Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, is pictured during an interview with Reuters at his residence in Lagos, Nigeria August 18, 2022. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja
By Barr. Ajibola Ekor Ubi
ajibolaubi@gmail.com
PETER OBI epitomizes some of the ingredients of leadership especially the ones highlighted above. He is capable, having demonstrated his capacity in his eight years of leadership in Anambra State.
Peter Obi also symbolizes credibility in the face of the looting spree and normalized corruption that characterizes the Nigerian elites. Being among the few who had maintained a high standard of credibility, which singled him out as one of the few governors never invited by EFCC to account for his stewardship as governor of Anambra State, his credibility is untainted.
He is a compassionate man who had traversed the length and breath of Nigeria, identifying with the plight of the less-privileged. Our boss, Peter Obi, is always there weeping with those who weep, lifting up those who fall, and wiping away tears of those who weep. He’s got a golden heart of compassion.
Our Principal, Peter Obi is competent. With his vast knowledge of the economy and international governance dynamics and best practices, he is the man fit for the leadership cap in Nigeria.
But beyond those startling credentials, I am bewildered that Peter Obi falls short of political discernment. The current events in the Labour Party which he has allowed to fester into a canker threatening the existence of the party, reveals his deficiency of discernment.
1. I am surprised that Obi is undiscerning of the grand plot of the ruling party to get him off the ballot in 2027! Labour Party under the candidacy of Obi is the nemesis, the nightmare of the ruling party. The ruling party is doing everything to ensure he doesn’t feature in 2027 presidential elections. There are mercenaries planted in Labour Party to perfect this plot. And Obi is not discerning this. Obi doesn’t know that his current position in the face of the factions reinforces the plot of APC.
2. I am also surprised that Obi is not discerning that the path Gov. Otti took by collapsing and handing over Labour Party in Abia State to Zenith Labour Party is politically suicidal. Otti must have done that to get at Abure but it was a political faux pas!
3. Obi could not discern that Otti cannot win a second term under the Zenith Labour Party. That foundation is fragile, frail, and faulty to bear the reelection of Gov. Otti. Obi should have discouraged and dissuaded Otti from taking such an action.
4. Most importantly, Obi is not discerning that Otti will eventually join APC to make his second tenure ambition possible. I am not a political prophet but I can assure you that Otti cannot win a second term except he joins APC. Ordinarily, Otti’s good works should have given him straight win but not in the present political dispensation where those who don’t contest elections are declared winners. Obi should have discerned this and left Otti alone or discouraged the present factionalization by Otti.
5. I expected Obi to have discerned that he cannot create an upset using the Obidient Movement without Labour Party. Obi should know that though he is the face of a new political philosophy and the new Nigeria, the mirror with which the world sees and admires him is Labour Party.
6. I am astonished that Obi didn’t see the legal and constitutional underpinning girding the position of Barr. Abure’s Chairmanship in the face of the leadership tussle by pitching his tent with the Nenadi’s faction. It’s not about whether Abure must step down from his position because it has expired or he is no longer needed, it is about whether he infringed on any law or the constitution of the party by seeking re-election. Everything Abure did, from my perspective, is legal and constitutional. This is what gives him authority and legitimacy to remain as chairman of the party.
7. Obi should have discerned that the only viable option for his competence, credibility, capacity, and compassion to be validated is by ensuring an end to the division in the Labour Party. The continuity of the factions under his watch and even taking side with the unpopular faction has cast a dark cloud of doubt on his leadership credentials.
Obi should understand that he is the one loosing in the face of this factionalization of the party. He wouldn’t go to PDP, neither join APC, and he might not be allowed to register his own party by INEC which has long ‘defected’ to APC.
Obi should as a matter of urgency, unite the party under the leadership of Barr. Abure and his National Executive Council.
This is my personal postulations, they are not meant to cast aspersions on anyone, not alone our cherished boss.
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