Kogi gov’ship and the ‘campaign away from the home front’ mantra

The quest to access political positions all over the world begins with a loaded programme of activities that communicate parties’ action plans and missions to the electorates through an organised campaign system.  This campaign can be deployed in different strategic forms to gain political power.  Political parties in the past used traditional campaign methods to reach out to the electorate by amplifying the party’s slogan and motto in such a manner that it would capture the minds and souls of the voters.

New trend now is ‘campaign away from the home front’, which is the brainchild of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu of Nigeria in the 2023 presidential election.  This new trend uses consultation by reaching out to Nigerians in the diaspora.  It is a known fact that prior to the 2023 Nigeria presidential election, President Tinubu engaged in several consultation trips to many countries to hold parley with Nigerians on what his administration would bring onboard if elected.  This new trend equally, uses personalised slogans as a rendition to capture the electorate during campaigns at the home front.  For instance, you will hear “Jagaban-Shine-Gaba” rending the airwaves and on the campaign ground.

The Kogi State governorship election on November 11th 2023 is now seen as a ground to localize the new campaign trend of “Campaign away from the home front.” Candidates in the upcoming Kogi governorship election are bracing up to leverage the most appealing campaign strategy that will endear them to the electorate.

It is no more the tales in a story, as facts on the ground show that the candidate of SDP, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka (aka Muri) has taken advantage of this new campaign concept to become the darling of Kogi people home and away.  Murtala Yakubu Ajaka has elevated politics in Kogi State to another level.  It is for the first time in the history of the Kogi governorship election, that a campaign for party support is taken outside the state through organised forums for consultation with indigenes of the state.

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This “Campaign away from the home front” saw the SDP candidate, Muri take his campaign consultation to Benin City in Edo State, Police College in Lagos State Abuja etc. This, he had borrowed from Tinubu’s political experience. President Tinubu practically relocated to the North East and North West, prior to the general election, consulting with stakeholders.

SDP candidate Muri Ajaka has equally used slogan rendition, which is one of the new campaign strategies to popularise himself.  The campaign slogan now rending the airwaves and on the campaign ground is “Muri! Muri!! Muri!!! For Governor Kogi” just as Jagaban! Jagaban!!-Shine-Gaba” campaign slogan was used by President Tinubu to popularise himself.

The height of the new campaign concept is the use of social media space to gain organic movement support from the youths across Kogi State and Nigeria in general. Discerning minds could see the activities of the SDP campaign through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter platforms promoting Murtala Ajaka and his organic movement of Mammoth crowd of supporters.  This again, is the campaign strategy of Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) in the last presidential election of 2023 that earned close to seven million (about 7,000,000) votes cast across Nigeria to him irrespective of the non-existing strong party structure.

This departure from the traditional ways of party campaigns that rely mostly on structures and party slogans only, to the use of a combination of both “Traditional campaign strategy” and “New campaign away from the home front strategy” by SDP candidate, Murtala Ajaka has given him the edge over those of other parties relying solely on violence, intimidation and traditional campaign strategy to secure electoral victory.

Abdullahi Ocheja S.

08055521875 ([email protected])