By Steve Osuji
There’s something divine about Peter Obi. A grocery merchant, who ventured into politics in 2006, he has consistently proven that he’s of a different mold. He has shown the world that politics, which is generally perceived to be a “dirty game” isn’t that dirty after all. And even if it were, clean people can get involved and yet, not get swept into its sluiceways.
He contested and won the governorship seat of Anambra State, when the place was run by gangsters and power barons and for eight years, he managed to prove that light would always overcome darkness. He also set a few new governance parameters during his tenure as governor.
Again, Peter Obi is not ordinary. In fact, he’s transcendental. Two decades, roiling in the muck and grime of Nigeria’s politics has today shown him up as a man on a mission – a divine mission. He has to be the man who would bring about a paradigm shift not only in Nigeria’s politics but in the entire spectrum of her social order. He seems primed to be the man to dislodge the ancient regime; the old brigade politicians who are choke-holding Nigeria since independence. Peter Obi may have been created for the sole purpose of abolishing now ingrained kleptocracy that has kept the country spell bound since it’s creation.
THE FINAL DENOUEMENT: Obi’s gambit last week of doing a last minute backflip into another political space is nothing but a masterstroke. It’s reminiscent of what happened in 2022 during the run up to the 2023 general elections. Just as they didn’t see it coming then, yet again, they are too self-deluded and arrogant to see it even this second time.
The old guard, here represented by Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu would not yield ground to a new Nigeria without a fight. This election may well represent the final battle for the soul of this country: call it Nigeria’s epiphany.
Atiku in particular, was adamant in 2022, he is even more so today. His interest has nothing to do with Nigeria. He, like all members of the old brigade is about self-aggrandisement, power mongering at the level of megalomania and treasury-jacking: State capture in one word.
That is the way of the old brigade. This evil behemoth is what Peter Obi is on a mission to dislodge.
But to fell an iroko is no mean task. After the shockwaves he sent across the political sphere in 2023, sweeping the polls even in their strongholds and actually winning the election, forcing them to pull the plugs and glitch the process. They are on their guards this time.
The game plan today is to bar Obi from the ballot by any means necessary. The logic, of course, is that you have to be in a race before you can cause an upset.
Using captured state institutions like INEC and the judiciary, the ruling party and its collaborators pursued Obi with a shameless singularity of mind from Labour Party to the ADC, mocking that he would not participate in the next election. Not as a presidential candidate, not even as a running mate.
The old guard didn’t only want to stop Obi, they sought to end his political career in disgrace and ignominy.
But it’s credit to his genius that he beat them in their game yet again when he decamped to the newly registered National Democratic Congress (NDC). They didn’t see it coming.
Always one step ahead of them, they were left roiling in the muck. The political arena has been agog since Obi made this historic move last week. Now he’s attacked, not just by the hounds of the ruling APC but by his erstwhile allies in the ADC. They too were caught with their pants in their hands.
At a loss for words and befuddled as their worlds collapse before them, they resort to outright abuses and inelegant pontifications.
Some call Obi a political harlot while some accuse him of vaulting ambition. Defeated in their game, the APC took solace in claiming victory as according to them, the opposition vote has been dissipated as in 2023.
GOODBYE TO ATIKU: Atiku Abubakar is already the biggest loser in the coming elections and emerging power game. With Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso joining the ADC, it was obvious to even a political neophyte that an Obi-Kwankwaso ticket was the big deal. But Atiku had instead, dug in, granting that disingenuous interview where he cut down both Obi and Kwankwaso while insisting on running.
That interview was the turning point, the sword in the heart of ADC. How Atiku couldn’t see that his backing of an Obi and Kwankwaso ticket was a sure bet remains a mystery. In fact, his obduracy has led many pundits to suggest he (along with Dele Momodu) are Tinubu moles in ADC. While he has sneaked to pick the ADC so nomination form, it must be obvious even to him that his political career ended the day the OK movement coalesced into one force. So goodbye to Atiku… About time too, many Nigerians would chorus.
OBI-KWANKWASO AS GAME CHANGER: the coming together of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso as candidate and running mate must be the biggest political combination in Nigeria’s post-independence politics.
Not since the First Republic era of Zik, Awo and Ahmadu Bello have politicians commanded such organic following as we see today in the duo. If Kwankwaso can become less insular by reaching out to more northern leaders, if he campaigns well, more vigorously across north as Obi is doing around Nigeria, the NDC stands a good chance of sweeping the polls in 2027.
With Obi swearing to a one-term-four-year tenure, Kwankwaso will ease in as president in 2031. He will emerge as not just the new face of northern leadership but champion of a new, reformed Nigeria.
THE OLD GUARD MUST FALL, A NEW NIGERIA IS POSSIBLE: This column opines that the time for the final liberation of Nigeria may have come. The elements, psychic and cosmic seem to be in agreement. Heaven and earth may have risen in unison to deliver Nigeria and set her in the paths of light and liberty so that she may begin to explore her rich potentials and bask in her abundant glory. It’s not by chance that Obi and Kwankwaso, two great men of the people are coming together.
Old things shall pass away, a new Nigeria is set to begin … the ancient regime must fall!
