The 2023 presidential election in Nigeria threw up some surprises with the candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi winning a whopping 12 states in the exercise same number as his more illustrious opponents, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and the eventual winner Bola Tinubu who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to win the 2023 presidential election while Atiku trailed with a total of 6,984,520 votes. But Obi’s total of 6,101,533 votes in 12 states remains a huge surprise.
Labour Party entered the race without any political offices but ended the contest with six Senators-elect and 34 House of Representatives members-elect and there were strong indications the party could nick a few Governorship seats after last Saturday’s exercise.
Obi won in Edo, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Imo, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Anambra, Abia and Enugu states and there were feelings the Labour Party candidates in the governorship and house of assembly could benefit greatly from the success of the party at the presidential polls.
It was believed that the party particularly had strong chances in Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Cross River, Lagos and clear the seats in the Imo State Assembly but as of the time of filing this report, the party had yet to officially win any state.
Peter Obi won 341,886 votes in Delta State in the presidential election but the Obidients Movement abandoned the party candidate Kennedy Pela who came a distant third with paltry 48,047 votes in the governorship election won by Sheriff Oborevwori of the PDP who 360,234.
Obi polled 259,738 votes in Ebonyi during the presidential election which is about 75 percent of the total votes cast but his party recorded abysmally low votes of 6,793 in the governorship election.
The Labour Party presidential candidate won 179,917 votes in Cross River which raised the hope of the governorship candidate in that state Ogar Esim. But the multitude that queued behind Obi just abandoned Esim who scored a paltry 5,957 votes.
In Nasarawa, Joseph Ewuga, the Labour Party candidate in that state had stepped down for his PDP counterpart, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, but the combined votes of the two parties still could not dislodge the incumbent Abdullahi Sule of the APC who polled a total of 347, 209 votes in a state Obi won three weeks earlier.
Obi polled a total number of 466,272 votes to win in Plateau State where the APC Presidential Campaign Council Director-General Governor Simon Lalong governs but the party’s governorship candidate Patrick Dakum managed just 60,310 votes in the election won by Caleb Mutfwang of the PDP.
The biggest upset of the 2023 presidential polls was Obi winning Lagos, the home state of the APC candidate, Tinubu polling 582,454 votes as against the 572,606 the godfather of Lagos politics recorded.
That set the tone for a potentially intriguing outcome in the gubernatorial election with the LP candidate Gbadebo Rhosdes-Vivour emerging as the biggest threat to the re-election bid of Governor Babajide Sanwoolu.
However, the Governor with 762,134 votes trounced Rhodes-Vivour who polled 312,329.
There was no governorship election in Imo State but the Labour Party was expected to dominate the house of assembly poll after Obi scored 352,904 in the presidential election which is about 90 percent of the total votes cast. But the lacklustre showing of the party was concerning as the APC cleared 26 out of the 27 state constituency seats in the Imo State House of Assembly.
In Enugu, the presidential election saw Obi securing 428,640 votes, more than 90 per cent of the total votes cast but his party flag bearer in the governorship election Chijioke Edeoga is still being edged out by PDP candidate, Peter Mbah.
Alex Otti, the LP gubernatorial candidate in Abia State is lucky as he enjoyed the support of the Obidients Movement who backed him in his ambition. Although he was yet to be announced as the winner of the polls by INEC, he had opened an unassailable lead on his opponents and would eventually get the nod.
