As we approach the official kick off of the 2023 Election campaign, it has become evident that the major political parties – All Progressives Congress, People’s Democratic Party and the Labour Party – have adopted strategies of trolling and insinuating news and information in the social media space, some of which are fake.
It is also noteworthy that the political lexicon in Nigeria has increased tremendously with words like BATified, OBIDENT, Atikulated and many more.
There are also ploys of deceit and calumny meant to create disaffection among Nigeria’s voting population, who desire credible and genuine leadership change.
The game is becoming highly fascinating for us as a people because we are faced with the opportunity to x-ray each of the presidential candidates and scrutinize them effectively before we can entrust them with our future as a country for the next four years.
Of course, you can’t take the intrigues and entertaining scenario that will naturally accompany situations like this.
By way of digression, let us congratulate our brothers in far away East Africa who just completed their election in Kenya. I think it’s important for them to subscribe to the option of court to sort out disputed areas rather than resorting to violence. It is always better to resolve our democratic issues through institutional framework put in place as pillars of democracy.
The electoral arbiter in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is counting down to blow the whistle for the kick-off of public political campaign in September across the country. Then the two major political parties with widespread structures across the country and Labour Party, seen as the 3rd force will hit the streets, towns and city in their full elements..
Suffice to say here that the Labour Party has been around especially during governor Olusegun Mimiko’s era in Ondo State, but no significant changes has taken place except that Mimiko and others eventually joined PDP which marked the end of Labour Party.
It’s therefore surprising while Peter Obi decamped from PDP to Labour thinking that he will make a beautiful showing during the elections on the platform that has no structure across the country. Why should Peter Obi be jumping from one party to another? Why didn’t he build a regional party and forge alliance with others? While so many questions are unanswered about the ambition of Peter Obi who seems to be overconfident of his victory. It’s also not out of place to be overconfident and ambitious but in all of this, I can smell inordinate ambition which is usually the achilles heel of supposed great leaders in history.
Peter Obi’s case may not be different in spite of all the razzmatazz he has brought into the political space in Nigeria and essentially into the 2023 general election. This is what political naivetes in the land have termed, the Peter Obi Political Movement.
But as a political scholar and participant, I can beat my chest that Peter Obi would have his name etched in gold if he manages to get more than four million votes in the February 25 presidential election.
Yes, he may win majority votes in the SouthEast, but he cannot get 25 per cent in two-third of the 36 states in Nigeria. Not possible!
He says the people are his structure and I laughed him to scorn. I have travelled almost all the length and breadth of major states recently and I have not seen any trace of the Labour Party secretariats. None in the South West for instance. And that accounts for why Peter Obi had just 2,700 votes in the last Osun State gubernatorial election.
To me, Peter Obi has started a new phase in the political evolution of Nigeria. But it takes ample time for it to make impact, hence my conclusion that he is the most unprepared presidential candidate for the position he is seeking for in 2023.
His presidential ambition is anchored on ethnic persuasions. He is the presidential candidate without national outlook. He is the presidential candidate without any political structure in the country. He is the presidential candidate targeting Christian voters.
He is the presidential candidate instigating the youths to take back their country from their parents, yet for 8 years as a governor in Anambra State, he did nothing for the youths.
He is the presidential candidate which his quotes or data can’t be trusted. Peter Obi will end up as a political entertainer of 2023 general elections. And I see him as one of the best Nollywood stars in 2023.
. Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman of Ikale Heritage Development Association writes from Lagos
