Can Peter Obi recreate the Barack Obama phenomenon in 2023?

The fact that Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu are the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, and All Progressives Congress' respective presidential candidates is no longer breaking news.

But a recent development is the unprecedented rush of Nigerians to register and obtain their Permanent Voters' Cards (PVCs).

While some activists and civil society organizations have proposed various initiatives to advance the PVC registration and collection campaign, others, including clerics, have used some mobilization campaigns that many people find odd.

Last week, a video went viral on social media showing a Catholic priest forbidding parishioners without PVCs from entering and attending mass in his parish.

Because there is no way you have Christians filling up the church but only a handful of them go to vote during elections. So, it means our population and numbers mean nothing. So, we want Christians to take their responsibilities and roles seriously,” the priest could be heard saying in the video.

 While encouraging one's followers to exercise their civic duty and take part in the election process may be a patriotic act, some observers worry that, despite the advocacies, there is no guarantee that the efforts will result in anything on Election Day.

 Nonetheless, millions of Nigerians who have had a taste of the anguish that visited the country in the past seven years believe that the 2023 election is a divine opportunity to change the fortunes of the nation through the ballot.

Driven by one disaffection or the other, these citizens make up a huge chunk of the potential voters hustling in droves to collect the PVCs in belief that it is their power to hire good leaders to run the affairs of the nation after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure next year.

 But dethroning the All Progressives Congress (APC) and blocking the return of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to power in 2023 does not look possible to those who are visualising victory at the 2023 presidential poll from the old prism.