By Michael Abu

For a party that is increasingly turning itself into a third force in Nigeria, Wednesday December 14, 2022 appeared to be a day of reckoning for the Labour Party as it was forced to call a suspension on its presidential campaign rallies.

The party in an announcement said the scheduled presidential campaign rallies in Ekiti and Ondo States had been put on hold.

The suspension came after what many have described as the fiasco on Tuesday of the campaign rally in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

Before the Lokoja fiasco, the Labour Party with its horde of trenchant supporters popularly known as Obidients had been everywhere, especially on social media, announcing themselves as the new face of politics in the country.

In postponing the rallies in Ekiti and Ondo States scheduled for December 15 and 16 respectively, the party, in an announcement on its official twitter page, said, “Due to some unavoidable and unusual circumstances beyond control, our earlier scheduled Presidential Campaign Rally in Ekiti & Ondo for 15th and 16th December, 2022 are hereby POSTPONED. New date will be announced. We regret the inconveniences caused by this.”

What those unfortunate circumstances were, were, however, not made known.

It is nevertheless open to guess that after basking in the momentum and enthusiasm from mostly youths in previous rallies and on social media, Kogi appeared to puncture the narrative of a surging national party. After boisterous rallies in Owerri, Ibadan and a few other states with tens of thousands of supporters, Lokoja, Kogi State appeared to have disconcerted the Obidients.

So what may have accounted for the derailment of the Labour Party rally in Kogi?

Officials of the party have sought to blame bureaucratic procedures in the arrangement for the township stadium from the Kogi State Government.

Dr Shina Byron-Fagbenro, Director of Operations in the Obi-Datti Movement, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, a day after the uncelebrated rally, confessed that the rally was not well attended. He also sought to blame a number of logistic considerations in part due to the overzealousness of some government officials for the failure.

It is, however, worthy of note that he acquitted the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, and by that measure, the State Government, of allegation of sabotage as alleged in some quarters.

“I can assure you that the governor said that he didn’t know that we were being delayed,” he said.

However, what he didn’t say was that in Kogi State, the arguments that had fuelled the Obidient movement appeared not to have found traction.

With a populace apparently satisfied with the good governance that they have benefited from the Yahaya Bello-led administration, it was not difficult to understand why the new gospel propagated by the Labour Party failed to find grip in the hearts of the people of Kogi State, especially the youths.

Against the new narrative of the New Kogi State that is now the cynosure of critical analysts, the gospel of change that has been central to the Obidient Movement appeared to have fallen flat. It was definitely not surprising, given the radical transformation of Kogi State in the last seven years in virtually all sectors of endeavour.
Even the opposition in the state know that the Governor has set a new pace in the development of Kogi State, which his successors must work very hard to keep up with.

With the health infrastructure being boosted through the 300-bed reference hospital in Okene, the Specialist Hospital in Lokoja and ultra modern Prince Audu Abubakar University Teaching Hospital, Anyigba, it is not surprising that Governor Yahaya Bello is set to turn Kogi State into a centre for medical tourism. That aspiration apparently resounds with the Obidients’ chant of turning from consumption to production at least in the area of medical services.

Remarkably, as the news of the Labour Party campaign rally fiasco emerged in national news reels, it was accompanied with the fact that Kogi State had emerged the Best Performing State in the World Bank-supported Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project, outshining 10 other states assessed for the project’s Community-Based health project.

The state government received the Certificate of Achievement as Best Performing State: Community-Based Nutrition Service Delivery (NSA Performance +DLI) at the 6th ANRIN Implementation Support event, held in llAbuja.

Such awards and honours for Kogi State, including the World Bank’s SFTAS award for fiscal transparency and accountability, have been the hallmark of the New Kogi State under Governor Bello with even more honours accruing in education and security, among others. It was as such not surprising that the message of the Obidient Movement did not find traction in Kogi State.

Even more as an ancillary is the fact that the Obidient Movement has drawn most of its support from the youth population. However, Governor Bello is the National Youth Coordinator of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council. So for the youths of Kogi State who have found pleasure in the Governor, the resonance of the message that has fueled the rallies in other states appeared not to have found bearing with them and hence their apparent lack of concern when the Labour Party presidential campaign berthed in Lokoja.

Michael Abu, a seasoned journalist, was the Chief Press Secretary of Arch. Yomi Awoniyi, former Deputy Governor of Kogi State

apache22b:
What else do you expect from Peter Obi and his useless Obidient's urchins

Can you compare Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the useless Peter Obi the liar of the century with his useless statistics. I pity all the useless Obidient's urchins that will waste their precious votes on Peter Obi, a monumental failure who failed as Anambra governor...

My fellow youths let join hands together and make our Country better again for our future and the future of our children .

Peter Obi the liar and his useless Obidient's urchins are all bunch of jokers and waste of time .

Vote Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a better tomorrow ... Slawormirr can bear us witness

Balablue bluubu bulaba

apache22b:
What else do you expect from Peter Obi and his useless Obidient's urchins

Can you compare Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the useless Peter Obi the liar of the century with his useless statistics. I pity all the useless Obidient's urchins that will waste their precious votes on Peter Obi, a monumental failure who failed as Anambra governor...

My fellow youths let join hands together and make our Country better again for our future and the future of our children .

Peter Obi the liar and his useless Obidient's urchins are all bunch of jokers and waste of time .

Vote Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a better tomorrow ... Slawormirr can bear us witness

We won't vote Tinubu until he interprets his incantation of Balablue bluubu bulaba

What the youths want is a great thing. Political revolution!
We are just going about it the wrong way. Labour Party won't solve our problems. Neither will Obi.
The youths need a champion, a leader, and it's definitely not Obi.

Imagine people stealing rally money!

Immediately I saw the author, I knew I had wasted my time reading.


Yemi Awoniyi is one of Yahaya Bello's boys. What else do you expect him to say?

Just say that Tinubu bribed people to sabotage the rally. Are Kogi people buying from a different market?

apache22b:
What else do you expect from Peter Obi and his useless Obidient's urchins

Can you compare Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the useless Peter Obi the liar of the century with his useless statistics. I pity all the useless Obidient's urchins that will waste their precious votes on Peter Obi, a monumental failure who failed as Anambra governor...

My fellow youths let join hands together and make our Country better again for our future and the future of our children .

Peter Obi the liar and his useless Obidient's urchins are all bunch of jokers and waste of time .

Vote Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a better tomorrow ... Slawormirr can bear us witness

A cultist like you should never no peace in his life.

Kogi is APC. There is no room for any mushroom political party

Kogi is APC and labour party doesn't even have a structure in the state.

Movement is already dead on arrival.
He should just rest and stop spending his money.

Peter obi, is just a baby in politics and people and including him self is tired already.

It's obvious that Peter Obi is not serious. His unseriousness is not my concern but how he believe he can rise without raising or mentoring anyone politically baffles me. Well, in Kogi we believe in proofable works/antecedents (Who you help?)

Peter Obi and his so called Obi supporters aren't in existence in Kogi state. How then do anybody expect campaign to be a success. No structure

Kogi State is purely for Apc I don't think Kogi State has Labour party memebers some are just parading themselves looking for something

The earlier Peter Obi realises that Kogi state is for APC the better for him, Obi supporters and the Labour party. The thought of coming to campaign in Kogi State shouldn’t have even crossed their minds, they should have known it would have been nothing but a colossal failure from the onset. So we were not surprised of the outcome how can you come to a state where you lack structure and expect to have a great turn up even miracles doesn’t happen that way.

Chinweudo:
Peter Obi and his so called Obi supporters aren't in existence in Kogi state. How then do anybody expect campaign to be a success. No structure

E go shock u

We are coming

Mariagorretti:
The earlier Peter Obi realises that Kogi state is for APC the better for him, Obi supporters and the Labour party. The thought of coming to campaign in Kogi State shouldn’t have even crossed their minds, they should have known it would have been nothing but a colossal failure from the onset. So we were not surprised of the outcome how can you come to a state where you lack structure and expect to have a great turn up even miracles doesn’t happen that way.

It surprises me of the fixation on Obi's Kogi campaign.

What of the APC Kaduna campaign that has governor's, ministers, senators and the rest in attendance yet couldn't fill 1/4 portion of the stadium convincingly. Despite all our common Patrimony they dolled out as mobilization.

Obi did and is still doing marvellously well in Kogi.

E go shock u!

I was reading until he said "with the good governance found in... Yahaya Bello..."

A paid hack!

Them no serious, APC na our own. Kogi State is for APC

There is no way this rally can hold successfully because the state belongs to APC and the people are enjoying the leadership equality of Gov. Bello why should they go away from good to bad?

But you people were told that obidense will lose steam

Villa12:
Chinedu

Are you going home for Christmas?

You want make shinedu go from SW to griller then into pot of egusi soup

Peter obi is learning what politics is really about, politics is not hubboob but strategist and good track record. Thank God the youths now understand much better
Kogi is Apc State Na Jagaban get kogi oooo

Kogi is the place where there bubble got busted. The reality is begin to dawn on them.