October 25, (THEWILL) – The 2023 general election in Nigeria promises to be a referendum of sorts.
That is simply because each of the frontrunners of the three main parties, All Progressives Progress, APC, People Democratic Party, PDP and Labor Party, LP that are likely to produce the next president of Nigeria next year, have assets or liabilities by virtue of having been in public eyes through public service records, that are being scrutinized.
And it is from those prisms, that the assessment of the capacities and abilities of the potential next president of Nigeria in 2023, is being carried out.
But even as the February 25 date, when the first ballots are expected to be cast is barely four (4) months away, internal schisms are still wracking the main political parties-ruling All Progressives Party, APC, the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and a new contender, Labor Party, LP.
The wrangling in the two traditional rival parties is so rife that, while the APC could not form its campaign council or produce its manifesto until last Friday, October 21, which is nearly one month after the lndependent National Electoral Commission, lNEC, lifted the ban on campaigns last September 28, the PDP had launched its campaign and manifesto on October 10 which is barely twelve (12)days after the ban was lifted.
Even, the PDP is yet to ramp up its campaign in ernest, owing to hiccups bothering on whether or not it is pausing to accommodate the rebellious gang of governors led by Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, with three (3) or four(4) other governors, which is gaining traction and with a potential of crystallizing into a breakaway faction of the PDP.
I will in the course of this discussion dwell further on the internecine wars raging in the APC and PDP, which are being quelled by the former, even as it is, unfortunately, consuming the latter.
In contrast to the crisis that has stricken the traditional parties, the Labor Party, LP, which is coming in from the rear has been to some degree rancour-free.
Remarkably, LP had literally jumped the gone by commencing campaigns online and embarking on million-man marches, which are actually street processions staged by angry unemployed and out-of-school youths. Somehow, it amounted to campaigning in disguise long before it was legitimate to do so.
And it boils down to bending the rule without breaking it since the nation’s elections regulatory organ, INEC, which had set the takeoff date for the campaigns for the 2023 elections for September 28, did not take cognizance of the power of the internet in political campaigns or could not phantom how to enforce a ban on campaigning online.
Consequently, LP was able to seize the space to maximally market itself and its presidential candidate to the youths who are so-called NETIZENS and mainly adult Nigerians in the diaspora who are now at the forefront of the movement for the actualization of Obi presidency in 2023.
Having started late, since the LP, unlike the PDP or APC had never been in power as a ruling party as such it is relatively unknown to the electorate and therefore, understandable, why the party has been in a hurry to spread its footprints nationwide.
Written by Magnus Onyibe.
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