Unfolding permutations as Obi, Tinubu, Atiku battle for Enugu votes

• Published date: 02 February 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

The efforts to capture the about 1.6 million permanent voter cards (PVCs)-wielding voters in Enugu State are intensifying among the three leading presidential candidates ahead of next month's presidential election. The three leading presidential candidates include Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP); Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP).

Enugu's votes in the past five election circles have been majorly dedicated to the PDP, which has enjoyed unrivalled acceptability among the populace. Before now, the presidential contest has always been between two leading political parties. However, with the emergence of the former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), which has created a third political force for the first time since 1999, the tide is changing with the PDP now scrambling to get up to 25 per cent of the votes from the state.

Though there are about 1.6 million voters with PVCs in the state, voters' turnout in the previous elections was below 50 per cent, except for the 2011 presidential election, when the state gave former President Goodluck Jonathan nearly 99 per cent votes. This is according to official records. However, with the confidence the people of the state now have reposed in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it is believed that voters' turnout will improve considerably in the forthcoming election.

In Enugu State, the former vice president is believed to be a household name among the electorate. However, his albatross is that the people of the state and, indeed, Southeast, who had voted massively for him in the last election, believe that Atiku does not believe in equity, justice and fair play. This, they said, is so because when it was the time for the Southeast to produce the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku and PDP scuttled it. For this reason, Atiku lacks foot soldiers that would work and ensure his acceptance by the electorate who are very much familiar with his name.

It was observed that those who are working with the former vice president, are doing so secretly because of the seemingly dangerous backlash his open campaign would have on the generality of the PDP candidates in other positions. According to an insider source in the PDP, there is a belief that Atiku is being used to perpetuate the North in power after President Muhammadu Buhari leaves office against the...