2023: Mammoth crowds at campaign grounds: What Nigerians are saying

Nigerians have voiced a variety of viewpoints regarding the enormous crowds that can be observed at political rallies and campaign sites for various political parties throughout the nation.

While some individuals believe that the crowds are staged by politicians and their handlers to appear like supporters of their political parties and candidates, others believe that the crowds are real.

Some Nigerians began marching through the cities to show support for their candidates before the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officially declared the campaign season open.

For Peter Obi of the Labour Party, such rallies, dubbed “One Million-Man” or “Two Million-Man March,” had taken place in cities like Jos, Kaduna, and FCT, among others.

And now that their handlers boast about and post videos of enormous audiences at their rallies, it appears that this has become into a test of popularity among politicians before of the general elections.

Many Nigerians, however, do not adhere to this belief. And then there’s the prevailing opinion that the actual battleground would be the greatest way to gauge strength because, in their view, a crowd might be bought.

There is also the notion that there are three different kinds of audiences at these rallies and election grounds: masses that have been hired; people who come out in the hopes that the politicians will distribute food and money; and the real crowd, which consists of Nigerians looking for change.

Even politicians agree that Nigerians don’t show up in large numbers to support someone simply for the purpose of doing so. They think that these crowds are hired, raising the question of whether Nigerians have ever supported a politician sincerely.

Before the Labour Party rally in Abuja, frontline entertainer and activist Charles Oputa, also known as Charly Boy, who was one of the organisers of the “one million-man march,” claimed that Nigerians had been let down by the current administration and that the common man had no hope, which was why they were looking for a new government.

Charly Boy has a strong belief that Peter Obi would implement the necessary socioeconomic adjustments for the nation to advance from where it is today.

Since then, videos of extremely crowded election-related locations from major political parties including the LP, All Progressives Congress, APC, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have been going viral online.

Additionally, some Nigerians who spoke with PulseNets on the streets of Abuja think that the majority of these people are employed primarily for campaign purposes and are paid meagre wages.

PulseNets recalls, among other things, that the one million-man march for Peter Obi in Abuja was derided by Dino Melaye, the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential Campaign Management Committee.

He claimed that the so-called Obi supporters were simply starving Nigerians who had been paid between N1000 and N2000 and assembled from all over Abuja and Nigerians in general to stand and declare themselves Obidients.

“Hunger in the land has made crowd renting very easy,” Dr. Kashifu Ahmad, an Abuja based political observer said.

“A time like this [campaign season] is one of the reasons politicians do not want to provide jobs and good life for the citizens.

“The people are weak and hungry and can easily be lured to the streets. I strongly believe that, while some of these people are genuine supporters of the candidates and the political parties, most of them are rented.

“Every politician likes to see their campaign ground filled with people and could go any length to achieve this. We now have what is called ‘crowd agents’. These people go from place to place to hire a crowd for politicians. Just tell them the number of people you want and there you go. I strongly believe that the election itself would serve as the true test of popularity. Let’s forget the crowd. But I repeat, that doesn’t totally rule out genuine support.”

Emeka Amadi, a shoe seller at Utako Market, also spoke on this topic to PulseNets, saying,  “I was part of the march for Obi in Abuja here. Nobody gave me N1. I live in Dutse but had to come all the way to join the march because I want Obi to be President. Maybe, other political parties are giving money to people to come out and support them. But I don’t think Obidients’ crowds are fake.”

Abubakar Isa, a trader at Wuse Market, noted that “People are gathering for different reasons. For some, they just want to see the presidential candidate and be among the crowd and after that nothing more. Some came out in search of food and money, while some others are party members. There’s suffering. Hunger is killing people, that’s why you see crowds everywhere. I don’t belong to any party but I have my voter’s card.”

Another trader, Sister Margret Ugwu, described herself as ‘Obidients’ saying, “Even my pastor is Obidient. We need change. The last eight years is something the mouth can’t say. We are calling on God to give us a good leader who truly understands what the people are passing through. For the crowds, I support what Dino Melaye said. PDP and APC know how to rent crowds. But we in ‘Obidient’ we use our own money to pay transport fares to any rally. We’re not expecting our candidate to give us money rather ‘na we go give am’. So let them continue renting their crowds. On election day, we’ll see who’s who.”

In response to the charge of renting a crowd, Labour Party vice presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed stated in one of his most recent interviews that thousands of Obi-Datti fans in the nation’s major cities were not rented.

The followers who showed up at the rallies were hailed by Baba-Ahmed as authentic, independently wealthy, and natural “crowds.”

He said, “I am not a crowd-renter and I can tell you that Peter Obi is not a crowd-renter. Those are legitimate, bonafide, self-funded, organic crowds.”

Festus Keyamo, SAN, Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, claimed, “When they are running out of breath, we are just starting,” while posting a video of a massive audience at one of the APC rallies in Ibadan. This is not a 100-meter dash, but a long-distance race! They are being instructed on how to conduct a legitimate march by APC party members in just one area of Ibadan city, not the entire state of Oyo. Now let’s move!