Yes, it is possible to break the 8! APC in Nigeria has shown the way. If you are a political party and you seriously want to win power, you must have workable strategy that would give you the numbers. There is nothing like “with God all things are possible” miracle in politics when your candidate and strategy are very weak to bring in the numbers.
When APC in Nigeria wanted to break the 8 in the midst of economic hardships in the country, they didn’t go about shouting it is possible, it is possible. No! They did what needed to be done to make it possible to break the 8. They came up with a strategy to have the numbers to win.
They must have asked themselves simple questions like, How can we have the needed numbers to win? What must we do to get the numbers to win? Which ticket must we present to get us the numbers to win?
You see, in every election, the most important thing to do is to strategize to have the needed numbers to win. And that’s what APC did in Nigeria.
APC delegates, knowing the economic situation in the country and the role religious factor play in politics, boldly rejected the President’s candidate, who is a Pastor, Professor of law and the sitting Vice President. In fact, the Vice President placed third in the presidential primary.
They didn’t blindly disadvantage the party against PDP and LP by selecting the establishment’s weak candidate and said it is possible to break the 8 with him. No! They rather strategically and consciously played the numbers game to their advantage by leveraging the religious and ethnic factors.
As the results of their election have shown, the APC strategy, which focused largely on positioning the party to win more of the Muslim and Yoruba votes, worked to perfection. Their choice of Alhaji Ahmed Tinubu, a Yoruba man, was the best decision APC delegates made.
And, Tinubu’s decision to make their ticket Muslim-Muslim ticket was also the best decision. But for that strategy, Atiku would have won the northern Muslim votes. Smartness pays in politics!
In the end Tinubu won 5,507,785 of the northern votes while Atiku, a native of the north, had 5,159,541. Interestingly, with respect to the ethnic factor, apart from Lagos, Tinubu won in all other Yoruba dominated States of Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Ondo, Ogun. He lost Lagos to Obi for obvious reason – the religious factor was prevalent in the last election, particularly in Lagos, as reported by BBC and other news agencies.
They knew in terms of message they were somehow weak on the economy, so they strategically leveraged the Tinubu strength in respect of his religious and ethnic background, as well as his performance record as a former Minister and Governor. What a smart strategy!
Dear NPP delegates, the APC strategy has proven to be potent. Therefore, as National Youth Organizer, Mustapha Salem once advised, let’s replicate some of the things they did, for it is possible to break the 8 with them.
Let’s boldly reject the President’s candidate, present a candidate who has good performance record we can leverage and can also win us majority of the Christian votes. Without doubt, Alan Kyerematen is the right marketable person to lead the party to break the 8.
However, unlike the APC one-sided Muslim-Muslim ticket, I would suggest we maintain our winning Christian-Muslim ticket for 2024. It’s a powerful ticket that has won us power four times since 2000. In 2008, we shot ourselves in the foot. In 2012, we were cheated. Why change this powerful strategy!
As I conclude, one word keeps coming to me – NUMBERS. With right strategy and strong candidate, it is possible to have the numbers to break the 8.
Shalom shalom!
E. G. Buckman