Presidential Candidate, Sowore’s Campaign Signals The End Of Godfatherism In Nigerian Politics

For over 58 years, Nigerian politicians used these tactics to silence the Nigerian masses. Their indoctrination was so thorough that they quietened any possibility of a revolution and made the Nigerian people – a people renowned in every other part of the world for their resilience and resourcefulness – grateful to be alive and see another day, regardless of the untold hardships the new dawn might present.

Wholesale rigging, thieving, murdering and destruction ate at the very fabric of the nation while Nigerians were compensated with finger pointing and despondency. While the godfathers, united in their single vision of raping, pillaging and looting Nigeria into nothingness, looked beyond tribal, ethnic and religious lines to divvy up the country as they saw fit, the average Nigerian was taught that this was the only way politics could be practised.

But a new candidate emerged and threw the rule book away. Omoyele Sowore ran a presidential campaign, the likes of which this country has never before seen. By so doing, he dispelled every myth and fallacy perpetuated by the ruling classes to hold Nigeria in a vice-like grip of corruption and fear. By all accounts, he was correct when he said it is impossible to stop an idea whose time has come.

Perhaps the most crucial part of any political campaign is the fundraising. Whoever raises the funds not only determines the trajectory of the campaign but also the heart and soul of the government that follows. Many people thought it was impossible for ordinary Nigerians to fund a campaign since people had been previously conditioned to believe that it could only be done by a handful of people injecting hundreds of millions – most of it funds stolen from government coffers – in order to run a successful campaign. 150 million naira from thousands of individual donors later, Sowore’s vision for a campaign funded by the Nigerian people – a vision that was initially mocked – has now been validated. The donations, ranging from as little as 50 naira to a million, broke the mould and have finally confirmed that the Nigerian people will put their resources behind their hopes and aspirations for a better country.

Money, however, isn’t all that a campaign needs. Campaigns require different kinds of resources and skill sets. A successful campaign needs strategy and policy analysis and development, grassroots mobilisation, and a good handle on public relations, media and communication with the electorate, logistics, security and planning amongst others. A significant portion of the resources of any campaign are typically spent on these activities. Sowore ran a world class campaign with remarkable staff being pooled from all over the world. The difference is that they were all volunteers, a phenomenon that hitherto had been alien in Nigerian politics. Even beyond the monetary donations, people have donated billions of naira’s worth of skills, resources and time.

For those who wonder how Sowore’s upstart presidential bid and a five-month old party could have catapulted into becoming one of the top three political parties and movements in Nigeria, they need look no further than to the thousands of global experts in areas as diverse as policy, media, analytics, planning and political strategy that his campaign has attracted. People drawn from all around the world – from within Nigeria and spanning every continent – to birth a true revolution of ideas.

Perhaps the most telling indication that this new paradigm had been engaged with by Nigerians is the extent to which they claimed this campaign as their own. Beyond the official strategies implemented by the campaign, this organic movement saw Nigerians taking full ownership of the campaign. Unprompted, they created jingles and flyers; they engaged their fellow Nigerians on street corners and in public transport. Nigerians defended their new-found hope to the hilt; refusing to return to the brainwashed days of APC and PDP.

Indeed, it looks like this progressive movement tackled the fear of the ruthlessness in Nigerian politics. Sowore’s campaign successfully disrupted the paradigm of fear and territorialism that had dominated establishment politics in Nigeria. Politics that suggested that politicians are tied to regional and geographic turfs and could only play politics within their spheres of influence. The narrative that suggests successful politics cannot be implemented without violence and intimidation.

Sowore

The Sowore campaign engaged with Nigerians in every single geopolitical zone and worked across all of the states. There are many who said it would have been suicidal to visit the Daura home town of General Buhari or the Adamawa hometown state of the PDP presidential candidate. The Sowore campaign, however, made it a point of visiting both places and engaged with IDPs, herdsmen and local folks who had been neglected by their leading townsmen.

For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a presidential campaign was run in a true grassroots nature. Rallies were substituted with town hall sessions that allowed for unfettered engagement between the candidate and the electorate. Different sessions were organised to accommodate different constituencies, ranging from faith-based groups to economic round tables for business leaders, to on-site visitations of workers, and engagements with students and youth.

In every other part of the world, campaigns are serious business. A candidate’s decision to run starts with the development of a clear agenda and a manifesto that is not just a statement of intent, but also includes a clear sense of the vision and how that vision is to be achieved and paid for. Nigerian politics, up until now, had not operated on that basis. There has never been any clear difference between the parties and the programmes of the APC and the PDP has always been essentially the same. For the first time in Nigeria’s political history, the Sowore campaign turned that paradigm on its head; with the candidate and the party providing a clear agenda on how to create jobs, tackle security and deal decisively with corruption, but they also provided a clear path on how those programmes would be implemented and paid for. This meant that for the first time, people with an expertise in project development and management and strong practical experience in how to deliver successfully on massive projects were at the helm of a campaign, as opposed to the usual political jobbers.

It is clear that it will no longer be business as usual in Nigeria’s political space as there is a clamouring for engaged politics. Sowore has set the pace and he is no longer a lone voice calling out in the wilderness. His disruptive methods and approach are catching on. For the first time in our nation’s history all the leading candidates subjected themselves to town hall sessions. The scales have fallen. This is an awakening that will lead to a progressive and prosperous Nigeria as envisioned by Omoyele Sowore.