The candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, was declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election in Nasarawa State where Mr Obi polled 191,361 votes to defeat Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 172,922 votes.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came third in the state with 147,093 votes which has left a few analysts puzzled. But our analyst Sunday Gyado writes why this was not surprising and was expected.
For the longest time in Nigerian history, Nigerians only perceived the North as a monolith.
There was a presumption that everyone in the aforementioned “North” was Hausa, Fulani and Muslim, and there was no desire to learn about other ethnicities.
Peter Gregory Obi’s candidacy would somewhat alter that as most Nigerian youth, who primarily spearheaded the endsars marches, and Peter Obi’s Labour party campaigns, started to become more curious about the demographic of their target areas in the various states of the Federation and in this case Nasarawa.
Based on this, they began to understand that the Eggons were Nasarawa’s largest ethnic group, followed by the Alagos and Mada. The Obi’s team specifically targeted them as they were the biggest groups in the state.
Other ethnic groups in the state that were targeted were Gbagyi, Tiv, Hausa, Fulani, Koro, Miligi, Chala, etc., with grassroots campaigns planned in markets, streets, and even most importantly, one-on-one interactions.
Throughout Nasarawa’s history, despite being the majority, these groups were uninterested in politics and how it influenced society because politics was viewed as a dishonest game according to a resident who chose to be kept anonymous.
He further added that Nasarawa’s attitude of politics is beginning to shift due to the majority groups’ growing involvement in politics.
Even the churches, he claimed, who in the 1970s discouraged their members from running for office, had since changed their minds.
“Because we rarely cast ballots, many people believed all sorts of things about the state, for instance that Nasarawa is a Muslim state.”
“Now that we are visible, people are learning about the state’s religious variety as well as the ethnic identity of the major populations like mine, Alago, which are primarily Christian.”
He also differentiated between the Obi movement and those of the other political parties where he said he stated that, the Obi movement appears more interested in getting to know us.
They mix with locals, enquire about things, and offer help when required. Such is the operation of grass-roots politics.
He urged other political parties to follow the labor party’s example.
Another interviewer, Martin Adagyo, an Alago resident in Lafia, discussed how voter apathy in Nasarawa was shifting from among both the youth to the elderly.
He attributed the killings that have primarily hit Nasarawa state and the shifting political landscape, which includes elements like the Muslim muslin ticket, etc. as contributory factors
Analysts anticipate a wider exploration into the cultural and religious diversity in other Middle Belt states including Gombe, Niger, Taraba, and Adamawa States as the political climate in Nigeria keeps evolving.