Political Parties Versus People’s Movement in the 2023 General Elections: the Challenge of Democracy in Nigeria

The paper examined how political parties and the people’s movement fared in the 2023 general elections in Nigeria. The people’s movement was a group that sprang up to support the candidacy of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections. The group called itself Obidient Movement, a name they coined from the surname of their principal, Peter Obi. The group cut across all political parties and all strata of the Nigerian society and existed in all the geo-political zones of the country. The Obidient Movement transcended traditional, political, religious and ethnic affiliations. The group was mostly led by young people across political, ethnic and religious divides. The movement believed that Peter Obi represented the face of a new and better Nigeria rather than the old recycled politicians that had inflicted poverty, unemployment, insecurity, and inflation, poor social and infrastructural facilities on the people. Though the movement failed to vote in Peter Obi as the President of Nigeria in the 2023 Presidential election, the movement shocked everyone by winning 8 Senatorial Seats, 34 House of Representatives Seats, a State Governor (Abia State) and several House of Assembly Seats. The Obidient Movement also called the people’s movement aimed to end bad governance in Nigeria. The movement which supported the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections defeated the ruling party APC, and the PDP in their strongholds in Lagos, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory. Following the strong impact of the people’s movement in defeating well established political parties in the 2023 general elections, it was recommended that the movement should transform into a political party, that there should be good governance in Nigeria and that electoral bodies should be credible in the conduct of elections in Nigeria, among others. It was concluded that until the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral system is prioritized above party’s influence, Nigeria may not get it right as a country.