Obi/Kwakwanso: Professor Lists Nine Northern States Where NDC Does Not Have Presence

Sunday PUNCH has learned that some Northern Nigerians, including political stakeholders and voters, are still not on board with the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), which means that Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra State, is apparently encountering opposition in his campaign for the presidency.

According to people who spoke with the publication, the party is still having trouble making a big splash in the area, which might hinder its attempts to gain support before the 2027 general election. 

Stakeholders in the matter insisted that the "majority of northerners" were still evaluating the NDC's leadership, messaging, and political trajectory and had not connected with it.

A political science professor from Sokoto offered an alternative view of the problems confronting the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Northern Nigeria, claiming that the party's lack of visibility was the real issue, rather than direct voter rejection.

An academic who preferred to remain anonymous in his interview with Sunday PUNCH said that the NDC is severely under-represented in numerous northern states at the moment. These states include Jigawa, Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, Katsina, Gombe, Niger, Taraba, and Zamfara.

He claimed that many average voters in the area were unaware of the party, particularly in comparison to longer-standing political groups like the PDP, ADC, and All Progressives Congress (APC), which have amassed vast political infrastructures.

The professor emphasised that the problem was more of a lack of grassroots presence and visibility than of acceptability among northern voters. 

He elaborated by saying that the NDC had not yet built the kind of organisational network needed to compete successfully across the region since it was still a young political platform in Nigeria's political scene.

He went on to say that the party was almost nonexistent in most northern states outside of Kano State, which made it hard for people to relate to the party's policies, candidates, and rhetoric. 

His argument was that the NDC was unable to win over voters because it lacked robust party infrastructure and extensive mobilisation initiatives.

No, I don't think that's the issue. A matter of visibility is at hand. In the history of Nigerian political parties, the NDC is an entirely novel entity. He warned that the NDC was completely absent in states other than Kano.