Much ado about Obasanjo’s endorsement

Many politicians have been knocking their heads on the ground over the endorsement of the presidential candidate of the Labour party, Peter Obi, by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo in his 2023 New Year message said though none of the contestants is a saint, Obi, a former Governor of Anambra state, has an edge. According to him, Peter Obi has an edge over his competitors in terms of knowledge, discipline, and what they can offer.

Expectedly, the presidential council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have all come out guns blazing.

APC candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, the party’s presidential campaign council director, media and publicity, described the endorsement as worthless.

Presidential candidate of PDP Atiku Abubakar said Obasanjo is posturing as Nigeria’s electoral janitor when he is not the ‘custodian’ of the key to Aso Rock.

In my opinion, I don’t know why PDP and APC are splitting hairs over Obasanjo’s endorsement. Obasanjo has the right to endorse anyone he wants but at the end of the day, he has just one vote. I don’t think his endorsement can’t sway anyone. I don’t even think Peter Obi’s camp should be excited about this endorsement. In my opinion, any candidate Obasanjo endorses is a red flag for me.

Similarly, an elder statesman in the Niger Delta region, Edwin Clark, has also thrown his weight behind Obi.

Addressing a press conference at his Abuja residence on Tuesday, Clark, a former minister of information, said Obi is the best candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

The question I ask is what is the endorsement of elder statesmen worth in present-day Nigeria? In my opinion – nothing. These men cannot influence people outside their family members to vote for their presidential candidate.

In fact, a mallam in the north has more influence than most of these elder statesmen. They can sway hundreds of their congregation to vote for their candidate of choice which is why politicians don’t play with them in the north.

I make bold to say that some market women leaders and okada riders leaders have more influence on some voters than some elder statesmen.

Besides, I also do not fancy seeing former presidents endorsing any presidential candidate. At their level, they should be calling for a free, fair, and credible election. They should be calling for peace and for the electorate to come out en masse to vote for a credible candidate.

When former presidents begin to show partisanship in elections, it diminishes them.

I don’t take seriously endorsement from elder statesmen, ethnic groups, and opinion polls. Any politician celebrating based on these three factors is not ready to win an election.

We are not yet at that level where opinion polls and endorsements will guarantee victory for any candidate. With a largely illiterate population, it will take some years before we can achieve that feat.

I think the Peter Obi camp should not take the endorsement of Obasanjo seriously. There should continue their campaigns with vigour, leave social media and go into the streets. The former president indirectly indicted Peter Obi, when he said the former Anambra governor “has people who can pull his ears, if and when necessary”. Mischievous people can twist this to mean Obasanjo wants who he can control because he knows he can’t control Atiku or Tinubu.

That is the major reason godfathers always fall out with governors or even presidents they install because they want to maintain that control. We have seen that script play out severally – it always ends badly.

At the end of the day, no candidate should think he has coasted to victory because of an endorsement by former presidents or regional leaders.

Besides, our elections are determined by two major factors – ethnicity and religion. No matter how we try to run away from it, that is what determines how many voters will cast their votes. Many Nigerians prefer a bad leader from their tribe and religion to someone with capacity and integrity from another tribe and religion. This needs to change.

Also, moneybags will still influence the election. The reality is that 133 million Nigerians are poor and telling them not to sell their votes is a waste of time. While voter education is key, most people will think of their survival first.