Aside the All Progressives Congress (APC); the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Labour Party (LP); the other 15 political parties registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) include Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Action Peoples Party (APP) African Action Congress(AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Boot Party (BP), Labour Party (LP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
All the 18 political parties fielded candidates for the presidential election coming up on February 25, 2023, but apart from the big three, most of the smaller parties have not initiated any plan for campaign and with more than a month gone since the opening of the campaign window, most of them have remained inactive.
While the major parties, APC, PDP. LP and NNPP have intensified their campaign preparations and action plan, the smaller parties are yet to organise themselves and are not known to have campaign schedules.
The APC, PDP and lately the LP have constituted campaign councils. In fact, the PDP has officially kick-started its campaign in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State and has released the schedules of campaigns across the country.
The APC on the other hand though it is yet to officially kick-start its campaign, many of its support groups are not lacking in action as they have organised various public walks to create awareness for their candidates in the forthcoming elections.
Also, the NNPP has opened campaign offices across the country and these were declared open recently by the presidential candidate of the party, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Also, one of the leaders of the party, Alhaji Buba Galadima has said on a Television programme monitored in Lagos that their campaign will hold in all the geo political zones of the country.
Aside these four parties, the others have remained inactive.
It would be recalled that of the lesser parties, APGA has produced three governors of Anambra State, including the incumbent, Charles Soludo. YPP won a seat in the Senate, ADC, AA, PRP, ADP, APM, LP and SDP won seats at the House of Representatives during the 2019 general elections, hence they survived INEC’S hammer.
Some of the other parties have not won any seat, but they fulfilled the Electoral Act requirement of 25 percent of the votes cast in one state of the federation in the 2019 presidential election or 25 percent of votes cast in one local government area of a state in a governorship election.
Political Analysts and watchers of political developments have expressed no surprise at the lull in the lesser parties as far as the preparation for the election or campaign for votes in the forthcoming election is concerned.
Analysts believe that most of the smaller parties are just there as tools for political trade-off as they are not rooted in people.
A Political Commentator, James Ojo said most of the smaller political parties are set up by individuals to prosecute specific or transient political agenda. He said they lacked the financial will to organize campaigns and compete for offices across the country.
He said: “What most of them do is to wait for a few weeks before the presidential or governorship election and align with the candidates of the bigger parties in the country.
‘Most of the smaller parties were formed by some elements within the major parties in order to use the party as a platform when they have issues with the bigger parties close to the election.
“It is also very difficult for the lesser parties to run a national campaign in a large country like Nigeria. It involves a lot in terms of personnel, money, which the lesser parties are finding difficult to muster”, he said.
It was gathered that what smaller parties are doing is to concentrate on specific areas like zones, states, districts, where they can compete favourably. But the question being asked is why are they contesting the presidential election when they actually lack the financial strength to campaign across the nooks and crannies of the country?
Our correspondents across the 36 states of the country confirmed that except for posters of some candidates of the lesser parties like APGA in the Eastern part of the country; that of the SDP and Accord in the southwestern part of the country, there are no campaign activities involving most of the smaller parties in the various regions of the country.
Given the reason for the inactiveness of the lesser parties, Comrade Sola Olawale who is a member of the Campaign for Democracy said most of the smaller parties lack big structure.
“They are more or less like a club or association of people of like – minds, whose primary interest is to get power but lack any clear – cut ideology.
“Secondly, the smaller parties lack the ability to fulfill the expectations and requirements that political parties must have offices in two-third of states in the country and that they are supposed to have some form of financial strength to survive.
“Unless they gain access to power, they cannot muster enough financial strength to campaign and for their campaign to be known nationally. If they don’t have control of power they will not survive because they don’t have the means to even contest for elections because everything is monetized.
“In essence, most, if not all the lesser parties cannot mobilise the electorate for election and so the idea of them having a presidential candidate is just to serve the personal ambition of some few rich who want to claim to have participated in the presidential election”.
Speaking with THEWILL, the Chief Spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Yunusa Tanko, said most of the smaller or lesser parties cannot mobilize for campaign because of financial constraint.
The National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Chief Ralph Nwosu in a chat with THEWILL said his party; the ADC has been very very active on the campaign field.
He disagreed with the view that the lesser parties have not been active on the political field.
He said: The media people often confuse the general election for the election of the president. No, every position is important in a democracy and nation building. Even the local councilor is important and we take all of them seriously. We have about 140 contestants in this election from House of Assembly to House of Representatives to Governors, to Senators in the ADC.
“In ADC, we expelled our presidential candidate because we discovered that he was a mole. Our delegates made a grievous mistake, by picking a mole to destroy our party. But by the Grace of God, we discovered early and we had to deal with it. We are doing everything possible to bring forth a new presidential candidate. However it goes, we are holding the election seriously.
“If you go to any local government, any constituency in this country, you will see one ADC youth, woman, People with Disability or able person running for election. This election will bring the best of ADC into the Nigeria political system. You go everywhere, you go to Ogun State, it is all about ADC.
You go to Kano State, you go to Abia State , it is all about ADC. Everywhere in this country ADC is working seriously .But I want to appeal to you that the presidential race is not the only election during the general election and it is not the most important election either.”
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
