By POEM*
Fact: Mr Peter Obi is the number-one enemy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government, and the ruling party is not pretending otherwise.
There is perhaps no Nigerian politician in the history of the Fourth Republic against whom so many different forces have simultaneously mobilised as they have against the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Peter Gregory Obi.
From the governing APC, the attacks have come through figures such as Daniel Bwala, Reno Omokri, Festus Keyamo, Dave Umahi, Bayo Onanuga, Femi Fani-Kayode and others, each contributing in different ways to a relentless campaign of ridicule, distortion and political delegitimisation. The Presidency has called him a “political nomad”; others have questioned his competence, his patriotism, his political judgement and even his right to seek the presidency again.
Then comes the ethnic front! Professor Usman Yusuf has declared that Peter Obi is “not sellable in the North” and has argued that Northerners will interrogate him over issues including the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. More recently, former Borno State governor and APC chieftain Ali Modu Sheriff declared that “Northerners will never vote for Peter Obi” and alleged that Obi “chased all the Northerners out of Anambra State” while serving as governor. Such statements seek to transform a political contest into an ethnic verdict, asking millions of Northerners to reject a candidate not on the basis of his bad policies, incompetence or failure in character, but on the basis of a completely false but sweeping allegation about his treatment of an ethnic group.
In the South-East itself, Governor Charles Soludo has openly argued that Tinubu deserves a second term, while the governors of Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi have publicly endorsed the President. Former South-East governors have also formed a forum that endorsed Tinubu. None of these individuals is forbidden from supporting any candidate of his choice. But it is impossible not to observe the political irony: a man who won more than 90% of the presidential vote in the South-East in 2023 now faces a coordinated regional political efforts to persuade the same people to abandon him.
Perhaps the most astonishing attacks have come from former allies. Kenneth Okonkwo, once one of Peter Obi’s most visible campaign voices, has now described Obi and Kwankwaso as “political conmen” and later said he no longer believed Obi possessed the qualities required to lead Nigeria. Julius Abure, the former Labour Party chairman under whom Obi contested the 2023 election, has accused him of destabilising the party and failing to manage its crises.
But the most shocking rupture, perhaps, remains Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi’s former running mate, who has publicly questioned the quality and motives of opposition figures, including his former principal. It is difficult to imagine a more revealing test of character than to remain composed while former friends, colleagues and political associates transform yesterday’s partnership into today’s denunciation.
Beyond politicians are the countless paid and unpaid social-media operators who manufacture and circulate falsehoods, insults and hatred against a man whose most obvious political “crime” appears to be his insistence that Nigeria can be governed differently. They call him incompetent because he speaks of prudence. They call him tribal because he speaks of national unity. They call him weak because he refuses to answer every insult with another insult. They call him politically naive because he does not appear to believe that public office is primarily a route to personal enrichment.
Yet, the more they attack him, the more they reveal something about the fear surrounding him. A politically irrelevant man does not require a permanent army of defenders, attackers, propagandists, governors, appointees, former allies and anonymous internet operatives dedicated to explaining why he must never be allowed to lead.
What, then, is Peter Obi’s strength? It is not that he is perfect. No human being is. His strength is that he has become the symbol of a different political possibility. He has demonstrated unusual personal discipline, a reputation for frugality, a record of measurable administrative performance in Anambra, a deep understanding of the relationship between education, productivity and national development, an unusual willingness to speak about discomforting facts, and an ability to communicate with citizens without the traditional language of entitlement.
Above all, he has remained remarkably consistent in arguing that Nigeria must move from consumption to production, from sharing wealth to creating it, from borrowing for recurrent expenditure to investing in human beings, and from the politics of identity to the politics of performance. That is why, despite the attacks, he continues to command the attention of millions.
And perhaps his greatest political wisdom has been the decision to build a partnership with Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. The Obi-Kwankwaso ticket is not merely a regional calculation. It is a potentially historic bridge between the South and the North, between two leaders with substantial grassroots following and distinct political strengths.
Obi brings a national reformist image, economic prudence, administrative credibility and a powerful southern and youth constituency. Kwankwaso brings deep northern roots, extensive political experience, a formidable grassroots movement and a philosophy that, in Obi’s own words, “shares his commitment to lifting people out of poverty through education and economic development”. Together, they offer Nigeria something the old political order has consistently failed to produce: a ticket whose strength does not depend on one region defeating another, but on two major political forces deciding that Nigeria is larger than their individual ambitions.
In the final analysis, the wars against Peter Obi may yet become the very instrument of his victory. History has never been kind to those who mistake noise for strength, propaganda for truth or temporary power for permanent influence. As Marcus Aurelius wisely observed, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” The more they attempt to define Peter Obi through their hatred, the more Nigerians are invited to examine the man for themselves. The more they try to isolate him by tribe, the more the Obi-Kwankwaso partnership demonstrates the possibility of national convergence.
And the more they attack a man whose central message remains that Nigeria can work for all, the more they expose the fear that a competent, disciplined and nationally accepted alternative represents to a political order built on division.
Millions of Nigerians believe that Nigeria has never had a more promising presidential pair since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, and perhaps not since independence, than Peter Gregory Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Their task is enormous. The forces against them are formidable. But Nigeria’s deepest hunger is not for another politician. It is for a new direction. And sometimes, in the long journey of nations, the most powerful force is not the army that attacks a movement, but the truth that refuses to die.
A new Nigeria is indeed POssible, and Nigeria will be OK!
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*Analysis by the Peter Obi Express Media (POEM)
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