Across the states of Nigeria, political bigwigs have embarked on high wire political meetings, alignment and realignment of forces, following the recent political tsunami, caused by the Labour Party Candidate, Peter Obi.
There is no doubt that Nigeria is currently witnessing a political Spring that has become volcanic in nature, since the entrance of Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) into the Presidential race, driven by the love youths have for him.
Regarded as a well organised sociological and political Spring, the movement began two years ago, when young people tried to protest what they saw as bad governance and the absence of justice, equity and fairness.
The Labour Party won a total of eleven states and the FCT, took six states hitherto controlled by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), including; Lagos, Nsarawa, Plateau, Imo, Ebonyi and Cross River States.
Analysis of the party performance also show that Labour Party has so far won 40 seats in the 10th National Assembly, in the areas where elections have been conducted.
Results released by INEC show that the ruling 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.
Similarly, result for the lower legislative Chambers shows APC won 162 seats; PDP, 102; LP, 34; NNPP, 18; APGA, four; ADC, two; SDP, two; YPP, one.
For the youths and several other Nigerians who were suppressed during the protest, the recent election provided opportunities and Peter Obi, provided the platform through the Labour Party (LP).
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The result of the election showed that for many Governors who regard Nigerias Upper Legislative House, the Senate as their retirement home got the greatest shock of their lives as only two, out of the nine outgoing Governors, got elected into the Senate.
Thus, of the sitting governors that wanted to go to the Senate, only Dave Umahi and Sani Bello of Ebonyi and Niger states respectively, were elected.
Thus, Ben Ayade (Cross River), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi), Darius Ishaku (Taraba), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi( Enugu), all failed to make it to the Senate.
For the first time in history, the All Progressives Congress suffered humiliating defeat to the Labour Party in Lagos State, where the President-elect, Bola Tinubu held sway for several years as governor.
For Abuja-based Lawyer, Osita Nwanjo, “Peter Obi remains the true hero of the ongoing election, whether he wins the Presidential race or not.”
According to him, the “Consciousness of Nigerians was awakened by Peter Obi, the man many regarded as structureless. But they forgot that structures are built through associations. Association of like minds build structures in every given space, politically speaking and structures are controlled by caucuses.”
The fear of Peter Obi and the “Obidient Movement,” have now fire Ed some sitting governors/administrations to appeal to the sentiments of the electorate, ahead of the rescheduled March 18 Governorship election.
For instance Lagos state Governor Sanwo-Olu, who is seeking re-election in a bid to warm up to Lagos voters, released impounded vehicles to their owners.
Similarly, while others are now begging and wooing the hitherto relegated Christians in the far northern states, some states have suddenly increased salaries of workers, all in a bid to escape similar treatment during the March 18 gubernatorial and state Assembly elections.
“Suddenly, we now have an Obedient Movement, a structure that is larger than that of all political parties.
“What we are witnessing in Nigeria now, is a kind of frightening Sociological organic movement, with Peter Obi, as the Messianic leader.
“As you know, Peter Obi did not create the structure, he is only being employed by Nigerians because of the faith and confidence they have in him.
Kachi Ononuju, a Public Affairs analyst, in his assessment of the ongoing political process, noted that what is going on is beyond Peter Obi. “As you know, Obi is just being asked to lead and he only being employed by the downtrodden Nigerians.
“Today, the only platform strong enough for the new political movement, is the Labour Party.
“The man who many simply referred to as a trader, has ridden on the enigmatic support, provided by the young people of Nigeria, leading a relatively unknown Labour Party, into the most feared force in Nigeria today, all within just one year.
“Obi’s growing popularity and acceptance is hinged on several parameters. He is loved by the citizens. He brought the party into national reckoning and consciousness, turning it into a formidable force, that is now feared by both the ruling All Progressive Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
For him, the “Obidient Movement is unstoppable, because it has been untainted and incorruptible.”
“If you have followed the campaigns of the Labour Party and the response of Nigerians, you will notice that it is different from the traditional political campaigns.
“Obi and his running mate, Datti Ahmed are not only young and energetic, they are self made billionaires, who have successfully built empires, based on honesty and hard work.”
Ibrahim Umar, Director, Legal, Information of the National Commission for Colleges of Education, sees Peter Obi’s emergence as having both positive and disruptive effects on the nation’s democracy.
Umar, while noting that Obi’s phenomenon will go down in annals of Nigeria’s democratic history, as one of the most disruptive occurrences.
He however, stated that such, where properly harnessed, has the positive effect of helping to fight against government by gerontocracy.
Umar also noted that irrespective of the inroads and successes made by the Labour Party, it will take the LP and Peter Obi time to effectively take hold of the institutions of governance.
“There are no differences amongst the political parties, they are all the same and therefore, there is nothing different from Labour and Peter Obi, otherwise, we may end up raising the peoples hopes unnecessarily.”
Today, many state governments are giving emerging salary raise to their workers. Some are sharing food packs, among many other methods being adopted to woo voters, all because of the fear of Labour Party.
Enyinnaya Abaribe, who was re-elected as senator for Abia Central district, while celebrating his victory said: “It was a nice election and was going normally until we saw the OBIDATTI wave in the South-East and it almost consumed everybody and it showed me the love that our people have for me because I was able to survive that wave.”
Meanwhile, Donatus Mathew, popularly known as an ‘Okada rider’ won a seat in the Federal House of Representatives under the umbrella of the Labour Party (LP), for Kaura federal constituency of Kaduna State.
Matthew is from Kpak, Kagoro chiefdom in the Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State and was born in 1988.
He attended the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School in Kadarko, before he proceeded to Saint Jani Seminary School; however, he completed his secondary education at Teachers’ College, Kagoro in Kaduna State.
He graduated from the Saint Albert Institute with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy.
Before being elected into the Federal House of Representatives, Matthew was once an Okada rider, a job he embraced for hard times and lack of employment.
Matthew began his political journey as a councillor where he acquired the intrigues of politicking against erroneous belief by many that he is a greenhorn to Nigerian politics.
He cut his political teeth as a councillor, having served as a supervisory councillor in his local government.
“Before I became a councillor, I was an Okada man. I have been using a bike to sustain myself and I am proud of that. That is my humble beginning,” he said.
The father of four said he initially joined the Labour Party to work for the presidential candidate then. But later on, in the course of events, people urged him to go into the contest, which he said he reluctantly went into because he never intended to.
However, after due consultation, people insisted that I should come for service and that triggered my interest. That was the simple reason why I joined the contest. Also, we want to give people the credible leadership they expect, most especially my constituency.
He encouraged politicians with humble backgrounds not to look down on themselves.
“They should not allow distractions from other angles. Once they come into politics, they should just be real and people will assess them for who they are,” he noted.
Matthew won the seat with 10,508 voters, followed by Gideon Lucas Gwani of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 10, 297 votes. The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 9,919 votes to place third in the election.
