Peter Obi And Co -By Tunji Ajibade – Opinion Nigeria

Occurrences that make me turn to the former Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, and the company he keeps include what a commentator said recently. He alleged that as Anambra State governor, Obi didn’t construct a school. Then a former top election campaign member in the party said Obi never believed in the ideology of the Labour Party. Now, if I didn’t become active on social media at the time I did I wouldn’t have been familiar with the kind of company around Obi. The first thing I noticed in the campaign season was the high level of rudeness from his company.

At that stage, I also observed something else that many didn’t notice until much later. I observed that the rudeness and abrasiveness of those who were supporting Obi were similar in pattern to those of the people who had supported the proscribed the Indigenous People of Biafra. I stated this at the time. Obi’s company had this disposition to not listen to any other argument, even with evidence. It was obvious this was a crowd not given to reason. I avoided them from June 2022 onwards. It’s what I practise. In my private encounters once I notice you are beyond reason I don’t engage you in a conversation let alone an argument. I believe some things are basic: once a person doesn’t show a grasp of what is basic, engaging them in reasonable debates is like trying to break an elephant’s bone with the teeth.

In the campaigns leading to the 2023 presidential election, Obi’s company online didn’t help his cause at all. When people come to your doorstep during campaigns they have one aim – to persuade you that their candidate represents your interest best so you should join them to vote for their candidate. Online, Obi’s company was doing the opposite. They didn’t campaign to persuade others; they were insulting everyone. They displayed the mentality of “we are sufficient so we don’t need you.” It seemed some funny polls said to be conducted online deceived them, giving them the illusion they had already won.

But one could tell that many of Obi’s supporters who were vocal online weren’t in Nigeria and many of those who were, the younger ones, didn’t have a history of coming out to vote. The records are there. So from day one, I had looked at the traditional voting pattern across the nation and knew Obi’s company imagined the 2023 election would happen on Mars, not on Earth. In any case, considering Nigeria’s political terrain, joining a party months before an election and expecting to win the presidency may happen in Nigeria in 2100, not 2023. Yet the activities of Obi’s company since the end of that election raise other concerns.

They’ve continued to deny the outcome of that election. Some of them even issued threats to the life of the daughter of a commentator online. I didn’t pay attention to this at the time, not until lately when their target said he was attacking Obi and his company because they threatened the life of his daughter and Obi didn’t condemn the act. This wasn’t the only reckless and outrageous thing done by Obi’s company and which he didn’t condemn. What does this tell us about Obi? He wanted to maintain his company by all means, so even when they did what was condemnable he wasn’t willing to say anything against them.

I assert here that Obi doesn’t have a company worth keeping by any serious politician who wants to win by being acceptable across tribes and religions. Yes, his own voted for him but that was all they were to him. With all due respect to respectable Nigerians who worked with him, Obi had a ragtag team. I mean at the level of both the intelligentsia he worked with and his street crowd of supporters, neither impressed me. The former I saw clearly what it was after Obi was accused of not constructing a school in his years in office, and the latter I knew well online from June 2022. It’s the former I focus on though. When a politician has a solid team, that team believes in him and his ideals such that they stand by him and defend him at all times.

When the 2023 election was over, the intelligentsia segment of Obi’s team scattered. People need to move back to their daily jobs. But an organised politician will always have to maintain a core team that can attend in a coordinated and intelligent manner to emerging issues which must require the input of the intelligentsia. Obi doesn’t maintain one. One knows this from the lack of coordinated public statements on national issues. One was the allegation that the Labour Party’s funds were misappropriated. No coordinated response came from any united front in the team Obi once had.  When the party convention was to happen, diverse voices were speaking at the same time (The Nigeria Labour Congress. The NLC Political Bureau, Labour Party members). Obi too was saying his own.

Obi’s online crowd was insulting people, offering uninformed and unofficial explanations for the confusion surrounding the party convention. Some young persons said they were capable of handling online those who attacked their party and that the older people should leave them to it. But the mess they were making of the image of their party and their candidate was obvious. It was pure chaos. Meanwhile, Obi remained in election campaign mode, visiting churches, attending crusades, and breaking fast with northerners. Around him was a scattered house and none of those who should be his lieutenants made an effort pretending they were trying to salvage the situation. In the midst of that, a former top member of his team said he and Obi never believed in the Labour Party. The porcelain was broken.

Of all that transpired, it was the lack of coordinated response to allegations that Obi didn’t construct a school which baffled me the most. I thought that was telling. For me, there was nothing in the allegation if only Obi maintained a good team of the intelligentsia. It was an allegation that would have been so easy to tear apart.  What’s the big deal about saying a politician doesn’t construct schools? There are schools state governors establish that we know are not necessary. With so many pressing issues to address in Kogi State, the former governor, Yahaya Bello, for instance, set up a second state university, a move many have criticised as meant for the election campaign. Money was expended on the plan, but the school didn’t see the light of the day. Similar educational projects lie wasting across the country, public funds frittered.

We know too that politicians love new projects as these allow them to inflate contracts and thereby siphon public funds. In Anambra State, public funds were probably saved because Obi at least didn’t embark on kangaroo school projects. If he maintained the existing ones, that would be sufficient. It’s not compulsory that a politician build new schools. He didn’t need to if the data showed he didn’t need to. But did Obi have those with the head to take hold of such data and make mincemeat of an irrelevant allegation? No. In the event, this balloon of an allegation got attention more because of the $10,000 promised and because Obi’s opponents were keen to use the allegation to say he didn’t perform. Is building schools the only criterion of performance by a politician? It was almost 48 hours after I made a similar observation online that Obi gave the explanation he did regarding the allegation.

Even now I still wonder what gets anyone excited about the allegation. To me, there was nothing in it. But Obi and his company give it relevance because of their uncoordinated approach. What does the foregoing say about Obi and his presidential ambition? The abrasive, divisive company he has does too much damage already. It’s not a helpful company of supporters, and he doesn’t have a support team, one eternally loyal, well-grounded in our politics enough to help him coordinate and win a presidential election. He also doesn’t have a crop of organised intelligentsia (and I’m not sure he can) which can help him do a good job of being a president. He should rest.

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