EXTRA: Attendees once abandoned a PDP rally because they were only paid for 2 hours, says Atiku

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president, has shared an anecdote on crowd sizes in Nigeria’s political terrain. 

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election was responding to remarks from Rotimi Amaechi, a former minister of transportation, during a recent event in Abuja.

The conference, organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, focused on strengthening democracy in Nigeria.

Amaechi spoke about the transactional nature of some political rallies.

He shared the story of an All Progressives Congress (APC) march at the Eagle Square in Abuja, where women who should have been campaigning for then APC presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari, showed up in ‘Jonathan for President’ attires instead.

Jonathan, who was the presidential candidate of the PDP at the time, was seeking a fresh term in office.

“An example is when we were pursuing… APC was registered and I was scared that they may rig us out,” Amaechi said.

“So, I got the party to agree that we would carry out a demonstration. We agreed that we’d carry out the demonstration. We assembled at that parade ground, Eagle Square.

“We released some money to go and bring women and all that. I walked in. I normally show up earlier at these events to know what’s going on before others arrive. I saw the women gathered. Guess what they were wearing? ‘Jonathan for president’.”

‘WE WERE PAID FOR TWO HOURS’

Abubakar echoed Amaechi’s comments by sharing a personal experience on the dynamics of crowd mobilisation and motivation for rally attendees.

“Let me intervene here… as borrowed from Rivers,” Abubakar said to laughter from the audience.

“When Odili was in office as governor of Rivers, we went on a rally. The entire stadium was filled to capacity.

“But before we could finish the rally, everybody had left. We were left alone. Then I asked what happened. He said they were paid for only two hours!”

Peter Odili served as governor of Rivers state from 1999 to 2007.