Southeast’s political alignment

A person who considers this writer a sympathizer of APC quickly sent me a trending video over the weekend, which showed what was described as Village Boys, invading an event organized by the City Boy movement and carting away food and other items slated for sharing. He claimed that the scenario represented what APC would face in the region in the 2027 general election. In many other platforms, similar sentiments were expressed, with some calling on the brigands in the video to assert themselves in similar manner during the upcoming elections.

While I have not confirmed the authenticity of the video, there is the general perception that many of those who have hijacked the City Boy Movement, as leaders, are mainly showbiz persons who have little electoral message. Those who appointed them as leaders of the movement seem to mistake their notoriety in the social media with electoral influence. They believe that because they have large social media following, and their presence energize the streets easily, they can influence voters the same way.

This may not be so. While social media can be used to pass electoral messages, it does not mean social media influencers have similar influence in the political space. So, a party seeking to gain political mileage may need serious-minded personalities when the message is political, and not tik tok entertainers. It will be a mistake to think that political messaging which should come with facts and figures of what is commonly referred as democracy dividends, can be supplanted by charlatanism and noise, from social media influencers.

For APC, the facts and figures of what the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done in the region should be the focus. Over the same weekend, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, inspected a number of projects being executed in Ebonyi State, which included what this paper listed as Onueke first section of the 465km Trans-Sahara super highway, where a 25 span bridge of 700 metres is being constructed, Onueke/Afikpo highway, Afikpo/Ndibe beach road, Ebonyi/Cross River beach bridge, Amasri/Okigwe highway, amongst others.

For this writer, it is such communications that should drive the ascendency of APC in the region. Messages, which will show that the APC, is treating the southeast much better than the PDP did in 16 years is what will endear the party and the president to the people, not noise from social media influencers. The administration should therefore through the mouths of credible persons, sell the achievements of the party, and not through turncoats, who would find it difficult, to sell a product they had decried as useless, few months, or few years, ago.

As shown in the Federal Capital Territory local council elections recently, clear, unambiguous evidence of infrastructure development can influence voters, even when there are socio-economic challenges, like hunger, affecting the people. Minister Nyesom Wike, a master of grassroots mobilization, used impactful projects, and credible and effective messaging, of its impacts on the people, to arouse voters, to hand over victory, to President Tinubu’s APC party, at the polls. A victory that the former minister of FCT, under late President Muhammadu Buhari, with all the emotional appeals, about Buhari’s piousness, could not deliver, in that era.  

If one relies on facts and figures, the APC under Buhari, and now under Tinubu, have clearly outperformed the 16 years of PDP, with respect to infrastructure development in the southeast region. But because of poor messaging, many people in the region do not know that. One interesting example is the second Niger Bridge. Many in the region would argue strenuously, that even though it was built under President Buhari, it was former President Goodluck Jonathan, who planned and paid for it before his defeat, in 2015.

You cannot blame those who believe that. While Buhari was funding some critical infrastructure in the region, his messaging, was so badly skewed. While the peoples’ idiosyncrasy may play a part, it was mainly the messaging, which treated the people with disdain, that alienated and misinformed the people. Luckily for this administration, Tinubu, is more politically savvy, and does not by himself or through his official spokesmen demean the people of the region who did not vote for him at the last presidential election. He understands that messaging is critical, in courting them.

Read Also: Parenting for Kingdom Manifestation

But, more needs to be done. He can appoint one credible spokesman from the region who can articulate and sell to the people, the broad gains of the region, under Tinubu’s government. For example, without President Tinubu’s direct support, the law establishing the South East Development Commission, presently headed by a brilliant young man, Mark Okoye (Jnr), would never have been enacted and the commission empanelled. With an eye for the future, Tinubu, pushed and got the development commissions for all the regions in place and cracking, within few years of his administration.

While there are three governors from the region in APC who are reasonably doing well, they still need help to sell the president for the 2027 presidential election in the region. Of course, it is possible for them to win the state elections for the party, but fail to galvanize the people in their respective states to vote for APC during the presidential election. The old lazy tale, that majority of the people of the southeast region, would never vote a person from the southwest, can be debunked with effective messaging, showing the gains of the region, under President Tinubu’s administration.