2023: What else can Peter Obi do to win? #peterobi

 

The 2023 presidential election is less than 177 days away and the momentum is growing for the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi. Will it be enough to pull a surprise victory in the 2023 presidential election? It becomes imperative to examine what else Obi can do to make such a victory happen.

As a matter of fact, Obi needs to win to prove that his millions of online-savvy supporters are real and up to the task. The criteria for winning the political contest are always in place, but the challenge is how to seize the opportunity to take power at the centre.

As the September 28 flag-off date for presidential campaign approaches, the Obi-dients need to sustain the existing tempo perfectly till February 2023 to be able to spring surprises at the poll.

Until recently, many underestimated Obi’s dexterity in comparative socio-economics; his will to bring a change in governance; and the support he enjoys from young Nigerians. Many leaders have claimed to have achieved a lot while trying to fix the problems of Nigeria, but obvious metrics suggested they have sorely failed.

The Labour Party candidate already stands a chance of winning the 2023 presidential election, but here are some few other things that he still needs to put into consideration.

Already, Obi is galvanizing the campaign with outreach to the Diaspora community, with series of visits to the US, Canada, Germany and still counting.

Obi needs to accelerate engagement with the Diaspora community to garner more support from groups, business community, students network and professionals and committees to spearhead more initiatives for the party and Obi presidency.

He needs to interface with patriotic Nigerians clamouring to contribute to the success of the party and the growth of the course. But an integral part of the course is the necessity to have the earmarked programmes well coordinated.

The party has a huge role to play in identifying well-meaning Nigerians from the place of integrity to drive this project to achieve the desired goal.

Obi built around 100 million hungry Nigerians and 35 million unemployed persons, including unpaid pensioners, funding is key to provide the enabling resources for these structures to carry the burden of national election for the Labour Party in 2023.

But, to achieve this goal, the party has set action in motion for Obi, with the National Chairman of Labour party, Bar. Julius Abure, recently inaugurating an 11-man Diaspora committee to generate about $150 million, N100 billion crowdfunding for the presidential campaign of Peter Obi.

While the party and Obi supporters keep raising money to fund campaign and election operations ahead of 2023, stakeholders have to ensure adequate monitoring of the organized fundraising activities and donations to the party.

If Peter Obi wants to truly win the 2023 elections, his handlers should be putting up their thinking cap on setting up a crowdfunding plan to boost his campaign.

The need for a viable political structure in winning an election cannot be overstated. Obi’s existing political structure is practically scanty; he is only riding on the strength of social media populism, which may not be able to soak up the daunting political challenges, particularly in the North where his brand is yet to be felt.

If Peter Obi wants to truly win the 2023 elections, his handlers should be putting up their thinking cap on setting up a crowdfunding plan to boost his campaign.

The need for a viable political structure in winning an election cannot be overstated. Obi’s existing political structure is practically scanty; he is only riding on the strength of social media populism, which may not be able to soak up the daunting political challenges, particularly in the North where his brand is yet to be felt.

wherewithal of Obi’s contenders (Abubakar Atiku of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC), it is obvious funding is a problem that must be immediately addressed by the ‘Obedients’ .

With good funding, the LP can begin to look at expansion strategies – accommodating aggrieved members in other parties, aligning with oppositional political parties that are putting up a good fight against the ruling government as well as robustly migrating the #Obidient ideals into the northern part of Nigeria. All these will require great costs.It may not be certain yet what the 2023 situation would look like, but previous elections have witnessed issues such as rigging, vote-buying, arrest of key chieftains of some parties, organized violence in major states, towns or areas where a candidate has a higher advantage of votes.

There is a huge amount of planning and resources that will go into the entire process as the election is approaching, which Obi cannot look away from.

Labour Party needs to put its governorship candidates in the face of the people in all the states where elections are holding, to ensure the party gets closer to the people and to put up a good fight ahead of 2023.

By taking this action, Obi would be able to ride on the strength of the candidates and leaders of the Labour Party in each state to reach out to the grassroots and essentially win more people to its camp in order to do a good number at the polls.