In the past couple of months, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi succeeded in turning the upcoming presidential race into a three-horse race.
The former Anambra State Governor took the relatively small party into national limelight, as politicians that lost the ticket of their parties have turned the Labour Party into a realistic refuge and seek to benefit from the popularity of Mr Obi.
However, despite the popularity of Mr Obi, the party failed to get candidates for a number of Senatorial and House of Representatives seats, particularly in areas that are not his stronghold.
According to the list released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Labour Party has 78 candidates out of the 109 seats available.
What makes these National Assembly elections important is that the elections are held on the same day as the presidential elections. This means that all candidates of the same political parties may be able to put resources together.
Mr Obi remains popular in the South and some places in the North-central; however, in the Northeast and Northwest, his popularity remains in doubt.
A quick review of the data shows that it is not that the party doesn’t just have candidates for some seats, but that most of the vacant slots are in the stronghold of the opponents of Mr Obi.
Every party is expected to have a minimum of one agent per polling unit and there are 176.846 polling units across the country.
Having candidates in all senatorial and federal constituencies can help guarantee having agents at all polling units.
In Borno State, where the running mate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kashim Shettima is from, the Labour Party has no single senatorial candidate. In Kebbi, Katsina, Lagos and Ekiti States, the Labour party has no senatorial candidate.
In Ondo, Yobe, Jigawa, Delta, Balyesa Labour party has one senatorial candidate each in all these States.
Hassan Nurudeen, a development expert, said the lack of candidates in those senatorial districts is worrisome because having candidates in all posts has a significant role during election days.
Eni-Out, a legal practitioner told DAILY POST that the data from INEC shows that politicians in the region where Obi is popular are seeking to ride on his popularity.
Also, it helps with the cost of elections. The Labour party is not going into the election with a strong war chest like the PDP or APC. If the party has to finance party agents in all the polling units and pay them feeding money of N10,000 per day, it will cost N1.76 billion for agents alone.โ
It would be recalled that Pat Utomi, a chieftain of the Labour party had suggested that they will deploy 15 agents per polling unit. Using the estimate by Mr Eniotu, it would cost N26 billion, unless they can get volunteers, who are familiar with their locality and loyal to the party and the candidate.
It is worth noting that the Labour Party is yet to set up a campaign council, nor even appoint a spokesperson for the campaign. As it stands, it appears the structure still revolves around the popularity of the candidate.
