For the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), this Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils election is not just another democratic exercise as it is done in the other 36 states of the federation.
Basically, the exercise is to elect chairmen into the six Area Councils of Abaji, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Kwali, and councillors for the 62 wards that made up the territory.
In the final list published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the umpire for the election, 14 political parties have sponsored 473 candidates, comprising 110 for chairmanship and deputy chairmanship as well as 363 stand-bearers for councilor-ship seats.
While the other 12 political parties may merely see the election as an opportunity to control government at that level, the remaining two, APC and PDP, the poll is a launchpad to test their strength ahead of the 2023 general election.
It is crystal clear and audibly loud that APC, despite its perceived failure, wants to retain power while the PDP with the alleged baggage of having laid the foundation for the socio-economic quagmire of the country when it held sway for 16 years, intends to return to Aso Rock in the next round of the national election.
The FCT Area Councils’ poll now provides a rehearsal stage for the APC and PDP to claim the soul of Nigeria in 2023 because the nation’s capital is the microcosm of the macrocosm in the country.
Though with indigenous inhabitants of Gbagyi/Gwari, the FCT-Abuja since it became Nigeria’s capital city is populated by almost all the ethnic groups in the country, making it a semi-Nigeria.
Most of the non-indigenous residents of the FCT who have lived in the area for a long period and with some of them given birth to in the city are registered voters and exercised their franchise in the territory.
Thus, for either the APC or PDP to win or lose the Saturday’s area councils election may imply acceptability or rejection of each of the parties.
Also, being the seat of power, the outcome of the election in the FCT gives credence to either APC’s ability to retain power and PDP’s strength to stage a comeback.
This is because President Muhammadu Buhari, who heads the APC government and all the apparatus thereof, along with his appointees and lawmakers of the party are residents of the FCT, just as the PDP national leadership.
The outcome of the election is going to be a testimony on the APC, almost more than the PDP because of the general thinking that the party has brought untold hardship on Nigerians to the extent that it would be paid back in its own coins at any available ballot.
This is the belief of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was Buhari’s main challenger in the 2019 ballot when he said the FCT council polls were going to be a referendum on the APC.
Atiku had days ago in a statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, said the people of the FCT, with their closeness to the seat of power, represent a good sampling of Nigerians and, therefore, should use “their ballot to tell the APC government how its administration has made life difficult for the common man.
“The records of performance between the PDP and APC administrations should provide a guide for the way the people of the FCT should cast their ballot on Saturday.
“I expect every member of the PDP to be proud of the party at this election and even mobilise their families and friends to vote for PDP’s candidates across all the FCT councils on Saturday,” Atiku said.
Neither the political strength of APC nor PDP is in doubt in the FCT, at least judging from the 2019 general election and the Area Councils’ polls.
For the presidential election, the PDP candidate, Abubakar defeated the APC’S Buhari with 259,997 votes against 152,224; the main opposition also won the only senatorial and two House of Representatives seats in the territory, followed closely by the ruling party.
But for the FCT Area Council polls, APC took the day having won five out of the six chairmanship with many councillor-ship seats while the PDP got one chairmanship (Kuje Council) and a handful of councillors.
Unlike in other states of the federation where governors allegedly handpick their party members or cronies as council chairmen and councillors through State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC), the FCT election is conducted by INEC, which is not a direct appendage of states’ chief executives.
The territory has no governor despite its status of a state and is rather administered by a minister, who is always not an indigene on behalf of the President, making it a bit not subservient to the whims and caprices of any governor.
However, the APC and PDP being at dagger drawn point to test their might in the Saturday FCT Area Council poll, each of them has deployed many of their governors, lawmakers and other top-notch for the electoral battle.
The PDP appointed a 34-member campaign council, chaired by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State with governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo as secretary, Nyesom Wike of Rivers and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto; former Senate President, David Mark, immediate past governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, among others as members.
Similarly, the ruling APC raised a 133-member campaign council, chaired by Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, which included 16 serving governors, 12 federal ministers as well as members of the National Assembly for the same election.
Read also: APC, PDP, others sign peace accord for FCT area council election
Both the governors-dominated APC and PDP campaign councils are already in Abuja, perfecting plans and campaigning for the victory of their parties on Saturday.
For instance, the Uzodinma-led APC campaign council has reconciled the warring factions of the party, especially in the AMAC to strengthen the broom family ahead of the Saturday poll.
Already, an alarm is being raised especially by the opposition PDP in the FCT that APC was planning to disrupt the process and rig its way into power.
FCT PDP chairman, Sunday Zaka, a few days ago alleged that the APC had planned to hire fake security agents from neighbouring Nasarawa and Kogi states to arrest some of its members ahead of the council election.
“In the build-up to next Saturday the 12th February 2022, local government election in the FCT, our intelligence network have reported some appalling findings and we have deemed it fit as a law-abiding and democratic party to notify the general public and as well as the international community concerning the elections.
“There is an underground plan to use fake security agents to arrest and detain prominent members and stakeholders of our party ahead of the February 12 election.
“We are not taking this likely because the same scheme was deployed in the last 2019 election but failed due to the display of professionalism by the heads of security operatives in the FCT, and now this same satanic plan by the opposition is resurfacing, but we believe strongly it will fail again,” he stated.
But the spokesman of the FCT APC, Usman Adaji, described the allegations as baseless, saying the ruling party had always focused on issue-based campaigns.
Adaji said the opposition PDP was only shedding tears of defeat ahead of the Saturday council election, adding that the PDP was always known for raising false alarms.
