By Kesandu Egburonu
History will forever remember the 2023 Nigerian General Elections as the most competitive the Giant of Africa has ever witnessed. Mighty Iroko trees fell; toddlers wore the shoes of old men and; the most unbelievable things happened. No election prediction foresaw this and even the old time players of the game were left in awe.
From Lagos, Enugu and down to Abuja, shock results rolled in that shook the polity and existing structures. Banky Wellington, Chimaroke Nnamani and many other famous names were casualties of this surprise election that took no hostages. The famous Godfather-ism yielded far less of a result than it usually does. With no guarantees or assurances, the odds split evenly between the established order and the underdog.
Speaking of underdogs, the Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria bore this title to the latter. No one really gave them a chance. Hell! Very little even knew of their existence until a certain ex Governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, signed up with them and showered on them a certain personality, charisma and influence unparalleled. Boom! Overnight, they shot into contenders and stood shoulder to shoulder with the far more established PDP and APC parties.
Still, the big political wigs wrote them off. Atiku famously described LP as a party with “no structure.” Others echoed his assertion and dismissed their chance at the polls. Other big players even opined that Peter Obi’s presence was not going to make any difference. Only time was going to tell.
Fast forward to the post elections and the once little-known party claimed Lagos state at the Presidential level, won a seat at the Eti-Osa Federal constituency in Lagos against all odds, produced the Governor-elect of Abia state, amid many other election victories. It was like a storm stronger than the Tsunami had hit Nigeria and many got blown away by it. In all of these, one recurrent theme was as obvious as broad daylight—the influence Peter Obi had brought to bear on the party’s victories.
Ironically, Peter Obi, himself, came third in the final Presidential elections INEC announced. This announcement did not go down well with many, as foreign observers and media, as well as electorates attested to the wide-scale rigging, vote-buying, voter intimidation and many other election irregularities that abound during the process. APC’s Bola Tinubu was declared the winner, while PDP’s Atiku Abubakar followed suit. A most contentious election and one that duly went to the election tribunal yet to fully begin hearing.
The striking thing about this election has been the staunch support base of the three major parties. The APC supporters will tell you the many virtues of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; those in the PDP divide will do the same for Atiku and; the Labour Party faithfuls, no less, when it comes to their beloved Peter Obi. I guess that’s the entire idea of being a follower: Having a leader you adore and are willing to follow all the way. That is all fine and good until the energy and atmosphere gets polluted and the polity heats up.
This has certainly been the case in our polity as, for multiple reasons, party support has been giving ethnic and religious colouration to it. The politicians know how important it is to divide citizens along ethnic and religious lines and will, very well, fuel this if it serves their interest. Soon after, the pro APC fan base was dubbed as “Yorubas.” Pro LP supporters are being tagged as “Omo Igbos” (Igbo people), while the Yorubas who support LP are tagged “omo ale Yoruba,” which loosely translates into “Yoruba bastards.”
On social media and in reality, the divide is so clear, as those on opposite sides never agree or find a common ground and would jump at the opportunity to throw shades at one another. Logic and reason has been thrown out of the window and near anarchy reigns supreme. Insults fly from post to post, with every confrontation soon heating up after only the first few exchanges. At the moment, it is official to say that the citizenry are divided and in a cold war with one another even after the elections.
While we can argue all day about who merits the victory and which supporter base needs to back down, the fact remains that we will never see a general consensus on both aspects. It appears Peter Obi’s supporters will forever retain the tag, “Obidients,” while the APC fans will be continually be tagged “BAT” (an acronym for Bola Ahmed Tinubu), “agbado,” or “corn” and; the Atiku faithfuls, “Atikulated.” It is a real life circus, but one that bodes the question: When do we jettison these tags and wear the proud title of “Nigerians” instead?
In my personal life, I’ve seen this reality dawn on me. I have lost friends on social media due to this political divide and have come at a loggerhead with others in the same vein. I sit to ask myself: How does this benefit me? Am I not better off with more friends and fewer enemies?
How much have I lost from these squabbles and differences in ideologies and how much have they lost as well? Thinking deeply, I feel like a pawn in a grand chess game being played by the higher-ups. I don’t see them losing, but I see everyone around me losing, including myself. In all honesty, this is not a place I want to remain in.
If I had mystical powers like Harry Potter, I would, maybe, have waved my magic wand and repaired this damage our citizens are causing on themselves, but sadly, I don’t. I can only use my medium to preach reconciliation and healing because, truth be told, we cannot continue like this. We must heal, we must reconcile and we must move on. More importantly, we must do all these as quickly as possible.
I will borrow a line from the late popular writer, Chinua Achebe’s book, ‘Things Fall Apart’: “Things fall apart and the center cannot hold.” Right now, our center cannot hold because things are falling apart in Nigeria. The more our center cannot hold, the more detrimental it is to the common man. All the more reason for reconciliation. Let us sheathe our swords and reecho the message of Yakubu Gowon in the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war: “No Victor, No Vanquished.” Let Nigeria win and let us start the rebuilding process of our dear country in earnest.
God bless Nigeria!
