Peter Obi and His Traducers

Eddy Odivwri 

Perhaps, there would have been very low interest in the build -up to the 2023 politics if Nigerians were left with just the traditional political parties: the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The two political parties have failed to impress Nigerians. They have both been tested, and they have proved the fact that they are not the messiahs Nigerians are expecting. While the one has seemingly blown all the goodwill that propelled it to power, almost eight years ago, the other, for sixteen solid years, was merely nibbling with the ordinance of governance. Both parties have literally behaved like the prodigal son: wasting prized resources, running after inanities, and soon returning to nothingness, from the plateau of plenty.

And then suddenly, a third force emerges in the person of Mr Peter Obi, on the platform of the little known Labour Party (LP).

It’s barely a month since Obi suddenly announced his resignation form the PDP, whereupon, he finally pitched his tent with the LP, but the ululation and mass embrace of the Obi campaign train has been, for the lack of a better expression, massively massive.

Perhaps, for the sake of Obi-dient crew of the Obi followers, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been under tremendous pressure coping with the huge outpouring of Nigeria youths who want to register and get their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC). The swathe of youths swarming the INEC registration centres every day in many parts of the country is simply astounding.

Suddenly, they are seeing in the Obi candidature, a new hope, a new lease of life on the Nigerian federation.

Needless to say the Peter Obi videos, all featuring speeches at various places and occasions, have gone more than viral on many platforms and internet portals. It has been described, rightly, as a movement. The followership is as electrifying as it is enchanting, especially among the youth and the unemployed Nigerians. It is almost like the cultic followership of devotees. The Obi narrative is resonating loud and clear across board. The swell of the ranks is high. The Obi-evangelism is catching up like a harmattan wildfire, cutting across tribe and tongue, region or religion. It is almost becoming as infectious as the #EndSARS campaign of year 2020.

Nobody listens to any of those Obi’s speeches and does not get convinced that indeed, he holds the rod that can part the inhibitive Red Sea in the Nigerian political scene. You cannot but bear witness to his sincerity, sense of purpose, and determination to be different from the rest of the political actors.

But as expected in politics, some people do not believe in the Obi option as many have tried to pick holes with his kind of person, style and even his political influence and weight.

Ironically, his strongest critics are his Igbo folksmen, many of whom have disparaged Obi with scathing and unedifying remarks and commentaries. Many of the critics have been said to be suffering from the crab-mentality: “If I can’t go, then you too can’t go”.

But Obi does not look fazed by them all. He has continued in his effeminate tone, to push on his campaign for change and recovery of Nigeria, urging the youth to take back their country. 

Yes, many of his critics have said election is not social media. They are correct. But those who are a little more discerning should take notice of the enrolment figures as confirmed by the INEC. As at the end of the third week of June, 10.4 million new persons had registered. That is not so much the issue. It is more with the enthusiasm with which the people are registering. Already, huge jokes and mimes are being used to drum home the need for the PVC. Housewives are refusing to submit in “the other room” unless their spouses produce their PVCs. Similarly, men are refusing to give “food allowance” to their wives, unless they show their PVCs. Already, young boys are now wearing a particular haircut after the image and letters of Peter Obi. The import of these jokes is not lost on Nigerians. The PVC has become a core instrument for the national transformation Nigerians are baying for.

However, it is one thing to have the PVC and it is another to turn out to vote on election day.

Question is will the social media frenzy translate to huge voters’ turn out on election day? That is the core issue.

The momentum gathered by the Obi factor is huge. Sustaining it will be a major project.

Already, many Workers’ Unions in Nigeria, led by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have not only adopted Peter Obi as the man to be voted for, they are at the forefront of mobilizing the Nigerian workforce for the LP presidential candidate.

For the Obi traducers, they say he is over-rated and that the cultic followership on social media has not been tested on the field. That may be true. What cannot be disputed is the mass appeal the Obi candidature represents. Many believe with the recent electoral reform, if votes would count, as it promises, then the Obi candidature will shock many old-stock politicians.  Nigerians are simply tired of the old ways which the two leading political parties and personages represent. We surely cannot continue like this and not become like another Afghanistan or Ethiopia or Sudan.

The new orientation is determined to try to do something different from the old ways. And all eyes are on Peter Obi.

We cannot and should not rely on the truth-plaited lies of the orthodox politicians, who are extremely selfish as they reason in italics. Nigerians seem poised to resist the running deceit of old politicians. Gov Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, recently acknowledged it, that the Obi-dient movement is real, adding that the younger folks,…”they don’t want us, not the PDP nor the APC people”, Obaseki declared.

But is it mere fortuition that all the people who have criticized Obi have had a slice of speedy sanction? When Gov Nyesom Wike attacked and dismissed Obi, after the latter resigned from the PDP, it was not up to ten days after that not only did Wike lose the presidential primary, he also lost the chance of being picked as Atiku’s running mate.

Next was Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ground fame, in Enugu. He accused Peter Obi of being stingy and swore that he will not be Nigeria’s President on account of that. Mbaka has been severally criticized for being garrulous and a nay-sayer. The Catholic authority soon sent him on suspension and banned any church activity on the adoration grounds. Mbaka has been told loud and clear that it is better to have a stingy leader, than a rougish leader. The testimony from Mrs Bianca Ojukwu of Obi’s “stinginess” was a clear clincher that killed that label of stinginess.

Some have drawn inference from the Bible story of how Peter refused to give “silver or gold” to the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. Yet, the healing pronounced by Peter on the lame man transformed the life of the lame man forever; which is way more precious and by far worthier than all the gifts of cash he’s been receiving. 

It soon became the turn of former Deputy Senate President, Dr Ike Ekweremadu who had declared that Obi would not be President because “he needs to be dynamic”— whatever that means, and that Igbo cannot afford to throw away their votes by voting for Peter Obi. He spoke with so much certitude. Few days after, he got into trouble in faraway United Kingdom, over the organ harvesting saga, with one so-called homeless boy. Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, are right now cooling off in a British detention facility. Many have said Peter is a covenant child to whom God promised, “those who curse you, I will curse, and those who Bless you, I will Bless”.

It is remarkable to note that despite the huge and rousing reception the Obi candidature has attracted, not a single scandal has come forth around him. Nobody has faulted his many claims on how he governed Anambra State. His integrity remains unblemished and his character remains bright and strong.

It is not to say Peter Obi is a saint. No, he is not. In fact, saints don’t play politics, they dwell in heaven, where they endlessly sing Halleluyah.

 Even his vilest traducers acknowledge that he is a threat and a prospective president. All they say is that “we cannot afford to give it to him now”. They speak as if they see what the rest of us don’t see. They say, let the older and more experienced politicians come on board, stabilise the economy and after that, the youth, represented by Peter Obi can come on board.

They speak about having no structure. But many people are determined to go structureless, asking ”who has structure helped all these years?

Some have also accused Obi of having an omniscient mentality, as he claims to know everything and how he believes only in his strategy in doing things. They cite the example of how many of his commissioners were either rendered redundant because he (Obi) did almost everything himself, or some were forced to resign for not being free.

But those who believe in Obi are quick to say it is the end product that matters. If Obi, at the end of the day, succeeded  in growing Anambra, then whatever means he used to achieve it is commendable.

All said, even if Obi loses the election at the end of the 2023 polls, he only would have lost the battle, not the war.

Fraud Promo: Where is the Auditor General of the Federation?

Eddy Odivwri 

I had thought one of the essences of having an auditor in any going concern is to periodically ensure that checks are carried out on the finances of the organisation to ensure that monies are being expended according to laid down rules, as well as ensuring that monies are judiciously spent. That is why in many organisations, the fear of an auditor’s query usually compels financial operators to ensure that the financial rules are kept and obeyed. In fact, to underline its importance, many organisations have both internal and external auditors, all in a bid to ensure that financial propriety is adhered to.

If that is a necessary check-and-balance procedure in an organisation, it is thus even more imperative in a federation like Nigeria, what with all the huge sums that get budgeted for and expended every year.

Auditors, perhaps by their training, are hardly meant to be heard. Their work ought to speak for them.

But in Nigeria, there are neither heard, nor their works seen.

Given the huge and frequent cases of fraud and embezzlement of public funds in the public service, it would seem as if Nigeria is running a promo on fraud. Every day, public servants are robbing the public till blind, and one wonders what the auditor general of the federation is doing.

A recent case is that of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, who was said to have embezzled the sum of N80 Billion, as well as being involved in other cases of fraud. With an efficient and effective auditor general, how is it so easy for one fellow to embezzle that huge sum? It was not a one-day job.  Only two excuses can explain this: it is either the auditor general is inefficient, doesn’t know or do his job or he is in cahoots with the accountant general to have that huge sum stolen from the system.

Former Zamfara state Governor, Abdullaziz Yari and the Chairman and Managing Director of Finex Professional, Anthony Yaro were implicated in the fraud involving the suspended Accountant General of the federation. All the accused persons have long been granted bail. As it happens often in Nigeria, that may be the last time we would hear of the matter.

Recently too, the story broke about how the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (rtd), had stored up huge sums of money meant for the purchase of arms in his private house.

Although the story has been debunked by officials of the ICPC, the point must be made that such sordid stories are common with public officers. The amount of fraud in the Ministry of Petroleum (wherein huge sums are every year budgeted for Turn Around Maintenance of our refineries, yet the refineries ever hardly work), for instance, is just one example of how public officials have devised ways of circumventing the process to steal public funds.

Where the auditor general of the federation is alive to his duties, these huge financial infractions would not be as rampant as we see every day.