THE truth teller of the town, say the Yoruba, warning about the human aversion to honesty, is the enemy of the town. And that’s the case with the ex-Anambra State governor and candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi. As a candidate, Obi showed great example, habitually asking people to “go and verify” his claims. And guess what? His claims checked out. His grasp of developments around the world was superb. His name was on every lip in my area of Ibadan. In any case, if PDP had deployed a bit of commonsense and backed Obi’s bid, it would have won the 2023 polls with a landslide. But the party is under remote control.

Since losing the election, the deep-thinking, demonstrably brilliant business mogul has been offering suggestions for improvements in diverse aspects of the national life and, crucially, undertaking philanthropic projects across the country. From Nasarawa to Kano, and from Enugu to Kaduna, Obi has been literally everywhere, donating humongous sums of money to schools, orphanages, hospitals, etc. He has been providing boreholes to rural communities  and fraternizing with the poor and the downtrodden. He has raised the bar in public conscientization, delivering lectures, attending symposia, and contributing meaningfully to debates on core national issues.

As a politician of repute who may or may not be on the 2027 ballot, Obi presents an alternative perspective on national issues, praising and criticizing government policies in extremely decent language, and calling on the generality of Nigerians to look at the future with hope. Of course, being human, Obi isn’t without his fair share of foibles. He can, and does, make mistakes in his speech, but no right-thinking, conscientious individual can doubt his deep commitment to the Nigerian cause and, indeed, his passion for putting a smile on the faces of people. It was for this reason that in an essay titled “The value of Peter Obi,” I expressed a preference for his presidency ahead of last year’s general election.

This week, Obi lamented that Nigeria could not boast of electricity to power any of its major cities, whereas a country like Tanzania had succeeded in powering all its major cities. Tanzania, an East African nation, recently shut down five hydroelectric stations to reduce excess electricity in the national grid. What’s bad in Obi seeking a better Nigeria?  Only recently, he called on government at all levels to curb waste and channel the funds to pulling people out of poverty, appealing to wealthy Nigerians to join him in providing water to Nigerians. According to him, the appeal to provide water to Nigerians in need of it was what led him to construct ten boreholes in the North with the intention of adding another ten. He also donated N10 million to an Almajiri school and intends to donate same to two more schools. I have lost track of his donations.  What have his critics done to help the people?

Obi’s trajectory is in the public domain and there is nothing shady about him. As a departing governor, he left a balance sheet that has hardly ever been rivaled in this country. As a reporter, I knew that he invested massively in the educational, social and economic development of Anambra State. Indeed, with the exception of people like Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, it is difficult to think of a governor who invested so much in the education sector. The evidence is there in the public domain for those who have decided to see. In a country where sitting governors habitually plunder the resources of their states, Peter Obi left a testimony that can never be blemished.

The miscreants who call Obi gbajue (fraudster) had better take notice: demonising him isn’t going to win them the 2027 polls.  Obi has never been a guest of the anti-corruption agencies. He did not plunder Anambra to educate his children. He has been spending his hard-earned money getting people potable water, and these miscreants are claiming that the boreholes aren’t good enough. What have they and their sponsors done for the people? The Yoruba say “Oga ni iya Muda, eniyan lo bi tie, ti o le m’obe”. Gloss: “Muda’s mom is master. Some other woman’s child can’t even hold a knife.” This is a play on words (and on the name Mudasiru): “Muda” in Yoruba ordinarily means to wield a sword, and if someone’s son could wield a sword, you must appreciate him because there are sons who can’t even handle a knife. And so I say: kudos to Obi for building boreholes with his own money. Let his critics tell us what they have done for the people.

Reno Omokri, a man many Nigerians used to respect, has turned himself into a shameless persecutor of the ex-governor, dishing out devious propaganda and accusing him of every crime under the sun. It is obvious that Obi lives in every fibre of Omokri’s soul and he can’t help himself.  Just how can anyone who claims sanity say that the real reason Anambra State came top in NECO exams under the Obi administration was the high rate of exam malpractice and not his investment in education? Peter Obi who gave laptops to secondary school students and could be directly accessed by prefects, a man who spoke directly to students to determine their needs, and followed up on them all the time! Many of these individuals went on to become champions in their own right, and have offered soul-lifting testimonies of the Obi administration’s impact in their lives. Why did Omokri exhibit utter contempt for Anambra people just because of his hatred for Obi? Is he thinking of tomorrow?

Week in, week out, Omokri heaps vile abuse on Obi, a private citizen, acting like a person who needs psychiatric evaluation. The ancient saying is true: it’s better to be thought a fool than to talk  and remove all doubt. Let the power-crazed clowns beware:  opposition candidates now rule Senegal.

 

Re: Paul Enenche’s sickening arrogance 

Greetings my beloved Brother Biodun. I  read your wonderful piece titled “Enenche’s sickening arrogance”. The title summed it all up. Paul arrogated to himself God’s power. So are his cohorts; they are everywhere enslaving and extorting with reckless abandon. You killed it, man! Thanks a bunch and fear not because you wrote the truth and nothing but the truth. Never allow the jackals to intimidate you because their curses cannot go past their dome of lucre. +234 915 769 6329

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