By Kassim Afegbua
To say that he is garrulous may be an overreach, but he comes across as a man with no scruples; one whose intellectuality is drab, and understanding of issues, somewhat limited. He makes statements before weighing their implications. Since Peter Obi garnered this nascent Obidient movement for the 2023 election, he maintains a belief that he can conquer most voters, and ride like a rollercoaster to Aso Villa.
His political strategies are as pedestrian as the thought process that bakes them. He’s been jumping from one party to another looking for political anchorage that would birth his ambition. He’s ready to dine with the devil to clear the coast for him. He’s learnt from his Catholicism, that he can find and pay a Judas Iscariot to betray others and enthrone him. He even seems ready to pay tithe to supernatural creatures to up his game and his ambition. When ambition, like Obi’s drives the adrenaline of a man, and not the man driving his ambition, he can settle for all kinds of macabre dance.
I read a piece in which Peter Obi made reference to the Edo election, using his peculiar sentiments in the 2023 election as the basis to score Edo election low. The candidate of the PDP cried wolf, got into the tribunal and ended up not substantiating his cry. He brought in witnesses like Obi boasted in 2023, got into the tribunal and could not advance anything concrete within the concentric framework of the issues being canvassed. He hoisted blue murder, but failed woefully to defend his claim of electoral heist. He mounted the soap box, promoted media trial to the tilt, but when it was time to present evidence to substantiate his claims, he was vapid.
Politics is beyond mere noise making; it has to substantiated by ideology and people sentiment to be meaningful, and particularly so. For democracy to be effective; it must be reasonable, content-driven and rich in ideas to generate the right reception; most of all for a democracy, it must be appealing to most citizens, for success and optimum impact.
Peter Obi has failed severally to advance real ideas that could counter what he condemns and is clearly not appealing to most citizens. I haven’t seen his self acclaimed cutting-edge knowledge in his analyses of critical sectors of the economy; his perspectives are shallow and banal. His statements and commentaries are the same as what an average Nigerian could make: no depth, no paradigm shifts.
The Edo election he lamented, was Edo people’s own way of punishing former Governor Obaseki for his misdemeanor in public office, and his anti people policies. If allowed, Obaseki almost ground our sense of communalism to a halt through his divide and rule tactics. Being combative and cantankerous was certain; additionally, being divisive was his stock in trade. Peter Obi now comes near, to criticize the same wounded people for intentionally making their way out of their Egypt? He surely is redolent of a drunk!
The Labour Party that has evinced their knack for brewing crisis; they could only manage to score a little above 22,000 votes in all in that election Obi is analyzing. He was even MIA when he was most needed to assist his party’s candidate to campaign. He was deaf and dumb before, during and after the election, especially after his party’s candidate, was thoroughly pummeled at, with choice words.
Obi then resurfaced and wanted him to go to the tribunal, but reality dawned on Olu Akpata, not to waste precious resources further, in seeking to invalidate the outcome of the election. It was clear to him that he performed abysmally poor. He self respectingly stayed away from the exercise of tribunal; unlike Obi who continued to exploit his chances to self exhaustion and wanted to upturn President Tinubu’s victory, by clutching at every flotsam to stay afloat in his desperation to become President. His strategy was to make all the noise through media trial; but when it was time to provide evidence to substantiate his claims, Obi ended up fishing for elephants in his swimming pool. The Edo PDP man, Asue Ighodalo, must have taken lessons from him; pity!
Edo people wholeheartedly gave Senator Monday Okpebholo their mandate as a home boy, who shares in their pains, ambitions, and aspirations. Since he assumed the mantle of leadership in the state, he has been receiving nods, delivering the expected dividends in services, across every local government in the state. His intervention in the area of infrastructure has been remarkable. He started well and is still doing so well that the people sing his praise on end .
Monday Okpebholo is not your everyday politician. He is not garrulous, and he sure is a projectile. He doesn’t mock his people with tongue-in-cheek speeches, he does what he promises to do and even goes further. Majority of Edo people have since moved on with their lives assured that they have elected a governor who understands their problems and is creating solutions to them. Obi’s elected lawmakers have defected to APC to join Governor Okpebholo in the art and act of leadership of the state.
Peter Obi’s careless talk in condemning Edo election is allegorical of the drunk who condemns the well meaning, and is pardoned because all others know of his health, but he. A man who abandoned his party’s candidate before the election, amounts to an exploiter of the first order. Ask Peter Obi to advance cogent evidence to validate his assertions on Edo election, and his gaps will come rushing.
He’s a master in double speak: he churns out unempirical statements unashamedly. Peter Obi must be told in plain language that Edo people voted wholeheartedly, for the APC and not the PDP or the LP, and there is nothing he can do about that. The PDP rushed to court and were hurled out of court when they failed to present cogent evidence to support their claims.
The Labour Party is in tatters; even his acolyte, Obaze, has recently abandoned him. Peter Obi should make effort to put his house together if he is fastidious and has any scruples. The Labour Party, Peter Obi’s party, is divided into several factions, and he, a presidential candidate who desires to rule Nigeria has not been able to fix the party or resolve the protracted crises stationed in his home; instead, he goes about seeking coalition. Would that be seeking to bring nothing to something?
Nigerians are not ready for Peter Obi, whose mediation skills are obviously worrisome. Give Nigeria to Peter Obi to preside on, and he will further disintegrate it, way beyond our current diversities. He should stay and steer away from Edo election, our people are happy with our choice and Governor.
Afegbua, a former Commissioner for Information in Edo state writes from Benin
