ‘The Forefront Project’ – a charity that helps steer young adults away from crime.

Since, Omilana published his official manifesto on Twitter stating that “Boris Johnson will be forced to shush”, introduce ‘Stop and Serve’ to provide free school meals and to reduce the price of a Freddo to five pence.

With booths opening across the Capital, Londoners will be flocking to cast their vote and Omilana will be hoping that his audience cross the box next to his name…

JakeStokes
JakeStokes
Student of Football Journalism at the University of Derby

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