The impossible happened! Finally a beautiful flower grows on the Rock in the political phase of Nigeria, it has always been two giant Elephants in the race.
On the one hand is the All Progressive Congress ( APC) that was formed from the merger of Three Opposition parties namely Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and All Nigeria Peoples Party ( ACN, CPC, ANPP) On February 6 2013, having their Slogan as ‘APC Change’. They hold Major seats in the House of Representatives and are currently in power in 21 out of 36 states in Nigeria; they won the presidential election in 2015 and 2019 respectively. Their political ideology seems to be the Fight against corruption but the reverse seems to be the case, it has been from one mesh to another, in recent time, the Accountant General under the appointment of the APC government was involved in an 80 billion Naira scandal. This is just to mention but a few instances.
It’s also a point to note the current hike in the price of petroleum in the country under the nose of the so-called corruption fighters. In October, 20th, 2020 some young and vibrant youth in an attempt to stand to what they seems is their right as a citizen, were brutally murdered under the reign of the same corruption fighters, APC.
On the other hand is the People Democratic Party (PDP), which is one of the major and oldest party that was founded in 1998, before this current phase in our (Nigeria) political era, the PDP and APC has power on rotation; before the emergence of APC in 2015,PDP has been in power for close to 2 decades.
The PDP and APC have always been considered the major parties; there has always been this notion that ‘Power can only fall to these two parties’. While APC has its political ideology on ‘Fighting Corruption’, PDP has its own ‘Conservative Liberalism’.
Furthermore, The arouse of the Labour Party with its Presidential candidate as Peter Obi, kick-started the era of the Third force in our (Nigeria) Political phase, It seems history is about to be made; From APC and PDP losing it ground as the only two major parties, to the youth gaining serious interest in politics! Yes the youth began to clamour for a change in governance during the Endsars protest and other shortcomings of the FG over tertiary education which was more of an eye opening and are some of the factors that gave birth to the third Force in our present day politics;With that being said , this coming election will be a true test of the power that lies in the hands of the youths whose attention seems to be fully focused on the new party and the said reliefs and stability it could bring to the country once elected in office.
In conclusion the emergence of the Labour Party has really made the two other Major party unrest, because in the last 6 months, many persons from all walks of life has drum their support for Labour Party; off recent in October 1 2022, A campaign tagged “One million man walk” held in support of the Labour Party Presidential candidate (Peter Obi), the campaign saw the likes of citizens that seeks for hope from another source (The Third force).
Ngobidi Emmanuel Chichetam, Lagos State University
