2023: Why PDP/LP Should Be Worried With Tinubu’s Rally In Abia By Omo-Ikirodah

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in Abia State three days ago as part of his nationwide tour to educate Nigerians on the need of electing him as their country’s next president. Because it was so massive and intimidating, they didn’t want to talk about it, so they pretended that it never happened.

In light of the fact that Abia State is a PDP-controlled state, as well as the fact that it is viewed as a centre for the Obidient movement and a member of the South East States, they declined to trend the rally because they were disappointed with the overwhelming support Tinubu received from the state’s residents.

Due to the size of the crowd, I bet that Tinubu would smile for a very long time.To the chagrin of the opposing parties, Tinubu would undoubtedly get more votes in the South East than the required 25%, as you can see.

With so many vested interests fighting against themselves to the detriment of the oppositional parties, the South East is sitting on a ticking time bomb. They have been successfully drawn into an opposition within an opposition, making it a four-tier of oppositional forces fighting the APC in the region.

Prior to this year’s election, the PDP ruled the South East as a lone, unstoppable force, but the least-populated INEC zone is currently at war with the following potent groups within themselves.

Unknown Gunmen, IPOB,PDP and LP.

Since IPOB claims to have no affiliation with the Unknown Gunmen, it is safe to refer to them as distinct entities from IPOB. As a result, we arrived at the four forces that will be competing against one another in the upcoming presidential elections in the South East.

Now that IPOB, every other political party, and the Unknown Gunmen are all trying to make a point, there is a desperate effort on the part of everyone involved.

Before I proceed, let me clarify unambiguously that numbers exist in all aspects of life; the only difference is that some have more than others.

For example, the level of traffic at a police divisional headquarters may lead you to believe that the world is occupied entirely by criminals and supercops.

If you believe that everyone feels the same way you do about Nigeria and that a revolution is imminent, you may find it amusing that even a greater number do not share close to your beliefs.

This is what we mean when we talk about structure, for instance, the APC, the party in charge of the Federal Government, has thousands of appointees from the South East who are either board members, federal commissioners, ministers, or other aides.

Then there’s the PDP, the region’s dominant ruling party, which has a similar structure and even more across the states.

Therefore, by default, a number of families are prepared to defend their interest in the APC, whereas a larger population of residents is prepared to support their interest in the PDP for the same reasons at the state level, which offers far more than you can imagine in comparison to appointments to the federal government.

A state with 5000 SA, for instance, is guaranteed to receive at least three to five additional votes from his immediate family because of this position, regardless of how little or large.

Therefore, going forward, the PDP in the South East should be more worried than the APC because their primary voters are now split between the LP, as represented by Peter Obi, the ESN/IPOB, and Unknown Gunmen.

Tinubu, as a Southerner, would have default sympathetic votes from the South East, especially from those who don’t want their votes to be wasted and don’t want power to return to the north. Tinubu is their safe bet.

No matter how you look at it, the other political parties in the South East are all branches of the same tree. You can’t offer what you don’t have. Obi was still a member of PDP as recently as eight months ago. IPOB and Unknown Gunmen are opposed to elections in Nigeria and have forced many of its members to destroy their voter registration cards in the past.

So, in a scenario where Ebonyi State is APC, Imo State is APC, Abia State is a member of the G5 PDP gang that has sworn to work against Atiku, we are left with Anambra and Enugu.

Even Anambra is uncertain because of Charles Soludo, the state governor, who has fiercely opposed Peter Obi. Soludo naked Peter Obi at the market square and was the first to suggest that Peter Obi is only running for his own interests.

Is it even better in Enugu? Former Governor Nnamani, a PDP senatorial candidate, is campaigning for Tinubu.

To make matters worse, the Obidient followers are so arrogant, acerbic, and ill-mannered that they believe only fools would vote for the APC. They keep reporting that APC is hiring individuals for their campaigns, and one wonders whether these are not their own people.

The whole South East vote, which is equal to or less than Kano and Lagos combined, is now divided into four sections, as opposed to the traditional pattern of voting in the South East.

So let us wait and see how the South East will get out of this mess that they have created for themselves. It is sad that as the election approaches, unknown gunmen will strike with more force, making it even more difficult for these people to gather how much more come home to vote.