As 28 new governors are set to be elected this weekend, a third of the states in contention have become battlegrounds, according to a Nigerian Tribune survey.
While the majority of battleground states are in the South, emerging political realities in the North have also transformed some states that were previously considered safe for the respective ruling parties into toss-ups.
The "disruptive" emergence of a very strong Third Force in the form of Peter Obi's Labour Party and Musa Rabiu Kwakwanso's New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) sweeping the largest-voting state in the country has significantly altered the political calculus of this election cycle in a manner never before seen in Nigeria's political history.
The just-concluded presidential election, which was a three-horse race that came down to the wire, has significantly shifted permutations for the governorship election in the states electing new helmsmen and even the state Houses of Assembly races in all 36 states, including Anambra, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Edo, Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi, where new governors aren't expected for the time being.
The surprise in the presidential election, particularly in Lagos, where the ruling APC was defeated by the Labour Party, and in Kano, where the APC was ousted by the NNPP. Kaduna, where the APC again suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); And the Peter Obi hurricane that swept through the South-East, where the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used to reign, has reset the governorship contests, turning states that previously favored the ruling parties into major battlegrounds.
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