Peter Obi: The coming of age By Martins Onyeike

As the election fever begins to assume proportions of hyperpyrexia, it is no longer news that both the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, APC and the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP have conducted their primaries and Presidential flagbearers have emerged. That is now stale gist.

Unsurprisingly, no politician from the Southeast was considered worthy of mounting the saddle using either podium. As much as I adjudge this as an affront on the much talked about principle of fairness and equity, I must commend the bold step taken by Peter Obi to pursue his aspiration via a hitherto unsung Labour Party platform.

The days leading to the PDP special convention informed the decision by the former Governor of Anambra state to try his luck elsewhere. To the chagrin and disdain of the power brokers, the Peter Obi movement is beginning to look like a sweeping revolution. It is often said that elections are not won on social media, but recent events are showing that the youths are taking the agitation a notch further by mobilizing aggressively for acquisition of their Personal Voters Cards (PVCs).

Owing to the duopolistic nature of our political system, it is pretty easy to assume that the contest promises to be an outright heavyweight duel between Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the PDP and APC respectively. The reality on ground however suggests otherwise. If Peter Obi succeeds in picking a popular Northern Muslim candidate as running mate, I am of the unshaking belief that he stands a good chance of upsetting the apple cart.

As attested to by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, there has been an upsurge in turnout for the continuous voters registration process in the last few days. This is an indicator that the people, especially young Nigerians, are determined to alter the status quo for good. At the end of the day, a watershed moment in our democracy beckons. The accompanying repercussions of not grabbing this opportunity with both hands will only spell doom. Let me highlight them below.

Willy-nilly, we look like we are going to witness two outcomes that are unprecedented in the anals of our fledgling democracy. One, for the first time, we may be going to watch helplessly as power transitions from one Muslim to another. We may also have a Northerner succeeding another. Either way, this will, if it happens, be a bitter pill to swallow for adherents of the hypocritical scriptures of egalitarianism in Nigeria.

How did we even find ourselves in this cul-de-sac? An Igbo adage made popular by Chinua Achebe says that “a man who does not know where the rain started beating him cannot say where he dried his body.” In my opinion, it wasn’t just enough to insist that power comes South, being specific about the region that rightfully deserves it would have ruled out the ambiguity. That is where we started getting drenched.

In hindsight, the May 11, 2021 communique signed by all 17 Southern Governors wasn’t worth the piece of paper it was written on. Considering the partisan plurality of that gathering, it was clear that such a pact could not be implemented. It was a conglomerate of contrasting ideas, pecuniary interests and aspirations.

Unless history is rewritten through concerted efforts, the probable scenarios portend a grave danger to the nation’s already filamentous unity, particularly for the South-East and the South in general. On the interim, it may appear that having Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the ballot provides a glimmer of hope for the South, but an Atiku Abubakar triumph at the polls would doubtlessly unlock a Pandora’s box.

Assuming that the PDP candidate wins the 2023 election and then decides to serve the constitutionally stipulated two terms of eight years as typical of Nigerian politicians, irrespective of any gentlemen’s agreement, it is inevitable that the squabble over which part of the South will assume power come 2031 will resume again. The resultant effect would be a vicious cycle that may consume the South. There is nothing gentlemanly about our breed of leaders.

Alternatively, if Asiwaju Bola Tinubu finds a way to fulfill his life-long ambition of getting to Aso Rock, the South-East will be left in the wilderness for at least 16 years, as power would be expected to go back North after his tenure. These are the consequences of greed and an accompanying gluttonous appetite for power and personal glory over moral rectitude.

Furthermore, as fragmented as Nigeria is today, the allure and desperation for power has the prospects of throwing up a dangerous Muslim-Muslim ticket on one side. Mischievously, some power mongers see nothing wrong with such a move as reference keeps being made of 1993 when that kite hovered our political skies.

This is not 1993. Between then and now, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. For Ndigbo and Peter Obi, it is now or never. The injustice is not only perceived, it is palpable and Nigerians of good conscience have resolved to join ranks in addressing this anomaly. For the South as a whole, time will tell if having Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on the ballot as the candidate of the APC is not a pyrrhic victory. The days, weeks and months are surely going to be interesting.

Whatever happens next year, it will never be business as usual. In the fullness of time, we shall see that Obi is no longer a boy.

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