By Martin Cole-
Peter Obi is leading opinion polls in Nigeria to pull off a surprise win in Nigeria’s 2023 election to hold in a few weeks time.
The popular politician is leading the two previous favourite candidates considered front runners in Nigeria’s Feb. 25 presidential rallies who held their first major rallies this week., with security a key topic on the campaign trail.
The pre-election poll conducted for Bloomberg News by Premise Data Corp said the former Anambra governor was the preferred candidate for the nation’s top job, beating the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Two-thirds of respondents said they intend to vote for Obi, a third-party candidate, in elections scheduled for later this month. The results of the survey conducted for Bloomberg News by Premise Data Corp. were published on Friday – 15 days before the vote to choose President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor,” Bloomberg wrote.
“Of the 93% of participants who said they’ve decided how to vote, 66% named Obi as their preferred choice. Obi scored a slightly higher 72% among decided respondents in an earlier Premise poll that was released by Bloomberg in September as the official election campaign kicked off.
Among the 18 candidates running for president, former Lagos state governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu joins Abubakar and Obi as a front runner.
Obi(pictured) has been considered a worthy underdog in the big political race for the Nigerian presidency of 2023, but his support has been gathering huge momentum of late.
His critics says the successful businessman with an impeccable track record lacks the structure to pull of an important victory which a majority of Nigerian youths believe is necessary for him to become president.
The somewhat perfect political mentor for future political aspirants with aspirants is seen as Nigeria’s last hope for transformation in a country desperate for true leadership and direction.
The 61 year old is the most respected businessman turned politician in the country, and achieved exploits during his tenure as governor of Anambra state.
Unlike other politicians who have shamelessly squandered the country’s money, Obi left $150bn when he was governor, transforming his state, and the education standard there to the highest level in Nigeria under his leadership.
Formerly in the PDP party, he transited to the Labour Party after he was denied the presidential ticket, and the current representative, Abubakar Atiku, was selected instead of Obi.
Common knowledge is that Atiku was picked because he wielded huge financial might from money widely believed to have been the ill gotten gains of corruption.
Obi then moved to the otherwise little considered Labour Party, which suddenly became important following his inclusion, but currently has no sitting governor.
Sources from Nigeria also insist that his party has no recognisable names, or governorship candidates likely to win the governorship elections in any of all 36 states in the country.
Last week, the High Court instructed INEC to allow the party to change the names of its ticket holders in 24 states, after it conducted substitution nominations for its candidates who for the 2023 general elections in the affected states.
Some of the substitutions were due to withdrawals in those states, which many observers say were either due to money deals or agitations that representatives for the party had been selected on contentious grounds- some claiming undue influence in some cases, and corruption in others.
The withdrawals were communicated to INEC by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party, along with a notification of October 27 as date to conduct substitution nomination primary elections.
A number of court cases have removed candidates found to have been made representatives of the party on questionable grounds.
In the capital of Abuja, thousands of supporters, mostly youths, chanted praise for Obi. He is riding a wave of momentum after two public opinion polls published by Nigerian newspapers this week showed him leading the candidates from Nigeria’s two biggest political parties — the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obi rose to prominence last May after resigning from the PDP to join the Labour Party as its presidential flag-bearer.
The 61 year old of Igbo extraction has so far been warmly welcomed in the North to the surprise of many Nigerians.
In order to win the presidential elections, Obi will need to get majority votes plus 25% of all votes in at least 24 states. He is strongly rivalled by Abubakar Atiku of the PDP and Abiola Tinubu of the APC
He told his supporters will tackle Nigeria’s insecurity, build up the economy and improve local manufacturing to limit Nigeria’s dependence on foreign products.
“The country in the past 20 years, all it has produced is insecurity, poverty, out-of-school children, students strike. Everything that is wrong is what they’ve been producing,” he said. “We’re offering you security of life and property, the criminals are not more formidable, except that there’s no leadership. You’ll be proud of your country because your country will move from consumption to production.”
Obi, Abubakar and Tinubu are traveling the country in a push for votes ahead of election day.
Nigeria is battling serious issues of insecurity caused by rising insurgency with jihadist fighters in the northeast, armed gangs in the northwest and central regions as well as separatists in the south.
During a campaign rally Thursday in northern Kano state, PDP candidate Abubakar spoke to supporters.
“Do you want return of peace in Kano?” he said. “Do you want the borders open? It is only PDP administration that can implement these policies. I want to appeal to you to vote PDP from top to bottom, we have done that before, we shall do it again.”
Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar appears at a campaign rally in Kano, northwest Nigeria, on Feb. 9, 2023, ahead of the February 25 presidential election.
Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar appears at a campaign rally in Kano, northwest Nigeria, on Feb. 9, 2023, ahead of the February 25 presidential election.
Atiku 76, lost a presidential bid to current President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Kelechi Onyenze, who attended the Kano state rallies for the PDP, praised Atiku’s experienced.
“Who else has the experience this man has gotten even in the business sector, private sector?” Onyenze said. “He’s an entrepreneur, he’s an employer of labor. Atiku has created wealth, he has discovered talent.”
This week, President Buhari led campaign events to rally support for APC candidate Tinubu.
Tinubu has pledged to continue Buhari’s policies on tackling insecurity, fighting corruption, creating jobs and upgrading the standard of education — though critics from the other parties say Buhari failed on all those fronts.
The recent violence has included attacks on officials from Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, raising concerns about safety on election day.
Authorities say they’re taking steps to make sure voters and election workers are safe and that the voting will proceed without disruption.