The futility of ‘obidiency’

I salute the emotional brilliance of Peter Obi. It is unprecedented that he could play a fast one on the psyche of Nigerians within such a short period. He presented an elusive hope. He laced it with emotions. He targeted the language of the audience. Peppered it with a populist drivel. He sustained it. And he won it. But unfortunately, he won the wrong race.

The Obidient Movement is an ideology built on a fallacy. It is unclear, but his followers, Obidients, and a few undiscerning Nigerians believe it due to the inability to see that Peter Obi is a capitalist who intends to redirect the nation’s wealth to another bloc, and, the last I checked, the members of the anonymous masses are not in the fray.

Peter Obi is a smart guy and a businessman. His new love for the masses is suspect. The dramatic departure from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the Labour Party did the magic. Whoever advised him to choose the Labour Party deserves a prize in the Hall of Fame. It was well-calculated and meant to spark emotions rather than reasoning.

The overarching strategy was to paint a picture of sainthood. Of course, he left money in the bank for the people of Anambra state, and he bequeathed a regime that spirited the funds that were saved instead of being utilized for the people. Was he as guilty? Has Anambra fared better after him? I will leave these for Anambarians to answer.

Peter Obi projected his ambition as being about the country’s future, and he wants to transform Nigeria from a consumption country to a producing country. How? Pledges and oratorical speeches? I believe Julius Malema more because he has a history of commitment and passion for the cause of South Africans, and his passion built a party from scratch.

I won’t believe a businessman who joined politics because it was convenient and left the party that brought him to power, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), for the Peoples Democratic Party as its vice presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential elections. He dined and wined with them then, which was convenient. So what changed?

There was nothing wrong with the PDP and its long history in the development and underdevelopment of Nigeria. I agree because, for Peter Obi, any medium is a medium, including the Labour Party, whose membership, globally, is expected to be driven by a socialist or welfarist ideology. So was Peter Obi able to switch ideology within a short period? What sort of ideology is that?

The ideology of convenience or conviction? This is what the Obidients didn’t understand. And they became averse to contrary opinions. They can only be right from their own opinion because Peter Obi became that messiah who dropped from the skies to give hope to the masses, and he presented an elusive one laced with emotions. “I will move the country from consumption to production. I will dismantle the structure. I will set Nigeria on the right path. I saved money in Anambra state. I have only one house. I have only one wristwatch. Please don’t vote for me because I am a Christian. It is for the future of the country.”

These were his hallmarks before, during, and after the elections. And the big one was captured in his policy document, which is more of a prose with good interplay of colors and design.

“We want to heal Nigeria. But to solve a problem, you must understand its pathology. To heal Nigeria, we need a good diagnosis of its problems. The problem with Nigeria is elite capture. Nigeria has been captured by an elite that has shown no commitment to development,” page 9, paragraph 2 of the referenced policy document.

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. In 2014, Peter Obi dumped APGA for the PDP because he wanted to be a “competitor” and not a “spectator.” “Joining a national party was not about happenings in APGA, but because of “the need to be a competitor and not a spectator” in national affairs” Peter Obi, 2014.

In 2015, Peter Obi was appointed the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in line with his vision to be a competitor, not a spectator. It didn’t matter if the PDP was good or bad at the time. All that mattered was seeking an avenue to compete and unfortunately, APGA could not provide what he wanted. And there were no issues.

This romance continued till 2019 when he was the vice presidential candidate of the PDP. In 2022, he left for the Labour Party because being a competitor was no longer possible in the PDP. This is typical of Nigeria’s political elites and businessmen. Someone asked why he didn’t return to APGA. And why the Labour Party? What is the ideology behind such a move? To advance his interest or that of the masses?

It was definitely in his interest; that was why it was christened the Obidient Movement and the not Labour Movement because it is about him and not the masses. His personal interest was so selfishly overarching that the state chairmen of the Labour Party in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory disowned him on the Thursday before the Presidential Election because he ran his campaign through the Obidient Movement and not through the party. I bet the Obidients don’t know what the movement is about. They see only Peter Obi and his promises, which were not founded on reasonable strategy. But, again, rhetoric is the language the gullible understands.

Rhetoric is an essential skill for public speaking. It helps people create an impact on their audience through the effective use of language, gestures, and expressions. This could be found in its policy document.

Bayo Onanuga summarized the policy document thus: “Mr. Peter Obi’s document contains no grand policy initiatives and options to excite right-thinking Nigerians. It was silent about how Obi wanted to achieve his falutin objectives. Instead, it will set alarm bells ringing in the South, South, and North East as Obi promises to ‘engineer the transition of Nigeria from a fossil fuel dependency to climate and eco-friendly energy use”.

For convenience, not conviction, Peter Obi denounced his elite status, which resulted in carrying his bag at the airport, arriving at functions late, and adorning the same black attire, identical shoes, and wristwatch to reflect his new status as the promoter of the masses.

He won the race, but unfortunately, he won the wrong race, that of the President of the disgruntled on social media, who should know by now that “despair is not an option.” But commonsense should be the option.

With the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal having conclusively shredded the pipedream on which the Obidients got high to the point of hallucinating, it is now time to put their messiah, Peter Obi, to the test by asking him to render an account of his election finances, which will shed light on how much fund he raised, how much he spent and what he has done with the balance. This exercise would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Peter Obi and his Obidient followers to match rhetoric with action and perhaps convince some of us that he would have acted differently had his pipe-dream materialized.

Ocheja is a doctoral candidate in Military History, Nigerian Defence Academy, and can be reached via [email protected]