Eddy Odivwri
In a short while from now, the 2023 electioneering will kick off in earnest. But ahead of that whistle, we are already being ushered into the prologue lounge of what promises to be a fiery and dirty campaign drama. We can tell from the emerging character and colour of the campaign that there will be a surfeit of entertainment of the Nigerian electorate in the shade of the good, the bad and the ugly.
There are eighteen political parties that will be running for the 2023 presidential contest. But attention may just be focused on the quartet of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP— sounds more like NNPC).
No doubt, the campaigns should be issues-denominated, but the indications that it will include the drawbacks of the various candidates, are already being shown.
Perhaps, the one with the heaviest baggage is the APC presidential standard-bearer, Senator Bola Tinubu. Clearly, the concerns on four areas of his profile will draw much flak. They include his age, his educational qualifications, his health and his source of wealth; while the larger issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket will be a major cross that will be borne.
His campaign spokesman, Mr Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity is already sweating in his bid to explain and defend these points about his candidate.
Early in the week, Keyamo appeared on ARISE News TV station where he struggled (impatiently) to explain away the concerns Nigerians have on his master.
He came across with some air of omniscient complex, garnished with arrogance, ready to explain away and even dismiss all the issues about Bola Tinubu and even the APC.
When asked about Tinubu’s certificate scandals, he pre-empted the interviewer by saying Toronto State University had written to say Tinubu graduated from that institution with a grade equivalent to First Class. He was asked if Tinubu actually went to Primary and secondary schools, as there has been so much controversy over those stages of the candidate’s education. Without saying Yes or No, Keyamo, although admitted that Tinubu “did not reveal it”, launched into the verbiage of “virtues of great men”, which he said was studying and passing those exams from home and not going to the four walls of a school”, stressing that “in those days, you don’t have to go to school”, adding that “that’s how you know great men”, he enthused. Really? Was there ever a time in our history that people deliberately didn’t have to go to school and chose to read for exams from their homes, if it was not for certain deprivations, especially financial? He cleverly avoided being categorical whether or not Tinubu went to school, choosing to ride roughshod over some other critical questions. But if Tinubu actually went to school, who were his classmates and how old are they?
On his age, he repeated that Tinubu is 70 years old, asking the interviewer whether or not she was Tinubu’s parents to argue otherwise. This is against the belief that Tinubu’s eldest daughter, who is the Iyaloja of Lagos is 60 years old. But Keyamo quips that “she is 40-something.” Keyamo cannot be unaware of the recent testimony of Tee Mac, musician and Tinubu’s in-law, who declared that Bola Tinubu is 86 years old.
Asked about the security situation confronting the country under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Keyamo in what looks like overshadowing Lai Mohammed in undermining critical issues said the Buhari administration had done so much in combating the security challenges facing the country . His proof of this prowess is that the Maiduguri-based El kanemi Football Club which has been playing its matches in Bauchi because of the insecurity in Maiduguri and the rest of the North east, can now play in Maiduguri.
Keyamo in dismissing the controversial issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket explained that given the nature of the Nigerian polity, it was to be expected that a Southern Muslim like Tinubu would pick his running mate from the Muslim stock of the north in order to win election stressing that “if you flip it, you’d get it”.
But last Tuesday some protest erupted from the North central zone condemning the choice of Gov Simon Lalong of Plateau State, as the Director General of the Tinubu campaign Organisation, saying the North Central deserves to produce the running mate to the APC candidate. Many see the appointment of Lalong as a deliberate effort to placate the Christian community, which feels neglected and ignored by the choice of Kashim Shettima as the running mate to Tinubu. Lalong has however insisted that he will take the appointment and stressed that the Pope has not condemned what he is doing politically.
The protest was further amplified by some Middle Belt Congress youths who have called for the resignation of kashim Shettima , “to avoid the embarrassment of the party in the 2023 election”. It appears, an endless controversy.
The fear that the campaigns will degenerate to attacks on individuals and not issues was given when Keyamo offered to nurture and support Senator Dino Melaye, one of the spokespersons of Atiku, in his music and comedy efforts, implying that Dino Melaye was not sufficiently equipped to deal with the more serious issues of a presidential campaign. Dino Melaye, in another interview, had earlier threatened to tear down Keyamo.
The PDP, it appears, will be dogged with internal crisis and wrangling for a pretty long time. With the flip-flop reconciliation effort between the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike. This has affected the early constitution of the party’s Campaign Council.
Perhaps more troubling for the PDP candidate will be the issues of his integrity quotient as he has been accused severally of unwholesome practices while in government. This, his critics say, caused the distrust between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, who was his deputy. But Daniel Bwala, one of the spokespersons for the PDP candidate, while appearing on ARISE TV last Wednesday explained that the distrust arose from Atiku’a opposition to the third term plan of former President Obasanjo.
As for the digital demography of the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, the mass of supporters has continued to swell. However the rank and file of the supporters which operate like a mob had swooped on Sam Omatseye whose column in The Nation, Obi-tuary drew a lot of flak from the supporters and non-supporters of Peter Obi, especially as he (Obi ) was accused of having a link with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In the same manner, over the weekend, a video of some persons believed to be of the Pyrates Confraternity, were seen singing and dancing to an Emi Lokan song that clearly mocks and denigrates the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Professor Wole Soyinka, the founder of the confraternity had expressed disapproval of the video which had gone viral.
Similarly, the spokesman of the Bola Tinubu campaign organization, Bayo Onanuga has been forced to issue a statement urging Peter Obi to call his supporters to order, as they are often denigrating other presidential candidates, especially Bola Tinubu.
The camp of the Rabiu Kwankwaso’s NNPP has been somewhat quiet and in a state of inertia, after naming its Vice Presidential candidate, Bishop Idahosa, which was seen as a loud answer to the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC. Though a Christian, Idahosa is little known in the political arena in Nigeria, just as his electoral value is yet to be assessed or confirmed.
In all, there are clear indications that when the campaigns proper start towards the end of next month, the sparks of fire from the various campaign organisations will surely lighten the political firmament in Nigeria.
Omo-Agege and the Leadership Sceptre in Delta
Eddy Odivwri
If the occupation of media space is the only measure to test the electoral value and popularity of candidates at the Delta governorship race, then the Deputy Senate President, Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege would be rest assured that his aspiration to govern Delta State has been confirmed and gazetted by the voting public in his state. But it is not.
Last week, when the number five citizen of the country celebrated his 59th birthday, he practically had the world at his feet, what with tons of messages in regular and digital media felicitating with him.
Like in many states, the contention for the governorship seat is essentially between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Omo-Agege is the unopposed candidate of the APC, while the PDP’s candidate is still a matter of controversy.
While the primary election had produced Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, who is the current Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, an Abuja High court had knocked him off and declared that Chief David Edevbie is the party’s candidate.
Oborevwori is being accused of lacking requisite educational qualifications to run the governorship race.
This accusation has thrown the Delta Speaker into the frenzy of struggling to prove that he is not only very qualified, having gone to schools in Nigeria, that he also got several certificates from foreign schools based on short term training programmes he attended.
The declaration of Edevbie as the PDP candidate in the state has been challenged in an Appeal Court, which is yet to hear the matter proper.
Last week, some youths believed to be supporters of Oborevbori had protested the perceived indifference of the national party leadership in the Delta governorship matter.
Earlier, Edevbie’s supporters had also led a protest calling on Iyrochia Ayu, the national Chairman of the party, to resign as his role in resolving the crisis in the state’s chapter of the party is foggy.
While Oborevwori is being backed by the outgoing governor of Delta State and Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Edevbie is being backed by the former governor of the state and godfather of the PDP in the state, Chief James Ibori. The arising conflict had put a strain in the relationship between Ibori and Okowa.
While the infighting of the candidates in the PDP continues, even in the court, Omo-Agege seems to be consolidating on his hold of the voting public in the state.
Beside his belief that he has spread enough of his goodwill and influence to every part of the state, using the privileges of his constituency projects, Omo-Agege also believes that the feud in the PDP may end up clearing the PDP off the ballot in the state. He argues that there are provisions in the new Electoral Act that stipulate that any party’s candidate who gets disqualified on account of not fulfilling the basic requirements of a governorship candidate will be barred from the contest as it will not be allowed to replace its candidate. It is not certain if that fate will befall the PDP, which had been in control of political power in the state since 1999.
Omo-Agege, who had also served as Special Duty Commissioner in the State as well as the Secretary to Government, explains that his structure in the state is all inclusive, just as his projects in every part of the state will certainly push and transmit his influence in the minds of the young and the old in the state.
He boasts of having executed or having more ongoing projects in the state, than the state government. His street electrification projects in parts of Delta north, including even some Agbor communities, as well as classroom blocks and road projects in Koko, Escravos, several Urhobo communities, not to mention the markets and sundry empowerment programmes in the state, have gone a long way in endearing him to the hearts of community leaders in the state.
The Deputy Senate President noted that in order to ensure that his projects are not mistaken for the State government’s projects, he has specially branded his own projects, including street light schemes.
The newly established Federal Polytechnic in Orogun, Delta State may have been the crowning of his efforts to put the people of Orogun on the national map, what with the hundreds of jobs that the Polytechnic is bound to offer the people of the state, both the skilled and unskilled labour work force.
