Aiming to register and secure one million new voters across South-East rural communities, a new political platform pivots away from social media campaigns to direct village-level engagement.
A powerful coalition of registered voters across the South-East geopolitical zone has officially launched a grassroots political support group called the “Village Boys Movement” (VBM).
The strategic initiative aims to register, sensitize, and rally at least one million new voters within rural communities to support a potential Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso joint presidential ticket ahead of the upcoming general elections.
The National Chairman of the coalition, Chief Maxi Okwu, announced the operational launch on Thursday, May 28, 2026, during an intensive stakeholders’ consultative meeting held in Enugu.
Okwu-a seasoned politician and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)-clarified that the movement is a non-partisan, grassroots-driven support platform entirely focused on structural voter mobilisation in the hinterlands.
He explained that the movement is open to all citizens regardless of their formal political party affiliations, gender, or religious backgrounds. The primary objective is to build a massive voting bloc in rural communities before the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) mandated January 13, 2027, presidential election date.
The veteran politician added that the movement will focus heavily on safeguarding the integrity of future ballots, aiming to prevent the structural loopholes that affected Obi’s tally in 2023. By establishing a physical, vigilant presence at the foundational unit level, the coalition intends to protect every single vote from manipulation or localized violence.
“The strategy is mobilisation at the grassroots; that is why we call it the ‘Village Boys’. We want to ensure that people in the villages participate actively in the electoral process. We believe Peter Obi won the last election; this time, we want to ensure that every vote counts and is aggressively protected,” Chief Maxi Okwu stated.
Aligning with Okwu’s presentation, the Secretary-General of the movement and Leader of the Njiko Igbo Forum Nigeria, Rev. Christopher Obioha, explained that the VBM was created to complement the political machinery of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) and the broader “Obidient” movement.
Obioha emphasized that the platform will focus on continuous voter registration, polling unit coordination, and robust election-day monitoring.
He noted that while the network started in the South-East to combat political apathy in rural villages, it has expanded globally.
Within its first week of opening its digital register, over 570 members from Lagos, Kaduna, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States joined the network to fund and drive physical community engagement.
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