Crowd for hire: 2023 campaign rallies as a metaphor, By Dakuku Peterside

When politicians hire a crowd, it is an investment in the visuals. Those visuals and perceptions they create are some of the most strategic elements of a campaign, particularly in this era of social media. A crowd on social media platforms instantly transmits a message to a virtual global followership of people. Rallies make for good social media interactions, and parties are keying into this to create content that can influence the perception of popular support for parties and candidates.

The theatricals for winning the hearts and minds of the voters are all around us. The perceptual game of showing strength in the number of supporters is an age-long effective game plan of the parties, and it is one strategy that cuts across all parties. All political parties are outdoing themselves in winning the popularity contests typified by pulling crowds with the most outrageous noises and boisterous displays in rallies on the streets, roads, stadiums, and other venues that can contain crowds. If pulling crowds is the determinant of election outcomes, the 2023 general elections would have been won and lost.

Granted, politics all over the world feeds on numbers – crowds. Nigeria is no exception, and with what we have seen so far in the 2023 electoral campaigns, Nigerian politicians are taking this to another level. Nigerian politics feeds on a crowd fuelled by a panoply of factors, most importantly money. This issue is the difference between the crowds that gathered at the rallies of Nigerian politicians and those that followed  Adolphus Hitler blindly or Donald Trump to desecrate the White House.

Whether in Kenya, South Africa, the USA, the UK or Nigeria, crowds serve the same purpose in politics – a show of strength, to influence the people, create the perception of popular support and acceptance, and generate media buzz and optics. It has nothing to do with believing in the candidate, his cause, or even campaign massage, and it is only for the non-discerning to judge the possible outcome of elections through the crowds at campaign rallies.

Sourcing for a crowd is fast turning into an industry in politics. In the United States, there are companies in the enterprise of mobilising crowds. Crowds on Demand and Crowd for Rent are US companies, and Envisage Promotion is a UK company, all set up purposely to provide crowds to support political and socio-economic  causes. Even a Kenyan author wrote a book, Crowd for Hire – How Kenyan Politicians Source Crowds for Events. Crowd hiring is ubiquitous, and no matter what clime you go to, professional crowd contractors are plying their businesses profitably.

In the build-up to the 2023 elections, the rented crowd is the ultimate phenomenon. You will see the same faces and the same individuals in most rallies hosted by different political parties; sometimes they are wearing the face caps of APC and the T-shirts of PDP. All the major political parties – APC, PDP, LP, NNPP – in all their rallies pull unprecedented crowds or flash mobs that have nothing to do with genuine support for the candidates or even passion for their messages. The emergence of social media means some of these crowds can be manipulated, photoshopped and fake videos produced to make them appear bigger.

Hunger has been weaponised, and any rally that provides food for the crowd will need more crowd control. Social media are awash with real-life videos of the fights for food and provisions in various rallies across the nation. It is embarrassing that hunger is linked with political campaigns in Nigeria. People are struggling to survive and live in the moment. They want to avoid rallies where candidates will elucidate policies to alleviate hunger. They want rallies where they are fed for the day.

The crowd that congregates whenever there is a rally has more to do with economic reasons than belief in a cause or loyalty to a party. Recently, exposure about this came from no less a person than the revered clergyman, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, who rightly linked the availability of young men and women for political rallies to the high level of unemployment, hunger, and abject poverty in the country. I am afraid, I must agree absolutely with this. Although the rented crowd is an old phenomenon associated with politics, unemployment in Nigeria has complicated the matter. Unemployed youth is a fertile ground for political mobilisation, rightly or wrongly. The latest statistics show a 33% national unemployment rate, and many underemployed persons, including idle youths, are ready to be hired, with their energies channeled to political causes that do not serve them any purpose or represent their views.

Another factor responsible for large crowds at political rallies is the acute poverty pervading the land. Here is where the utility value of crowd contractors comes in. Many Nigerians who should ordinarily be engaged in productive activities are hired for between N1,000 and N10,000 to attend campaign rallies. These amounts depend on which region of the country the rallies are holding in and whether the party involved is in power or not. Political parties now have humungous and humorous budgets for mobilisation. With 133 million Nigerians being multidimensional poor, every naira available for the next meal or to help pay school fees and the house rent is important and worth sacrificing time for. Most persons attending campaign rallies under the current dispensation are going for the day-paid job, and it has nothing to do with passion for any political ideal or candidate or even the hope of a better tomorrow, which ordinarily politicians trade in.

The next factor contributing to the growing crowd surge prevalent in political party rallies is the significant erosion of our value system. Honesty, integrity, and self-respect are vanishing traits in our society. Most participants in these rallies know the candidates and the parties are the opposite of what they believe in and know, yet they openly identify with them in rallies when paid, even though many still vote otherwise. The motivation is often extrinsic and based on the perceived immediate gratification they hope to get. Most people in the crowds easily forget that what is at stake is the struggle for power and leadership that will shape their lives in the next four years. As such, they need to be introspective and altruistic in determining which candidate, party, or cause to follow and support, even during the campaign.

Our parties have no known ideologies, and attraction to them is often based on either parochial or mundane sentiments. This anomaly is counterproductive during electioneering campaigns, when people see all political activities as making money, consolidating political capital, and gaining political patronage. Some in the crowd want to have fun, love the atmosphere and fun activities during rallies and want to participate. Although in the rally, out of curiosity or just having fun, this group will collect money or other provisions if provided.

Hunger has been weaponised, and any rally that provides food for the crowd will need more crowd control. Social media are awash with real-life videos of the fights for food and provisions in various rallies across the nation. It is embarrassing that hunger is linked with political campaigns in Nigeria. People are struggling to survive and live in the moment. They want to avoid rallies where candidates will elucidate policies to alleviate hunger. They want rallies where they are fed for the day.

Like their counterparts in other third-world countries, Nigerian politicians still prioritise campaign crowds over and above real voter turn-out and actual votes. It is part of the reasons for organising noisy rallies to show off party strength and inadvertently show the world that we are still in the stone age. Historical records have shown that large political crowds usually do not translate to favourable electoral outcomes, and it’s all noise and no substance.

Some ill-informed voters even assume that a candidate or party that provides food or money during rallies indicates how generous and good the candidate or party will be when elected. They frown at candidates or parties not providing immediate food or cash and deem them as tight-fisted, anti-poor and, therefore, may not generously provide for them when elected. The term “stomach infrastructure” has been used to describe the phenomenon of voters and the people expecting daily subsistence from the government and politicians,  instead of developmental policies and activities that may ultimately eliminate hunger and poverty. This is dangerous for our politics.

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The crowd at a rally has its usefulness, but there are other measures of popular support. Money is the language the public understands. What politicians may need to understand is that the times have changed, and the world has also changed. The level of civic enlightenment and the mindset of the electorate has equally changed. And the influence of social media has impacted people’s attitudes towards the electoral process. Crowd renting may not have a significant effect on the electoral outcome of the 2023 election.

Like their counterparts in other third-world countries, Nigerian politicians still prioritise campaign crowds over and above real voter turn-out and actual votes. It is part of the reasons for organising noisy rallies to show off party strength and inadvertently show the world that we are still in the stone age. Historical records have shown that large political crowds usually do not translate to favourable electoral outcomes, and it’s all noise and no substance.

When politicians hire a crowd, it is an investment in the visuals. Those visuals and perceptions they create are some of the most strategic elements of a campaign, particularly in this era of social media. A crowd on social media platforms instantly transmits a message to a virtual global followership of people. Rallies make for good social media interactions, and parties are keying into this to create content that can influence the perception of popular support for parties and candidates. This perception is crucial, especially for winning the election and managing the post-election conflicts often inevitable in Nigerian politics. Little wonder that all serious parties are adopting a crowd-renting strategy to have the number and size of crowds that make people not doubt the outcome of the elections if they win.

I have established that crowds are essential to a party’s politics and campaigns. I have looked at the morality or otherwise of renting a crowd. It is evident that such rented crowds, no matter the visual power they portray, do not translate to voter loyalty or electoral victory. This is even more so when the majority of those in the rented crowd do not vote for the candidates; they attended rallies for or may vote for candidates and parties with whom they did not participate in rallies. I advise that major political parties focus more on convincing and mobilising their supporters to attend their rallies and vote for them and their candidates. Things must be done differently if we want results that matter.

Dakuku Peterside is a policy and leadership expert.