As campaign season officially commenced yesterday, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has gotten off to a great start by hosting a mega rally in Jos, Plateau State. Meanwhile, as expected, the campaign season comes with a lot of politicking and horse-trading as stakeholders across party lines could defect to opposition parties with aligned political interest.
State of play
The first public display of these is the naming of the federal lawmaker representing the Enugu East Senatorial District Senator Chimaroke Nnamani in campaign councils of two major political parties in the presidential race. The former Enugu State Governor who was elected as a lawmaker in 2019 under the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was named in the recently released APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) list.
- Earlier reactions from PDP stakeholders stated the inclusion of the lawmaker in the PCC list of an opposition party could have been an error. However, the Director Media and Publicity of the council, Bayo Onanuga formally crushed those claims stating that the lawmakers inclusion was deliberate.
What’s more
Nonetheless, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani was also amongst 69 members of Atiku Abubakar’s campaign council released on Wednesday.
What you should know
Although there are indications that the PDP member is campaigning for the ruling party (APC) and its presidential candidate, there has been no official report of a defection from the PDP.
Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, a former governor of Enugu State and a current lawmaker of Enugu East Senatorial District definitely holds some influence in the state and southeastern region as a whole.
Mr. Peter Obi, an indigene of Anambra state and one of the leading candidates in the presidential race projectively outshines both the PDP and APC in terms of influence. Hence, the move by both parties to include an eastern stakeholder in their campaign councils.