Peter Obi


By Pita Okute


I could and I would, all things being equal. Because, since the return to civil rule twenty three years ago, the choice for a presidential candidate has never been as clear cut as we have now between Abubakar Atiku, Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi.


 Yes, there are other candidates; prominent among whom are Rabiu Kwankwaso, and Chris Okotie, we have heard. It is a measure of democracy that many citizens will aspire to the top post but only one candidate shall breast the tape and mount the podium for the accolade. 


Of these front runners, however, Peter Gregory Obi appears to inspire a newfound hope for the future of Nigeria. A groundswell of support for his candidature is proof of this. This support, many aver, spring from his tenure as governor of Anambra State. 


Yet, before the eight year stint at Government House, Awka, the resolute pursuit of his stolen mandate through the courts, showcased a democratic spirit like had never been seen before in our country. 


APGA, the party under which he campaigned and fought for his pilfered victory could never have matched the PDP machinery for clout or cultic control of Anambra state. But Mr. Obi maintained a brave and dignified quest for justice until he got it.  It endeared him to many across party lines, who could have asked, quite innocently of him: Peter Who? 


In the years after Awka, Obi and his supporters flaunt a record of performance that should be the envy of all former governors since the return to civil democratic rule. 


With the possible exception of Tinubu who has wrought and engineered an economic and political dynasty in Lagos State. Whatever anyone may say about the Lion of Bourdillon, as he is sometimes known, Tinubu is a proven visionary and manager of men who has built bridges across the two big rivers in Nigeria. No wise politician would ever think of dismissing him with a wave of the hand- just like that. 


No less formidable is the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, whose stalwart efforts to thwart Olusegun Obasanjo’s agenda for tenure extension in 2007 marked him then as hardo, Fulani for tough leader and warrior.


 In the succeeding years, Abubakar has become a recurring decimal in the quadrennial race for Aso Villa. Indeed, he played a visible role in enthroning Muhammadu Buhari as fourth president of Nigeria in the post-military dispensation. 


During the 2019 polls, a gentleman’s agreement reached between the three musketeers of Buhari’s victory was torn apart by Atiku’s foresighted action to discard the APC broom for the PDP umbrella. He saw ahead of 2003 that the APC was a closed route for his longstanding ambition to be president of Nigeria.


 Out there, a vocal but unofficial jury maintains that the Abubakar/Obi ticket trounced its Buhari/Osibanjo opponent in the ward and municipal vote count in Abuja and sundry other voting centres in the 2019 polls. 


So, we have now three able personalities racing headlong for the vote count in 2023. Any one of them could grab the ticket, but Obi, let us face it, has the hardest job of them all- to garner a simple majority and one quarter of the votes cast in at least two thirds of the states of the federation.


 Pundits wonder if he has the where- with- all to achieve this feat.  A late comer to the Labour Party under which he is standing for the number one job in the land, many fear that Obi does not have control of the party structure that will provide the drive to take him into the homes and hearts of voters across the length and breadth of the country.


 Looking at the teeming social media posts and other objective factors, there is little to doubt that for now, Peter Obi is the popular and most beautiful bride of the Nigerian electorate, more so the youths of the country. But the eight months before the elections in February is like a decade in political terms and much can change before then.


Besides, there are many hurdles yet to overcome. Prominent among these obstacles are the disparate mind sets of Nigerians who are yet to achieve a homogenous identity after sixty two years of independence. 


Obi, his henchmen and women must forge incisive messages that will reach and appeal to the rural voters across all the regions of the country. This will be a broad based and decentralized communications programme that addresses everything about us, from insecurity to corruption, food security, out of school children, decentralization, public health education, etc., in every nook and hamlet of Nigeria. 


People must hear Obi speak, not only of Anambra State, but about current issues confronting the nation: the pallid school system including a recipe for returning the public universities to life.


 Does he have an answer to the growing insurgence of ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province) in our country?


 Let us hear it, pronto. How does he want to engage with the pro-Biafra and pro-Oduduwa movements? 


All the presidential candidates must address these issues frontally so we can gauge who has the best interests of the Nigerian people at heart and respond accordingly with our votes. 


A popular conception, perhaps , is that Obi has the South East and South South votes in the kitty. It would be a grave mistake to think that these two regions are a walkover for Obi. 


His projection in abandoning APGA for the PDP has not yielded Obi much political gain. Indeed, the greatest minus for the Obi candidacy may come from too much support from the call for an Igbo president. 


The merit of his campaign does not lie in Obi’s origin as an Igbo, but in the gravitas he displayed as a manager of lean economic resources in Anambra.  His opponents must devise an answer to that quality of his. Ndigbo must fight wary of seeing Obi as the long desired candidate of Igbo extraction and work extra hard to sell him to other Nigerians as our collective dreams for a better nation. 


Who will vote then for Obi? Any man, woman, young or old, anyone who sees him in this light as the most likely answer to our search for a credible leader for the present times. That is the only means by which he may win. Or he may fall into the great category of “the best president Nigeria never had.”