Five months after the 2023 General Election, politics and politicking has resumed in four states of Bayelsa, Edo, Kogi and Imo for off-seaon balloting in the states controlled, two apiece, by lead opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The two dominant parties – together with opposition Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – battled themselves to a standstill in the February-March elections.
Particularly in the presidential election of February 25, the APC, PDP and LP ran neck-and-neck, with APC and PDP winning in 12 states each, the LP in 11 states (and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja), and NNPP in one state.
The four parties faired similarly in the National Assembly (NASS) election held same day, with the APC topping the chart, and the NNPP rounding off the bottom.
Yet, only the older PDP, formed in 1998, and the APC, established in 2013 by four legacy parties of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), shared 26 (15-11) of 28 states that voted for governorship on March 18, leaving one state each for the LP and NNPP.
This was against expectations of many Nigerians, who’d predicted that the LP – in particular – would re-enact its surprisingly superlative outing at the presidential election.
But the party – propelled by a vociferous group of mostly young people aliased “Obidients” – fell short of its target, scraping only one state.
This is the setting in eight states for off-season goverorship poll that’ll precede the 2027 General Election, beginning with voting in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states on November 11.
But prior to that franchise, the existing 18 political parties will test their might at the September 2 local government election in Edo State, even as a faction of the PDP is in court in attempts to stop it.
So, all eyes are on the LP – the revelation, and “new kid on the block” of the 2023 election cycle – which shredded the formbook to claim – from zero – the third spot in federal and state polls on February 25 and March 18, respectively.
Perhaps to prove the LP outing in the General Election isn’t a fluke, former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, lately campaigned for its candidates at the Edo council poll.
The former Anambra State governor “stormed Benin City” on August 21 amid a jubilant crowd of party supporters and “Obidients” who chanted “Obi, Obi, Obi” and mobbed his campaign train as it snaked through major roads downtown the state capital.
Obi’s presence added verve to the saturated campaigns holding both day and night across the state.
Edo was one of the three South-South states that Obi won in February, thus it’s a homecoming for him 12 days to the election.
Obi, on the first of a three-state stop in Imo (where he allegedly gave Governor Hope Uzodinma of APC a “quit notice” on August 22), Bayelsa and Kogi for the off-season governorship, deftly added to his itinerary the council poll in Edo, which also holds its governorship in September 2024.
Surely, the September 2 council election serves as harbinger of what to expect in November in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo! This wasn’t lost on Obi, as he addressed the crowd, and the press in Benin City.
“The local government is the nearest to the people and it is supposed to be the root for ensuring development for the people,” Obi said, adding that, “the three most critical areas of development are health, education and poverty eradication.”
“So, for the system to work, for a country to develop well, it is the local government, as everything that has to do with development is domiciled in the local government. That is why it is critical to our development and sustainability,” Obi said.