After a critical look at the efforts of the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, in the just concluded 2023 presidential Poll, David-Chyddy Eleke concludes that he is an emerging force in Nigeria's political landscape.
Not many gave former Anambra State governor, Mr Peter Obi, a chance, when in June 2022, he moved to Labour Party, after he sensed a conspiracy to frustrate his presidential ambition in his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party. But Obi thronged on, and before long, his seriousness to vie for the nation's presidential seat began to manifest.
This was followed strongly with the approval of Nigerian youths, who immediately rallied behind him, endorsing him in all parts of the country, leaving most contenders in awe, while many still disbelieved that the support was real.
For example, some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) refused to believe that the social media followership that Obi was getting, could culminate into physical support.
Former National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, when asked during a live television interview if Obi and the Labour Party constitute any threat to his party, having seen the level of support that the LP candidate was enjoying, simply replied: "The people you see on social media supporting Peter Obi are not real, they are just about four persons tweeting in a room and trying to make people believe that Obi was popular".
Oshiomhole may not have been alone in this line of thinking. Many people actually believed that Obi and members of his campaign team stage-managed the huge support that Obi was getting from the social media, by employing people to use several social media handle to hype Obi and make it look like he was very popular.
Obi or rather, Nigerian youths who were drumming support for Obi, got the opportunity to prove themselves, when they organized a one million man march in various cities in the country, firstly in Lagos, Benin and Delta. The march witnessed huge attendance, even without the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council lifting a finger to organize it. It was purely an organic crowd of young people who believed that the dominant system had failed them, and were yearning for a change.
Many others believed that Obi may not be able to sustain the tempo of support, after joining the Labour Party in June 2022, while the election was scheduled to hold on February 25, 2023, a clear eight months away. The belief was that the force propelling the support for Obi would wane before the election. This may have been the reason why many, including the Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, swore that Obi would not be able to win up to three states in the country.
Reality however dawned on all, after the presidential election, where Obi, like the other two leading candidates, won 12 states.
The clamour for Obi was so high that even in Lagos State, where the candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu hails from, Obi's victory re-echoed there.
Above all, what was more resounding was the number of candidates of the Labour Perty that were able to win elective positions in all parts of the country, using the influence of Obi.
In Anambra State where Obi hails from, candidates of Labour Party for all elective positions had smooth sail to victory, courtesy of Obi. For example, out of the three senatorial seats in the state, Labour party candidates won two of the seats in Anambra North and Anambra Central, where Hon Tony Nwoye and Senator Victor Umeh clinched the positions, leaving only one seat in Anambra South which Senator Ifeanyi Ubah won. The ruling party in the state, All Progressives Grand Alliance, was not able to clinch any seat because of Obi's popularity in the state.
Also, out of the 11 federal constituencies, Labour Party won five, leaving the ruling party in the state, APGA with four, while YPP won one seat, and one (Ogbaru Federal Constituency) is set for a rerun, with Labour Party still in the lead.
Also in the state assembly election, Labour Party was able to stop APGA from sweeping the entire 30-man seat. While APGA struggled to secure the majority of the seats, LP got eight seats. Young Progressives Party through the influence of its national leader, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, won three seats, which are concentrated around Nnewi, where he hails from.
In the representation of the party in the soon to be inaugurated 10th National Assembly, INEC had in a press conference stated that Labour Party won six senatorial seats and 34 seats in the House of Representatives, making it the third most popular party in the incoming 10th National Assembly.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in giving a breakdown of the seats won by the various parties said: "In the senatorial election, 98 out of 109 seats have been declared. Seven political parties won senatorial seats while in the House of Representatives, 325 out of 360 seats have been won by eight political parties.
"All Progressives Congress (APC) won 57 Senate seats; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 29; Labour Party (LP) six; Social Democratic Party (SDP) two; New Nigeria Peoples Party two; Young Progressives Party (YPP) one and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) one.
"In the case of the lower chamber, APC has 162 seats; PDP, 102; LP, 34; NNPP, 18; APGA, four; ADC, two; SDP, two; YPP, one."
It was generally believed that most of those who won election on the platform of Labour Party did so, through the influence of Peter Obi. This has set him as a major force to reckon with in Nigeria's political landscape, making Labour Party the third force in the country.
A journalist, Mr Tony Okafor, while speaking on the sustainability of the feat attained by LP said: "I have written to Mr Peter Obi and told him to own these young politicians who just won seats in the national and state assemblies through his influence. Most of them are rookie politicians, and they need a father figure to be there for them. Obi must take them in, train them, mentor them and see them grow."
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The popularity of Obi, even after the election has, however, continued to soar. In many public gatherings that he has attended after the presidential poll, the ovation for the former governor has remained high. In Anambra State, Obi's appearance at the International Convention Center, Awka, during the first year anniversary of the Prof Soludo as governor, caused quite a stir. Obi appeared at a time when the governor was already on the podium to deliver his anniversary speech, and his presence sent the crowd ecstatic with joy, as they hailed him, to the point that the governor's speech was disrupted momentarily.
Reacting to this, many people who felt that the 97 percent bites which Obi won in the state during the presidential election, have already started recanting. A known critic of Obi, Reno Omokri, after the show of solidarity took to his Social media page to apologize to Obi for doubting his absolute victory in the presidential election on Anambra.
So far, Obi has already approached the court over the presidential election, on the grounds that he won the election, but many believe that even if he fails to recover his allegedly stolen mandate, Obi remains a force that if sustained will In the near future get the opportunity to rule Nigeria.
