By Olayinka Olaiya
Peter Obi of Labour Party, Bola Tinubu of APC and Abubakar Atiku of PDP
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has lifted the ban on political campaigns starting from today, Wednesday the 28th of September 2022, for the next one hundred and fifty days. Campaigns for elections must stop twenty-four hours before the Election Day. Therefore, candidates for the presidency and National Assembly have till February 23, 2023 ahead of elections on February 25, 2023, while those running for governor and state assemblies will close campaigns on the 9th ahead of elections on March
11, 2023.
These campaigns have not been issue-based so far, and whenever topics are issue-based they are raised for cheap, illogical points, like comparing under which party Nigerians died most without any side suggesting solutions to our low life expectancy or under which government insecurity was most widespread without ideas on bringing enhanced security
to the masses.
Rude and extravagant may be a fitting theme for the unofficial campaigns so far. We are watching a ruling party quietly distancing their new candidate from the massive failure of their administration or outright, more often than anyone could imagine half a decade ago, insulting citizens when such issues are pointed out to them. A leading voice in the All
Progressive Congress, Festus Keyamo, gave us a peep into the campaigns when he proudly told us that Nigerians are too hungry to vote along ethno-religious lines. In essence, hunger has so battered our senses of reason that we will have no choice but to unite and run under the APC’s table for crumbs. Unfortunately, he is logically correct and this will be
statistically proven at the polls. Voters will be swayed by the bribes they get at the
grassroots, wards, and polling booths, even if what they get is enough to feed themselves for only one dinner. If anyone expects repercussions for the pains the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has been passing through without a salary for over half a year or from the students who have been at home so far due to ASUU’s industrial action for the
ruling APC, they are horribly mistaken. Although ASUU members will technically be engaged to conduct the elections, they will be fully in charge as the students are the most powerful node in the social web as they can influence the public; friends, family, neighbours, the educated and illiterate. That is ‘if’ they ever will. So the APC is well aware that there are no boomerangs from Nigerians, so they have been unapologetic or persuasive, instead seeking all means to blackmail ASUU into submission. Any fearful party would have resolved the strike issues before the campaigns began.
Like Festus Keyamo said, the students will be happy political touts and thugs for the period before they resume classes, and the academics will be willing tools for election
manipulations. Task completed.
The Obidients, on the other hand, have been disobedient more regularly, bringing on the spirit of the ENDSARS movement. Nigerian youth still have the very wrong “we don’t need you” notion. However, the youth have been the most abysmal age demographic in leadership and administration. History reported some certain youth igniting the civil war
and subsequent generations have been caught on the wrong side of history afterwards.
With the return of democracy, youths that rose to the highest positions of leadership have let down the nation. Youth energy and knowledge are a curse in the absence of elder experience and wisdom. The youth-driven movement must apply much tact to succeed.
Winning at the polls is only the beginning of a big trial for Nigerian youth, a chance for the present generation of people below forty years of age to prove they are angry with the situation and not individuals.
The Muslim and Muslim ticket of the leading candidates will also be a non-issue. It actually wasn’t except for some noise and threats here and there, as well as a tool to divide and capture towards the elections.
Time is healing the wounds of the angry parties as many are already getting bought over and many more will be before the polls. For the neutral and independent-minded, it’s a matter of choice whether the presidential candidate and his deputy are twins. If they meet your criteria, vote for them; otherwise, find an alternative.
TINUBU’S SUPER-RICH FRIENDS AND NO SHISHI SPENDING BILLIONS OF
NAIRA.
The campaigns are poised to be the most expensive Nigerians have ever seen, with very high spending to be expected from the heavyweight Tinubu camp with funding from Tinubu’s teeming super rich friends, beneficiaries and political allies across the Niger and the underdog Peter Obi movement. All others will fall in between these two sides, and here’s why. Although Peter Obi’s movement proudly claims they give no shishi to influence voters, we should expect them to spend heavily and any strategically thinking leader of that movement knows better. In Nigeria, votes are still for sale and at ridiculously cheap prices; as cheap as a bottle of soda, a loaf of bread, or even a cup of cold water for the electorate that have stood under the sun for hours and foolishly think the kindness of a party foot soldier giving them a half-litre sachet of water is enough to buy off their rights for four years. The Obidients are amassing arsenals for the battles of 2023 in terms of money and materials. Other parties are sensing this so much that the ruling party even threatened to intervene to stop diaspora-based Nigerians from dictating who should rule in Nigeria.
Anyway, if there are rules that prevent funding from abroad, the APC broke them first. Eight years ago, they sold their presidential candidate to Nigerians all over the Western world and raised huge support. If only they had established a means of monitoring such funds since then, we would have been able to follow what the Labour Party may be raising
from the diaspora this season. Back to the Obidients and no shishi, there’s no shishi of sincerity in no shishi past their top candidates. Peter Obi, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, and some other top candidates may be billionaires, but they can save far more than their rivals
as they ride on the wave of the tsunami movement sweeping across the country.
From a party with no structures, or representatives in any post, or candidates at the grassroots, they have successfully built a structure with candidates for almost every post and continue to grow, and now is the time for supporters to gather money and spend it for the movement and their candidates.
So far, the number of Tinubu campaign organizations that have sprang up may be more than that of all others combined excluding the decentralized Peter Obi movement.
There were indeed passionate Nigerians who, instead of taking, would rather give. They gave and gave to a particular Muhammadu Buhari in 2014 and are giving to this Peter Obi now. The Labour Party should know that in the event that they win the seat, it will be heated not by the opposition but by sacrificing supporters who will not forgive them if they fail. They can go ahead and verify this too.
