Nigeria Politicians That Shaped 2023

Politically, there is no gainsaying that 2023 was a charged year in Nigeria. It was not just a transition election year but the first since the return to civilian rule in 1999 where more than two political parties actually gave the ruling party a tough battle for the presidency.

Nigeria had practised multi-party democracy since 1999 but 2023 was the first election where prior to the poll, it was difficult for political analysts to predict where the pendulum of victory would swing as in previous elections.

For instance, in 1999, though there were three political parties the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Peoples party (APP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the presidential election was contested between the PDP and the AD after the APP fused with the AD for the purpose of the presidential poll.

Since then, it became common for some political parties and their candidates to withdraw from the presidential poll and endorse the candidate of another party.

The practice continued in 2003 when despite the number of political parties increasing to 20, it was clear from the onset of electioneering campaigns that the presidential contest would be between two parties, the PDP that had President Olusegun Obasanjo contesting for a second term and the APP, which had then changed its name to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and had Gen Muhammadu Buhari as its presidential candidate. Expectedly, most of the other political parties endorsed either Obasanjo or Buhari.

The year 2007 was not different as the number of political parties declined but the ‘real contenders’ to the presidency were again two candidates, the PDP and the ANPP that fielded Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who was completing two terms of office as governor of Katsina State and Buhari, contesting the presidency for the second time.

In 2011, 15 candidates contested the presidential election with two political parties, the PDP and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a new political platform formed by Gen Muhammadu Buhari, a three-time presidential candidate dominating the poll.

In 2015, 14 candidates were on the ballot that was dominated by two parties, the PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) a new party formed by an alliance of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) formerly AD, the CPC, the ANPP, a breakaway faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP – a faction of PDP. The fight for the presidency was squarely between the PDP and the APC and the end of which the APC emerged victorious ending 16 years of PDP’s rule.

In 2019, there was an unprecedented 73 political parties on the ballot paper but the election again remained a two horse-race between the APC, now in power and the PDP in opposition. As usual, most of the other parties filed behind either of the ‘big’ two.

The 2023 electioneering period was however different.

The number of political parties had reduced to 18 after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) de-registered some ‘pretender’ political parties; there was also a new wave of vibrancy to the political process by the political parties that survived the purge.

The 2023 electioneering process thus became the first election in which virtually all the political parties on the ballot paper actually campaigned and made efforts to win the poll.

Here are some of the politicians that pioneered the new political culture and made 2023 a memorable year.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the APC is an astute politician. He was elected governor of Lagos State in 1999 and served two terms on the platform of AD. After his tenure as governor, Tinubu became a ‘king-maker’, calling the shots and litrally deciding who gets what in the South West. He nurtured and grew the party, overseeing its transformation to Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and eventually led it into the formation of APC in 2013. The APC formed through a merger of Nigeria’s three largest opposition parties – ACN, CPC, ANPP– along with a breakaway faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP – a faction of the ruling PDP ended the 16 years of PDP rule.

In 2022, Tinubu resolved that he would no longer be a ’king-maker’ but the ‘king’. He declared the phrase, ‘emi lokan’, which means, it is my turn and threw his hat into the ring to succeed President Buhari.

He emerged the presidential candidate of the APC at the party’s convention in Abuja in June 2022 after defeating 13 other contestants including the then Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo to pick the ticket.

Tinubu contested and won the February 25, 2023 presidential election polling 8,794,726 votes or 36.61 per cent of total valid votes to win. He won majority votes in 12 states of the federation.

Tinubu’s failure to score 25 per cent of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was one of the grounds on which the Labour Party (LP) challenged his victory at the Presidential Election petition Court (PEPC). On October 26, 2023, a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court affirmed Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election after dismissing the petitions of the PDP and LP.

Before then, Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy at his inauguration on May 29. The announcement led to an astronomic rise in the cost of the product and cost of leaving.

 

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a seasoned but unlucky politician. Atiku ran unsuccessfully for President of Nigeria six times, in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023. He ran in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential primaries in 1993, but lost to Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe.

Atiku also made attempts to become governor in 1990, when he announced his aspiration to govern his Gongola State. The breakup of Gongola State into – Adamawa and Taraba states, ended the bid but in 1991, he contested and won the SDP governorship Primaries for Adamawa State but was later disqualified by the military government from contesting the elections.

In 1999, he contested as governor of Adamawa again and won. He relinquished the mandate to become running-mate to Olusegun Obasanjo, who was contesting the presidency on the platform of the PDP. He served twice as vice President from 1999 to 2003 and 2003 to 2007.

In 2007, his hope to succeed Obasanjo as president was dashed when an administrative panel of inquiry set up by Obasanjo indicted him of wrong-doings, following which INEC disqualified him from contesting for the presidency. A Federal High Court later cleared him to contest the presidential election but by then, the PDP had elected Yar’Adua as its presidential candidate. Atiku joined the Action Congress and became its presidential candidate; he contested and came in third behind Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP.

He later returned to the PDP and contested the primaries during the 2011 presidential election losing out to President Goodluck Jonathan. In 2014, he joined the APC ahead of the 2015 presidential election and contested the presidential primaries losing to Muhammadu Buhari. In 2017, he again returned to the PDP and was the party’s presidential candidate during the 2019 presidential election, again losing to Buhari.

In May 2022, he emerged as the PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 general election, contested and came in second to Tinubu of the APC. He polled 6,984,520 votes or 29.07 per cent of total valid votes, winning in 12 states of the federation.

Mr Peter Obi

Obi, a two-term former governor of Anambra State was the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, (LP) in 2023. He polled 6,101,533 votes or

25.40 per cent of total valid votes cast at the election to come in third place in the highly contested presidential election that was decided by the court. Obi won majority votes in 11 states of the federation plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Before Obi, no pestilential candidate in third place had achieved a double-digit percentage score of valid votes cast.

The emergence of Obi as presidential candidate of the LP revitalised the LP, which was founded in 2002 but which had remained in the shadows after Dr Olusegun Mimiko served out his two terms as governor of Ondo State on the platform of the party in 2017.

Obi is very familiar with retrieving ‘stolen’ mandate at the court. After the 2003 governorship election in Anambra State, Obi spent nearly three years in court before he assumed office on March 17, 2006.

Obi challenged the conduct of the governorship election in Anambra in 2007 contending that his four-year tenure had not lapsed since he took office in March, 2006. On June 14, 2007, the Supreme Court upheld his contention and returned Obi to office.

Today, Obi is seen by many as the official face of the opposition and is rated among the top most searched names by Google search engine.

Patrick Okedinachi Utomi

Patrick Okedinachi Utomi is a professor of political economy and management expert. A former presidential candidate, Utomi is founder and convener of Centre for Value in Leadership. He is the chair of that National Consultative Front (NCFront), a group of eminent Nigerians that set out to birth a new political culture for Nigeria and also find an alternative to the PDP and APC. In May 2022, NCFront adopted LP as a preferred 3rd force political party from which to pursue their goal of rescuing Nigeria from the APC and PDP.

Adopting the LP as its political party, NCFront said, “After about fifteen months of painstaking engagements with like-minded allied political parties, the National Consultative Front, (NCFront), the umbrella body of the ‘3rd Force’ Movement and political alternatives to the ruling APC and PDP in Nigeria, wish to announce that it has finally adopted the Labour Party as the mega party for ‘3rd Force’ Stakeholders and Allies for the 2023 elections.

“This historic adoption of the Labour Party was made possible by the new rapprochement between the leadership of the Labour Movement and the hierarchy of the Labour Party; an emergent solidarity jointly spearheaded by President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba and the Trade Union Congress, TUC President, Quadri Olaleye both of whom have since personally revalidated their membership of the Labour Party by formally registering with the Party. With the adoption of the Labour Party as our 3rd Force Mega Party, the NCFront has commenced the fusion of its structures of over 20 million members and supporters nationwide into the Labour Party.”

On May 30, at the LP National Convention in Asaba, Utomi alongside other presidential aspirants of the LP withdrew and stepped down their ambition paving the way for Obi to emerge the LP presidential candidate.

Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso

Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a two-term governor of Kano State was the presidential candidate of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP). Kwankwaso polled 1,496,687 votes or 6.23 per cent of total valid votes. However, he won majority votes only in his native Kano State.

Prince Adewole Adebayo, Omoyele Sowore, Dumebi Kachikwu and 11 other presidential candidates

Adebayo, Sowore, Kachikwu , Presidential candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Action Congress (AAC)and African Democratic Congress (ADC) respectively. The other presidential candidates include Hamza al-Mustapha, Action Alliance (AA); Yabagi Sani, Action Democratic Party (ADP); Osita Nnadi, Action Peoples Party (APP); Peter Umeadi, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Princess Ojei, Allied Peoples Movement (APM); Sunday Adenuga, Boot Party (BP); Felix Osakwe

National Rescue Movement (NRM). There were also Kola Abiola, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Young Progressive Party (YPP); and Dan Nwanyanwu,  Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) among the 2023 presidential contenders. The battle made the election memorable because unlike the past, none of the candidates of these parties stepped down to endorse those of other parties.

Although these candidates did not win the presidential election, their political parties won seats in either the National Assembly or the state assembly.

Nyesom Wike

Nyesome Ezewo Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is the immediate past governor of Rivers State.  Wike contested the PDP presidential primary and lost to Atiku Abubakar.

Wike is a strong member of the PDP who single-handedly installed and removed at least two National Chairmen of the party, including Prince Uche Secondus and Dr Iyorcha Ayu.

After losing the PDP presidential primary, Wike insisted that Ayu must relinquish the office of national chairman because the presidential candidate of the party and the national chairman cannot come from the same zone.

He led a group of five PDP governors ‘The G5’ or ‘Integrity Group’ that insisted on Ayu’s resignation. Wike and his group ultimately worked against the PDP and Atiku at the presidential election. 

Dr Alex Otti

Dr Alex Otti, governor of Abia State is the only elected state executive on the platform of Labour Party.

A former Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc, Otti contested the gubernatorial election in Abia State on the platform of APGA in 2015. On December 31, 2015, the Court of Appeal which sat in Owerri removed Dr Okezie Ikpeazu of the PDP as governor of the state and declared Otti the winner of the April 11 and April 25 Governorship elections in the state. On February 3, 2016, the Supreme Court reversed the verdict of the Court of Appeal and affirmed the election of Ikpeazu as governor.

In 2023, Otti contested the governorship election again, this time on the platform of Labour Party; he won popular votes in 10 out of the 17 local government areas of Abia State with 175,467 valid votes to defeat the PDP candidate who polled 88,529 votes and the YPP candidate that scored 28,972 votes.

Senator Binani

Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani) was the governorship candidate of the APC in Adamawa State in 2023. She was on the verge of making history as the first woman to be elected a state governor

Binani had earlier defeated ‘big bane’ politicians like former Governor of Adamawa State, Muhammadu Jibrilla Bindow, pioneer Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, and influential Federal legislator and chairman of the House Committee on Army, Abdurazaq Namdas, in a competitive primary election of the APC.  Her victory at the primary was challenged by Ribadu at the Federal High Court in Yola, which nullified the primaries. She challenged the court’s ruling at the Appeal Court and in November, the Appeal Court reinstated her as the governorship candidate of the APC. She contested the governorship election on March 18, 2023 and was declared the winner of the election by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Hudu Ari.

She contested against the incumbent governor of Adamawa, Ahmadu Fintiri. However, INEC nullified Ari’s decision as the declaration could only be done by the Returning Officer. Moreover, results from some polling units had not been collated when Ari made his declaration.

Following the completion of the collation process, the results of the election were officially announced. Governor Fintiri emerged as the winner, securing a total of 430,861 votes. Binani, on the other hand, attained the position of runner-up, obtaining 398,738 votes.

She represented Adamawa Central in the 9th Senate from 2019 to 2023. She also served in the House of Representatives from 6, June 2011 to 6 June 2015 on the platform of the PDP.

Umar Ganduje

There is no gainsaying that the former governor of Kano State was one of those who shaped the outgoing year. Even though, his party, APC did not win both the governorship and presidential election in the state, he played a key role in the emergence of President Tinubu as shown by his commitment during the campaigns.

In what surprised many bookmakers, in  August, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC elected Ganduje as the National Chairman of the party.

President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, members of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, chieftains of the party in the National Assembly, amongst others were present at the NEC meeting.

NEC took the decision at its 12th meeting held at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.

The party’s NEC also elected former Senate spokesman, Ajibola Basiru, from Osun State as National Secretary.

Addressing party leaders after his emergence, Ganduje thanked the President and promised that internal democracy would prevail in the party during his tenure.

The ex-Kano governor pledged to ensure a scientific register of party members and pay utmost attention to election management and conflict resolution.

Muhammadu Buhari

For obvious reasons, the immediate past president was one of the key figures that shaped 2023 as he spearheaded the conduct of the

general elections. All eyes were on him to conduct a credible election and ensure a smooth transition of power after his eight years turbulent administration.

In the build up to the election even before the party primaries, there were all manner of conspiracy theories that Buhari was not favourably disposed to the candidature of  Bola Tinubu. Many had speculated that he indeed was secretly supporting the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar. However, all that do not matter now as President Tinubu eventually succeeded him.

Despite the criticism against his government, Buhari would still be remembered for ensuring a transition to another civilian government.