Yes, Atiku, Obi’s Debacle in 2023 Poll was Self-Inflicted
By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi
Memories of the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections will be etched in the minds of many Nigerians. For a long time to come, the Nigerian electorate will remember, with either relish or anguish, of how the entire exercise happened.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023, declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the president-elect.
To that effect, President Muhammadu Buhari will, according to the provision of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), hand over to the incoming administration of Jagaban Borgu, Mr. Tinubu on May 29, 2023.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had announced Tinubu as the winner at the International Collation Centre in Abuja.
According to Yakubu, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes(36.02%) to defeat his closest rivals and candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, who polled 6,984, 520 (29.41%) and 6,101,533 (28.56%) votes, respectively.
Meanwhile, the candidate of the New Nigerian People Party, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who came fourth, garnerded 1,496,687 votes, which represented about 3.28% of the total votes casted.
The president-elect defeated his rivals in 12 states out of the 36 States of the Federation, but lost to Obi in his homestead and political fortress since 1999. Also, Tinubu lost Katsina, the home State of President Buhari.
The states won by the Jagaban Borgu are Niger, Benue, Kogi, Zamfara, Jigawa, Oyo, Rivers, Ogun, Ondo, Kwara, Ekiti and Borno.
For Atiku, he clinched victory in states like Adamawa, Osun, Yobe, Katsina, Taraba, Kaduna, Bayelsa, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Kebbi and Gombe.
Meanwhile, the ‘little boy’ from Anambra who swung surprise, Mr. Peter Obi, won Lagos, FCT Abuja, Delta, Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Plateau, Nasarawa, Edo, Ebonyi and Cross River states respectively. While Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso,was able to manage and win his political base only, the Kano State.
Ever since the announcement of the results of the election by the electoral umpire, INEC, the candidates of the two major opposition Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have filed suit before court of competent jurisdiction to challenge Tinubu’s victory, claiming that the election was marred with a lot of irregularities and has been manipulated in favor of APC.
However, according to the writer’s opinion, this poll is one of the best elections that the country has had so far for being, free, fair and credible since the return of democracy.
Recall that, this is the election where the incumbent President Buhari lost Katsina to PDP and also Tinubu surrendered Lagos to Obi of LP. Meanwhile, the duo of two powerful Northern Governors in Nasir El-Rufai and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje could not deliver Kaduna and Kano to the Jagaban of Borgu as well.
When I saw how the PDP agent at the collation center, Senator Dino Melaye was making brouhaha about the manner in which the result were being compiled and announced by various States’ Electoral officers, I just laughed because, I had earlier predicted about the occurrence of this scenario but kept it to myself.
To cut the story short, it reached a point where the duo of agents of PDP and LP staged a walk out of the collation center, in order to pressurize INEC to cancel results from Ekiti and Kwara States on the basis of allegations which could not be proved.
For the second time, I laughed in agony and asked myself that, PDP and LP merging together to fight INEC and APC- “What a Missed Opportunity”? A Unity in Defeat or What?
Because, prior to the polls, PDP and LP ought to know that joining forces together would have made them beat APC and Tinubu easily without any difficulties.
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Looking at the figures from the election results, it is obvious that Tinubu got 36.02% of the total votes casted, while that of PDP and LP put together stood at 57.97%. So, had it been Atiku and Obi made an alliance and entered the election as a single entity, then they would have beaten Tinubu ahead with a surplus of 21.95% of the total votes.
However, because of ego and lack of strategy, the duo chose to fly their trades under different platforms thinking that it would be an easier game for them. Alas, it turned out not in their favour, but to that of Jagaban Borgu, Mr Tinubu.
Recall that, Peter Obi deputized Atiku when he contested presidential election on the platform of PDP against the incumbent President Muhammadu in 2019 general elections.
However, the former governor of Anambra State, announced his resignation from the party in a letter dated May 24, 2022 and addressed to the National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
Besides dumping the PDP, Obi also said he was pulling out of the contest for the party’s primary ticket – barely three days to the exercise. He explained that he took the decision to leave the party because of his firm commitment to rescuing Nigeria, even if the route differs.
On May 27, 2022, Obi formally joined Labour Party and became its substantive Presidential candidate on May 30, 2022.
Meanwhile, Atiku Abubakar beat the likes of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, former President of the 8th Senate, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Dele Momodu, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel and others to emerge as the PDP Presidential candidate.
Nonetheless, his candidature has suffered a serious setback since from day one ranging from the problem of the five aggrieved PDP governors under the faction called G-5 which are led by Nyesom Wike. Others are Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State respectively.
Interestingly, the anti-party activities staged by the G-5 governors have equally come back and haunted some of them who contested for senatorial election. Because the trio of Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi all failed to win election to represent their senatorial district at the red chamber as they lost woefully to oppositions.
For Seyi Makinde, his political clutch will be tested come March 11, 2023 as he races to retain his seat for the second tenure under the platform of PDP, whom he didn’t help in the presidential election.
Indeed, the duo of PDP and LP have missed a golden opportunity to end APC reign as ego and political miscalculation became their undoing.
Nigerians headed to the polls when naira crunch and fuel scarcity almost snuffed out their lives. Naira shortage was as a result of CBN policy of promoting cashless society where it redesigned N200, N500 and N1000 and banned the older ones that ceased to be regarded as legal tenders.
It is unfortunate that the bank could not print enough redesigned notes and make it available for circulation for the public, a situation that led to collapse of many small business enterprises especially in remote areas where e-transaction is a new phenomenon.
Fuel scarcity has also been hitting Nigerians very hard since February 2022 as the problem defied all measures put in place by the government and other concerned stakeholders in order to curtail its effects.
There is also the problem of security challenges across all the breadths and lengths of the country. The activities of bandits and kidnappers, Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists is the order of the day in Northwest and Northeast, while ethno-religious and communal clashes as well as farmers-herders conflicts are very rife in North-central.
In addition, oil theft and pipelines vandalism; separatists’ agitations by IPOB as well as rituals and cyber-crimes have been bedeviling the trio of South-south, Southeast and Southwest.
These trio problems of insecurity, naira crunch and fuel scarcity, not to even talk of poverty and unemployment, food shortage, poor education and health etc. are more than enough to kick APC out of Aso Rock Villa, had Atiku of PDP and Peter Obi of LP merge forces.
Thus, Atiku and Obi should stop crying foul where there is actually none. Because, they are the architects of their very own defeats.
