BackpagePeter ‘OBIdients Campaign’ And Nigerian Youths’ Desire To Grab Power

Peter ‘OBIdients Campaign’ And Nigerian Youths’ Desire To Grab Power

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There is no avoiding the phenomenon that the Peter Obi candidacy has engendered in the current political cycle. The current presidential campaign of the former Governor of Anambra State and former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Vice Presidential candidate in the 2019 general election is riding on a wave of popular support that is gaining momentum by the day. This support is outside the ongoing campaign by his in-house team, which appears to have taken on a life of its own within the most used social media platforms in the country and in person-to-person conversations about forthcoming presidential election.

For the first time in the history of our democratic experience, there is every likelihood that the 2023 general election will not be a two-horse race in the perennial fashion of a duopoly, as we have witnessed in previous elections cycles. Indeed, Obi’s wave of populist drive is ushering the gap-toothed 60-year-old to the forefront of consideration between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, presidential flagbearers of the frontline parties, the All Progressive Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, respectively.

As is often the case in the rise of populist political drives that challenge the status quo, the Obi phenomenon is driving a wedge between the establishment and a growing category of mostly youthful Nigerians who are determined to bring about a different practice of politics to the centre of power in Aso Rock.

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The determination is powered by a demography that has become exasperated with the level of waste of public funds and poor leadership, which is witnessed everyday in government, juxtaposed with government’s reluctance to spend for the benefit of the average Nigerian, as well as corrupt practices without the weight of the law applied on the few who are caught in the feeble web of the selective law.

In Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), they see a politician characterised by a frugality that is uncommon, a religious man who has proven his capacity to be fair to all, regardless of faith; a builder of institutions that can outlive him and one in whom confidence can be reposed in not dipping into the common till to satisfy selfish desires and to pander to cronyism.

The wave of populist political currents, which took off in the late 19th century as an ideological framework that placed the people against the establishment, witnessed a resurgence across Europe in recent years. From the shocking upset of Donald Trump’s ride to the White House against the favourite Hillary Clinton in the United States of America presidential election of 2016 to the 2017 election of youthful Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron against the more established Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen in France all the way to Nigel Farage’s campaign to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union, which turned out successfully in 2020, the average citizen has demonstrated time and again that when the chips are down and a popular single-minded purpose to bring about a difference in the way they are governed, they are ready to upset the apple cart and use their collective voices to not only campaign for change but also, in actuality, bring about such change at the polls.

Nigeria appears to be on the way to that destination, if the current Obi phenomenon is sustained. The previous opposition party to the PDP has been at the helm of affairs for the better part of two terms and was no different from the party that held sway since power returned to civilian control in 1999. If anything, the “CHANGE” mantra that they proclaimed was effectively in reverse.

The situation of our present circumstances is manifestly worse than it was when Goodluck Ebele Jonathan conceded defeat and called Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him for his victory at the 2014 general elections. The brunt of this difference is mostly borne by the average Nigerian, who is victim of both state and non-state villains. Our people are being brutalised by the police, kidnapped by commercial ransom seekers, waylaid by unknown gunmen, ambushed by herdsmen and robbed of their meagre earnings by armed robbers. As if all that were not hellish enough, Nigerians have to deal with epileptic power supply, skyrocketing inflation, over-taxation, intermittent economic recessions, dilapidated road networks, nonexistent public infrastructure, crumbling healthcare, underemployment and unemployment and much more.

Yet, at every election cycle, career politicians, who have perfected the weaponisation of this status quo and who thrive on the gullibility of party faithful, come with sugar-coated manifestos and pretentious acts of identifying with the anguish of the average Nigerian to make promises of effecting a change in the system to lead to a better life for all Nigerians.

Having had one too many cycles of this merry-go-round, there is a rise in the numbers of those who have had enough and who truly want to see positive change in place of the status quo. These Nigerians, who cut across subsections of young and old, are ready to pick up the challenge to see that the political system witnesses a shock to the core that will reverberate across board and sound a note of warning that it is no longer business as usual. To this end, they are fully focused at the presidential elections, to effect change from the very top. The turnout in the latest elections in Ekiti is evidence to show that the focal point, for those championing a new path for the country, is really the presidency.

For these Nigerians, there is a call to action. More than at any other time before, the steely resilience to get the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) has overwhelmed even the personnel of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The poorly staffed Commission has had their manpower called to question by the sheer number of Nigerians wishing to get their PVCs. It is true that there will be some in the number who want to get the PVC as an added means of identification because of the type of country Nigeria is, as it could become a requirement of some sorts in the future, but there is no removing the uptick in the numbers queuing up at INEC centres for their PVCs from the arousing interest in ensuring that Peter Obi gets a fighting chance to compete squarely against the behemoths of Tinubu and Atiku.

While Obi may not match Atiku and Tinubu in their ability to buy their way through, he has shown that they are no match to the breadth of his capacity to manage human and material resources judiciously and responsibly. A growing set of Nigerians want him to do this as president and they know that one way to make this happen is to get their PVCs, campaign for others to do the same and prepare to vote for him at next year’s elections.

This is beginning to scare those who do not want things to change. As a result, these people are invested in making sure that the determination of this set of Nigerians for change is scuttled. As characteristic of them they are already deploying rigging tactics. The deployment of the Bimodal Voters Authentication System (BVAS) for elections is one way to checkmate rigging and has the potential to keep out sharp practices and voting manipulations. What this has done is force those who want to cheat to re-strategise. My belief is that part of this re-strategising has to do with what has been unfolding with the inability of those who are trooping to INEC centres for their PVCs. It has become the first step to keep out large sections of people from ever getting the chance to exercise their duties and bring about real change. This disenfranchisement, if sustained, will likely cut into the numbers for Obi and give victory to one of the other two as majority of those who have woken up to the need for change and who are getting on the PVC drive want nothing to do with APC or PDP.

I experienced this difficult and discouraging process of getting a PVC firsthand. It took me no less than four hours to get my biometrics captured by the system and thereafter handed a slip and told to return in August for my PVC. The truth is that not everyone wishing to get their cards can sacrifice the time and hours that the process takes, sometimes over a couple of days, to get theirs. It is, like most things Nigerian, a painstakingly frustrating process and appears aimed at forcing the one doing their best to get their PVC to throw up their hands in desolate tiredness and give up the entire attempt. But, I am here to say nobody should let the process force them to give up. We have come this far in enduring all that the country has put us through and there is now, for the first time in a long time, a real light at the end of the tunnel. We cannot back down now. We have endured so much and lost some patriots whose struggles have brought us this far. We honour their memories and their sacrifices by making this sacrifice ourselves, to ensure we resiliently pursue the PVC collection process to the end.

I pray that no life is lost in the process as I cannot but give kudos to those who have stayed the course and are doing their best to encourage those around them to do the same. We cannot be complacent anymore. We have a duty to shake off all notions of voter apathy, while we remain undeterred. The only way we can defeat these clueless politicians is for us to remain resolute and defiant.

Each Nigerian is called by the growing number of young and old PVC campaigners to do their best to register and get their PVCs. I add my voice and ask that we invest our time, effort and sweat to get the PVC. Then, at the appropriate time, exercise our fundamental rights to pick leaders who will move our dear nation from the brink back on course to progress.

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