A scene no doubt made for a grade A Nollywood movie; Mr. Peter Obi’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed in the witness box, as first defense witness for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the election petition tribunal! Drama! He would definitely put up a chilly performance; grabbing the platform to reissue his advisory to our Supreme Court Justices, “better deliver the right judgment” as his principal, the petitioner, will not be liable for the mischief of his obidient followers.
His testimony will help establish the fact that the results from the actual voting on ground, doesn’t’ reflect today’s viral reality. And that is not acceptable in the digital era. His evidence will be anchored on his personal experience. How is it possible that the followers with him at his polling unit far outnumbered the physical votes in the ballot box, he could muster for his principal? And even when that result was eventually transmitted to the result portal, it did not transform digitally.
The entourage that would have accompanied him to cast his one vote would have included at least “15 election Marshalls from their Big Tent coalition”, members of the obidient family social media militia, armed to provide live transmission of the event and of course the traditional media would be there too with him. And we shouldn’t forget the crowd of followers who would live stream the event to make sure it goes viral. And they would have done so from the comfort of their homes and worship centre’s, while millions of ordinary Nigerians were at their polling unit casting their votes.
Despite the crowd with him, the result from his Tudun Wada ward polling unit in Zaria LGA of Kaduna state reads like,- PDP 102 votes, APC 98 votes, LP 54 and NNPP 11. So it all came down to 54 votes since he was the only physical and lawful voter in the crowd, real and virtual with him. A crowd of followers, but a handful of voters!
Is it not possible that Hajia Aisha Yesufu, the Labour Party grass root campaigner, would have performed better as Mr. Peter Obi‘s running mate in the election? She could have brought a grass root heart to the Labour Party’s ‘ajebutter’ presidential ticket, whose comparison of life expectancy in Nigeria with that of America at rallies makes good material for comedy skits.
Her presence in the ticket could have meant we would have had a Labour Party presidential candidate that can empathize with the masses; Crying with them when Godwin Emefiele’ s Central Bank of Nigeria inflicted underserved hardship on them with his Naira confiscation agenda. But an Ivy League international presidential candidate can only see the big picture, and so for him the suffering that Nigerians endured, is the price they have to pay to go digitally cashless. Sad indeed!
And who knows, some of our “daddies in the Lord” who can still “see” may have being admonishing “their children in the Lord”, that perhaps it was those who sided with the poor, weeping with them and fighting the “cabals at the top” when their hard earned Naira was seized from them, are the ones who won the elections? And so didn’t have to cry or costume themselves in black after Nigerians voted in Verdict 23?
And talking of votes Hajia Aisha Yesufu could have muscled far above the 54 votes, Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed brought to the table in his home state of Kaduna. She has the potentials to wrestle Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the NNPP, for a sizeable portion of the over one million votes of Kano State, her home state of birth. And that would have made have made all the difference for Mr. Peter Obi in the election. In her ancestral home state of Edo, where Labour Party’s candidates for the legislative elections had her face and that of Mr. Peter Obi adore a good number of their campaign posters, she could have ensured a total capture of the state, just as it happened in the South-East. But least we forget, she says she is not even a member of the Labour Party! Confusion everywhere, chaos!
Traditionally in democracies a running mate brings diversity and adds value to a party’s ticket. In some corners of the world it would be about race, gender and now they are beginning to add sexual orientation to it. But here it’s all about tribe and religion; since many of us are still fighting tribal and religious wars. But in a world that is shapely divided into that of the haves and the have not, it could mean we only have two tribes, the rich and the poor. Shouldn’t we be looking in that direction, in the selection of candidates for election into public office too!
-Abdulai Bello, [email protected]
