By Sunday Ani
Less than 40 days before the presidential election, the storm seems to be gathering. Candidates and political parties are in the final lap of the race to brace the electoral victory tape. Campaigns are getting tougher, hotter and more intense, intriguing and interesting as well. Political actors are in the last minute rush to outsmart, out-compete and outwit one another to clinch the coveted presidential seat. And this, according to close watchers of political developments, has thrown up horse-trading, mudslinging and character assassination in their most wicked tradition.
However, analysts agree that the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Mr. Peter Obi is different from others. He seems to be setting a new campaign standard that will undoubtedly change the outlook and strategies for future elections in Nigeria.
Those who hold this view are saying that monetisation of campaigns, as epitomized by heavy cash spending during elections in Nigeria, is not likely to e the case in 2023. This development, according to those pushing the argument, is largely attributable to Obi’s penchant for frugality. Analysts argue that Obi’s gospel message that he is in the presidential contest to offer quality leadership to Nigerians only, and not to dole out money, seems to be resonating with many Nigerians and sinking well in their psyche. To demonstrate how effective and impactful the new message has become, Nigerians have taken possession and are already running with it as evidenced in the popular slogan, “We no dey give shishi,” by his teeming supporters and well-wishers, also known as the ‘Obidients.’ Many believe that the slogan is a master stroke and a magic wand that has changed or revolutionised the game, since other politicians now think twice before throwing money around in the name of campaign.
It has put other politicians on their toes, particularly those who believe that money is all a politician needs to win an election. It has given hope to those who don’t have money but have something to offer to the people in terms of quality leadership to throw their hats into the ring. Nigerians are equally reckoning with such poor but sound candidates.
Obi’s slogan has gained so much traction and acceptance among Nigerians that the political moneybags are obviously afraid of spending, since it dawned on them that many voters are ready and willing to collect their money with no intention of voting for them. That is what LP’s presidential candidate has done to the monetization of the campaign, and this has affected not only the candidates who rely on money to win elections but also their cronies and supporters, who feed fat on the crumbs from their masters’ political table. They all seem to have reached the political dead-end and are hopeless, dejected, furious, venomous and ready to crush and uproot every perceived obstacle.
However, as Nigerians have taken possession and are running with, ‘we no dey give shishi,’ slogan, Obi and his running mate, Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed, have introduced yet another novel campaign strategy, quite different from what other politicians are doing or what they used to do in the past.
In what many have described as a multi-pronged approach, Obi has proven that his strategy is quite different from that of other candidates. Beyond the usual rallies and campaigns, where politicians would come, dance, entertain and reel out promises to voters, Obi and his running mate are also identifying with the youths, strategically engaging them in meaningful discussions and giving them assurances of a better tomorrow with measurable programmes in all the places they have gone. Obi has also shown his willingness and preparedness to engage with any group to answer questions from them and sell his ideas about a better Nigeria. He is ready to appear on any platform, ranging from radio and television to town hall and even virtual meetings, where people from different walks of life, including youths across the country, irrespective of religion, tribe and ethnicity, can ask him questions on issues bordering them.
In fact, he has demonstrated this strategy on several occasions, the most recent being his encounter with the youths during his campaign tour to Enugu State. At his alma-mater, the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Obi engaged the students, answering questions from them and providing answers to their many fears and concerns about Nigeria.
On Saturday, he was in Ondo State, where he engaged various youth groups and other stakeholders, having heart to heart discussions on issues that affect Nigeria and painstakingly explaining to them how he wants to tackle those issues if elected. He has appeared on virtually every major television and radio station in Nigeria, including the Human Rights Radio 101.1Fm, Brekete, Abuja, to answer questions from scores of Nigerians on the state of the nation and the way forward. He has held several town hall meetings with all classes of people, ranging from the youths to the professional groups, women and the aged.
However, as Obi and his running mate are busy engaging all kinds of groups, their wives are equally reaching out to several women groups with the same messages. They are equally careful in the way and manner they deliver their messages such that they hardly talk about other candidates and their parties. They only focus on the issues, selling the party’s programmes and how those programmes would be delivered using measurable strategies.
Those who have followed political campaigns in Nigeria, particularly the presidential election campaign from 1999 when the current democratic journey started, have all confessed that Obi’s emergence has changed the political environment. In time past, candidates and political parties were known to have made political campaigns a four-year ritual, where politicians would just mount the podium, dance, entertain the expectant electorates and quench their anxiety with empty promises. They never cared to address the issues that bothered the people because they had always evaded any forum where they would be subjected to critical interrogation about their plans for the country. Campaigns in the past had always been like carnival and bazaar where monies were distributed to the poverty-afflicted, hungry and dejected electorate, who afterwards, looked up to such politicians as saviour, when actually they are their greatest tormentors.
But, with Obi in the race, a new political breeze is gently blowing across Nigeria, such that the poor, dejected Nigerians seem to be singing a new song. They appear to be saying that they would rather starve to death than collect money from their tormentors and vote them into power again. Obi’s issue based campaign strategy has thrown up the good, the bad and the ugly. A lot of hidden things about the political class have been exposed through his campaign so much that most of the country’s political elite are in a state of utter confusion.
Writing under the headline, “Nigeria election 2023: Peter Obi and his alogrithmisation campaign strategy,” Mutiu Iyanda had noted that out of the 98.37 percent market share of Google search engine in Nigeria, Obi appears more normalized than other candidates; a development he said was indicative of a large number of publications about the LP candidate from different sources.
He went further to state that a navigational search conducted on the search engine by analysts as of November last year revealed that there were approximately 21,600,000 results in the overall category, which includes news, videos, images, books, maps, shopping, flights, and maps. “There are over 200,000 and 4,000,000 million results for understanding Peter Obi in the news and video categories, respectively. The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu tags behind him with approximately 4,200,000 results in all categories, and over 700,000 results for understanding him within the news category. For Tinubu, our search yields approximately 1,220,000 results in the video category. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, comes third in all categories,” he wrote.
He also noted that the acceptance and discussion of Obi’s views on how Nigeria should be governed on the virtual sphere indicates that the Nigerian youth, who primarily use emerging technologies, are assisting him to institutionalize algorithmisation campaign strategy in Nigerian political campaigns.
He cautioned that in spite of gaining a sizable amount of attention on digital platforms, Obi should note that in Nigeria, winning elections requires more than just having a group of digitally inclined youths to spread programmes and issues that would be addressed after the election.
Interestingly, Obi and Datti are not just relying on the digitally inclined youths to win the February 25 presidential election, and that is why they have rolled out the multi-faceted and multi-pronged campaign strategies as can be seen from their recent outings. They are not letting anything to chance as the curtain draws closer to the Election Day, hence, their several engagements with different groups of Nigerians, where they keep explaining in details, their plans to rescue the country from its current state of economic quagmire, to place it on the path of economic recovery and progress.