Politics is No Longer Local

When we got to the village few days to the election in 2023, we were shocked to realize that Labour Party was reigning everywhere in the village.

It was a brutal shock that those of us in the PDP didn't know how to tackle.

Before 2023, we believed that every politics is local.

So political parties that were always in the cities and the media making noise stood no real chance.

The only parties that stood a chance were usually the ruling parties that had strong candidates with Ward and LGA structures and had Agents in all polling units and had the rich, powerful influential stakeholders. The former this, former that.

They were the parties to beat and online noise accounts for nothing.

We always joked that LP supporters on Facebook and Twitter didn't have Voters Card.

That's why some people swore with their lives that Peter Obi would never win even one state.

So when we got home, we realized that Agwo no na akirika.

All the people in the village, the ones with PVC were all Obidients and they had made up their minds to vote LP top to bottom.

And they did, some of us were able to win our polling units and wards for PDP but it accounted for nothing.

We blamed the church for helping spread the message.

We blamed the stakeholders for betrayal.

We blamed the local party agents for not working hard enough.

We blamed the cash scarcity.

We even blamed the party leadership for not being clear enough on whom to support for the presidency.

We had a lot of things and people to blame.

Simply because we didn't want to face the brutal truth.

The mobile phone has made everybody urban, so politics is no longer Local.

Urban Media now shapes local perception same way it shapes urban perception, and therefore influences voter behavior.

In my 2nd year in the University, I won 5 marks during a Political Communication class, from the Mark-stingy Prof. Chidi Ezinwa, when I explained how social media was the major cause of President Jonathan's failure at the polls.

I explained that, my mom then and some of our relatives weren't on Facebook and Twitter, but I was.

I couldn't vote then because I wasn't of voting age. But I, just like many others without PVC then, were on Facebook and were infecting those around us with the information we were getting from Social Media.

So, information was trickling down from teenagers and urban people without PVC to older and rural people with PVC. And so it had a great effect on Jonathan's public perception and eventually, the election results.

I earned that mark in 2017, but a lot of things have changed since then.

My mom and all her friends and age mates now have latest Android and IPhones.

All of them are now on Facebook and WhatsApp. They view every single WhatsApp Status.

They watch all videos.

And they have lots of time. Their kids are all grown. They have less expenses to make and stabilized income. So they can always afford both time and data.

They don't post or comment. They just consume the information and discuss with their friends offline.

And it's not just my mom.

That your palm wine tapper uncle in the village now has an Android phone.

That okada rider and keke rider? The mason and farmer?

All of them have Android phones.

And they have one Chinedu or Ebuka that they go to his shop to charge their phones. And they have the largest powerbanks you can think of.

So before you come home with your campaign messages, they've already made up their minds and are laughing at you.

Times have changed.

Anybody who is still shouting that Politics is local and still depending on party and support group structures to deliver him or her is a joker living in the past.

All the battle happens here, and whoever wins here, will win a truly free and fair election. No two ways about it.

Every Politics is Local but Urban Media now directly shapes local perceptions and voter behavior.

My name is Ugwuagbo Emmanuel Chizoba and this is MY DAILY PARAGRAPH