The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) registered 18 candidates for the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
The electoral umpire also opened the campaign window for the President /National Assembly election in October this year.
Since the opening of the window, the candidates and their parties have been making use of different platforms to carry out their campaigns. Such windows include Town Hall meetings, open campaign rallies and meetings with various stakeholders.
Notably, the four major political parties and their candidates namely- the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu; the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso have been moving across the length and breadth of the country soliciting for votes for weeks now .
Kwankwaso, Atiku and Obi attended the Nigeria Guild of Editors Forum in Lagos, where the editors and the media executives both from the Print and Electronic Media interact with them on what they are planning to do if they emerge victorious in the next year’s election.
They have also attended Town Hall Meetings organized by some national Television stations and their partners as well as forums of other professional bodies including the Labour Unions and the business communities.
Tinubu on the other hand, apart from campaigning across the country was also at Chatham House in London a few weeks ago where he talks extensively on his programme for the country if he wins the 2023 presidential election.
At the Chatham House, Tinubu said he stands firmly against all forms of electoral violence and intimidation.
“Having spent most of my career in political opposition, I have long fought against electoral malpractice and attempted to extinguish the legitimacy of the choice of voters. I will continue to do so, I promise,” he said.
He also appealed to his fellow contestants to commit to a peaceful election by allowing voters to determine the path of the country.
“I hereby urge all fellow contestants to do the same. Let the sovereign will of the people decide the path of our nation. And let this election be determined by voters, making their choice freely, rather than domineering domination and trouble,” he said.
While the leading four candidates and others were selling their programmes to the electorate, about ten political parties and their candidates were not visible. They have remained mute and with less than 70 days to the election, they have not been noticed on the campaign fields.
Those that have remained inactive on the political terrain include, Imumolen Christopher – Accord Party (AP); Kachikwu Dumebi – African Democratic Congress (ADC); Sani Yabagi Yusuf – Action Democratic Party (ADP), Umeadi Peter Nnanna – All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Ojei Princess Chichi – Allied People’s Movement (APM); Nnamdi Charles Osita – Action Peoples Party (APP); Adenuga Sunday Oluwafemi – Boot Party (BP); Osakwe Felix Johnson, National Rescue Movement (NRM); Ado-Ibrahim Abdumalik – Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
One of the above mentioned candidates, Kachikwu Dumebi was suspended by his party, the African Democratic Congress, ADC due to internal bickering despite being registered by the INEC for the forthcoming election.
The party’s national chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu in a chat with THEWILL insists that Mr Dumebi Kachikwu is no longer the presidential candidate of the party.
He restated the resolve of the party not to field any presidential candidate for next year’s presidential elections.
Nwosu who said he was not aware of an Abuja High Court order which sacked him as the national chairman of the party expressed regrets that delegates of the party made the error of choosing Kachikwu during the national convention of the party earlier in the year.
“We don’t have any copy of any judgement from any court. We have been communicating with INEC on the elections and our preparations.
“We don’t want to speculate on something we are not aware of. It is wrong to speculate on it. Whatever you have seen out there are a bunch of speculations”, he said.
The Anambra-born politician swore that he would not allow anybody to undermine the party in a bid to achieve his selfish desires.
He said the party doesn’t have a presidential candidate and it would therefore be baseless to say the party has failed to carry out presidential campaign rallies.
He disclosed that the party has presented 1,411 candidates vying for various elective seats with the prospects of sweeping at least 25 percent of states Houses and National Assemblies seats across the country.
Nwosu particularly expressed optimism that the party would win at least seven governorship seats in the country going by efforts and sacrifices made so far by party chieftains across the country.
Investigation by THEWILL showed that most of the candidates that have refused to organise or participate in presidential campaigns lack the capital and belong to political parties that lack the national spread.
Speaking with THEWILL, a Public Affairs Commentator, Paul Okoye said most of these parties mentioned and their candidates will soon align with the major candidates before the election.
.“That is their game plan. Most of them don’t have the wherewithal to campaign round the country and so what they do is to wait to be approached by any of the big parties and candidates for alliance.. Few weeks to the election they will now collapse their structures with the major candidates with a promise that they will get something if the alliance results in winning the election”, Okoye said.
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.
