Peter Obi Phenomenon: Sitting On A Time Bomb

By Mideno Bayagbon

mideno@thenewsguru.com

Like most Nigerians, I have watched with awe the phenomenon that is the OBIdient-Datti Movement. From seemingly nowhere, Peter Obi, former Anambra State Governor, former Vice Presidential candidate and new entrant into the Labour Party, has captured the national imagination. Like magic, he has ingrained himself into the imaginations of the youths, the elites and ordinary Nigerians spread across the nation’s geographical spectrum. From absolute nothing, and without the backing of the political who-is-who in the land, the Obi/Datti movement has evolved into the nemesis of the established political candidates and parties.

Earlier mocked as a social media phantom and structureless; predicted to fizzle out in no time, the contrary has become the reality. Now there is palpable fear in the camps of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidates. Officials of both parties now spend more time attacking and denigrating the OBIdient movement than on selling themselves. As it is, no one in his right political senses today describes the movement as a fluke, or as a Shakespearean tale, full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing. The fear of Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti, the potential earth shakers, is now the beginning of wisdom. Still evolving and full of possibilities, it is nevertheless, far from its goals of taking over the reins of government. Critically, it is yet to ground itself in the Northeast and Northwest of the country.

However, despite the speed of its spread, the ObIdience phenomenon is a mere coincidence. Not even Peter Obi can boast that he planned or even anticipated what has become of his campaign so far. It is a chance encounter. An opportunity, an anguish, wanting a way to express itself. A frustrated body of youths and the elites, caged in the hopeless political quagmire which has grounded the economy, and every aspect of society, found an outlet in the ambition of Peter Obi. But the movement, at first, had nothing to do with Obi in the truest sense. He is just the adopted symbol whose lifestyle and politics resonates with the groaning and wishes of the people. On him, and on his running mate, is now vested the frustrations, hopes and expectations of nearly 200 million Nigerians. A heavy, national burden rests on their shoulders. They now embody the dreams, the aspirations, the future, at least in the thinking of their supporters.

At no time in the nation’s recent history has the hope of the entire country be invested in an individual as we now have. The #ENDSARS movement has reincarnated in the ObIdience movement. Recall  that, nearly two years ago, there was an insurrection of the youths who vented their frustration in mega rallies, mostly at the Lekki Toll Gate and in Abuja, Enugu, and some other cities. Their immediate bone of contention was the brutality of the special police unit: Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS. SARS operatives arrested, detained, robbed, maimed and killed at will, with apparent impunity. Immediate cause of the protests, however, was the viral video of a young man allegedly being killed by SARS operatives. This became the springboard on which their collective frustrations, and anger at the poor way politicians have ruined the nation, was vented.

After days of massive protests, the Buhari government on October 20th, 2020,ordered a scotch earth action against the protesters who were singing the national anthem and waving the Nigerian flag. A yet to be determined number of them were allegedly slaughtered by the military who were deployed to end the protests. And in that crazy night of bullets and bloodshed and tears, the youths were pummelled and driven off the streets.  President Buhari was to later confess that the protests were organised to truncate his government and remove him from office.

But they are back now, in full force. They have rechristened themselves the OBIdient Movement. More than ever, before our eyes, a revolution of sorts is shaping up.  And it is not led by urchins. Diverse and seemingly unstructured, a  determined body of youths, who want to use the political process to change theirs and the nation’s ugly story is amalgamating. The same coordinated tactics used in organising the #ENDSARS protests is being deployed. The social media which the Tinubu and Atiku camp so derided, is the weapon for strategic organisation and mobilisation. This can be attested to by the hugely successful One Million Man marches. Without any visible structure, they have continued to mobilise millions of youths to the streets. They are marching;  showing their might in humongous numbers, in cities across the South and Middlebelt.

They are self funding and determined to have their say and way in the coming elections. That is why to every careful political observer, Obi and Datti are convenient tools in the determination of the youths to end the terribly poor leadership, the downward slide of the country in all development indices. It is their own way of saying Enough is Enough; their own way of issuing a red card to the old guard political gladiators who have misruled the country into becoming almost the worse country on earth to live in.

Should they win and Obi emerges the President of Nigeria, there is little to envy President Obi about. The job is already cut out for him. It is huge and almost insurmountable. This is because, for a people who have been persistently gang raped by those who call themselves their leaders in the last 23 years, Obi is a hope long lust for. On him will be placed the all encompassing virtues of a messiah, a superman, a magician with the wand to right all wrongs, fix all the problems bedevilling the people. They will hold him to his rhetorics, the solutions canvassed, the opportunities promised. They would hold him to a working, better Nigeria forgetting the huge bottomless rot he will inherit.

However, should the dreams of a better way of governing, of a better, caring, selfless leadership coalesced into a victory for the Obi-Datti ticket, one thing is sure. They can only be foundation builders. The rot is too deep for any significant impact in their first four years. Yes, they can arrest the drift into anarchy on all fronts. They can make the youths, the elites and ordinary Nigerians believe in Nigeria again. They can begin the right stimulation of the mentalities of the youth and elites, redirecting and empowering them, upscaling their skills and engineering them towards production; releasing their creative juices to lay a new foundation for a new Nigeria which must now begin to climb the ladder of development, howbeit from the very bottom rung of the ladder. That will be the hope of the common people in the villages and towns and cities across the length and breath of the country.

But should the Obi-Datti ticket lose the presidency next year, especially if the youths are convinced they were cheated , robbed and the system unfairly manipulated, trouble looms. The aborted #ENDSARS protests might just be resurrected. The season of the  Nigerian spring might just happen on us. That truly might be the real revolution.

Things cannot be any longer as they have been in the last almost 23 years. This is why all men and women of goodwill must come out now to be counted. The 2023 elections is a double edged sword. It could bring about the long awaited seed of good governance or it could led to street protests never imagined or seen in the country before. INEC whose chairman says it is ready to conduct the elections in all the territories of Nigeria must do more than talk. I am sure a repeat of the farce of 2019 where over 80 percent votes were allegedly recorded in the terrorists hotbeds of Borno, Yobe, Zamfara and so on cannot be tenable in the 2023 elections. Nigerians must see that the elections are transparently free. The electronic transfer of results must not only be deployed nationally, its must be convincingly free of manipulations.

While any of the three major candidates: Atiku, Obi, Tinubu can win the elections, INEC must be proactive. Rigging and vote buying must be checkmated. The Police, the DSS and the military who are usually accomplices of the systematic rigging machines of the parties must be patriotic. Or they must be brought to book if they are involved in any infractions. We cannot continue with politics as usual and expect different results. The country is in death throes, walking blindly in the dark valley, at the tipping point of anarchy. Whoever emerges winner of the 2023 presidential elections must be seen to have done so freely, fairly and acceptably.