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2023: Wazobia Election Beckons As Yoruba, Fulani, Igbo Emerge Major Candidates
By Emmanuel Aziken
For the first time in over forty years, Nigeria is set for a presidential election in 2023 with three major candidates from the three dominant ethnic groups in the country in a poll some are already designating as the Wazobia election.
GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu earlier on Wednesday as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC has put candidates of the three major ethnic groups, Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo on the tickets of the major parties in the country.
Earlier, Atiku Abubakar had emerged as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP while Mr Peter Obi also emerged as the candidate of Labour Party.
Elections in the country have until now been fought between two major political parties with the PDP facing off opposition from political parties that have transformed severally.
In 1999 the PDP faced off an alliance of the APP and AD with two Yoruba, Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae facing off against each other.
In 2003 the contest was between Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari of the APP. In 2007 the two major aspirants were Buhari of the ANPP and Umar Yar`Adua of the PDP.
In 2011 the contest for the first time had a minority in the person of President Goodluck Jonathan against two Hausa/Fulani in the persons of Buhari of the CPC and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau of the ANPP.
In 2015 after the merger of the ANPP and CPC with others to form the APC, the match was between Jonathan and Buhari of the APC. In 2019 the contest was also between two Fulani, Buhari of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
The three party race in 2023, GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports, was thrown up by the emergence of Peter Obi on the platform of Labour. The Obi campaign has already been turned into an insurgent campaign on social media with Obi’s supporters drawn from across the country turning him into the champion of a movement to clean the system by those they refer to as the corrupt system thrown up by the PDP ad APC.
However, the emergence of Peter Obi, an Igbo could in the near future redefine the forthcoming election as a Wazobia election with Yoruba, Igbo and Fulani candidates as the major personalities on the ticket.
The ethnic identity is, however, not what supporters of Peter Obi are comfortable with. Rather, they prefer to see their man as the head of an insurgency against the political class and should not be seen as the Wazobia election.
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