By Leonard Nzenwa
With streaks of high profile endorsement garnered in the last few days, those who hitherto had not given the former Anambra State Governor a chance to win the presidential election may be having a rethink now. It did start as a political tsunami that swept everything that mattered politically in sight few months back, but even at this, pessimism still sat on faces of no-hopers. Ultra-pessimistic Nigerians that long embraced gloomy outcomes as a way of life, and wear same as badge of honour to dispirit others, are now being encouraged that the cloud of disconsolateness can be made candescent, and lacking in promises and hopefulness can be upturned for good where a Will finds a Way. Olusegun Obasanjo demonstrated this Will to pave the Way by his conduct. And it was a stroke of pen through a six-page New Year Goodwill Message delivered poignantly that the two-time Nigeria Leader used to boldly announce Peter Obi Presidency endorsement. That he, further, elected to classify Buhari Administration as one that progressed the country from frying pan to fire syncs deeply with a nation of Nigerians that have gnashed their teeth and wailed in agony over past seven years. General Badamosi Babangida and Statesman Edwin Clarke and others followed through with Peter Obi Presidency endorsement almost immediately.
Recall that few weeks ago, Charles Soludo offered an unsolicited 'come-back Advisory' to Peter Gregory Obi urging him to withdraw from Nigerias' 2023 presidential race. When he did this, many swore that it came from the erudite professors' soul, but all that changed when Prince Arthur Eze issued an immediate 'return back order' to the presidential candidate wherein he took same comeback route which Soludo took and set himself on collision with many who perceive him as part of the reactionary forces bent on surceasing audacity of hope to better Nogeria project championed by Obi, which many of them embraced wholeheartedly. This stupendously rich Oil Mogul and grand old politician that have fought several poltical and business battles, left no one in doubt, that he was not only with Soludo on this but boasted unabashedly that he had forewarned Obi over his ambition. For this man that doubles as 'Arthur 1000', Obi is stubborn.
Remarkably, with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and others counteracting endorsement of Obis' presidential bid, the effect of what appear as a disclaimer from the two sons from Obis' direct constituency effectively seem now to be obviating. And as it stands, it's simply beyond us now to delight or loath over what has taken us over, politically. What is unfurling seem earthshaking enough to scratch the head and the mind same time. The times have brought it upon us, and the forces of life in concert with divinity's ordinances seem to have accredited it. We can move to complain, to moan, to weep, to cry, to straddle our legs in lividity, and if brave enough, to smash our heads on the walls over it. But this will not change it, it will not alter it, neither will it upturn this allotment of time that has been decreed. Allowing it reign and endure through uninterrupted is the better for us all; and we should resign ourselves unto it.
Were we not bothered that it was not until the impelling emergence of what many now dub the Peter Obi phenomenon that many dutifully took note of the cultured quicksand acts of professional politicians that have over the years beguiled Nigerians with feel-good promises. Tokenism was their tool of appeasement to stay off the wrath of the people! The Artikulated guarantor was deeply involved in discontenting the people, so also the Emilokan patron who had always been there with his tongs of affliction over the people. And admitting that the citizenry were unaware that they were bamboozled over the ages by these handful tribe of sugar-coating talking human machines parroting goodies they genuinely had never conceived in their hearts nor desired to carry through by way of implementation is untrue. Fact is that they were helpless, and have remained hopeless till date. Will this, then, explain the alacritous acceptance the Peter Gregory Obi emergence is enjoying - the absence of heartfelt leadership yearning to walk and work with the people as opposed to the rulership servitude wickedly erected by a colony of pro-methuselah longevity-oiled politicians that vowed not to leave the stage. May be or May be not!
This Peter Gregory Obi, that we have seen, relatively, is young in the push to occupy centre stage at the nation's highest political circuit - not in the context of biological age. His testament from Anambra State look pleasing but this is not conferring a clean slate of political and moral righteousness on him. He is after all, human, and human he will remain. However, the remarkable thing about his entrance is that it is timeous. It came in a period of hopelessness. It arrived during an era of intense despair. It birthed in a season of undeniable depravity; poverty, sorrow, death and despoliation of societal values. It came upon us, literally speaking, during an epoch where ferocious evil wind pushed the people to their limits. And this, is now, offering the justifiable rationale why the people are listening, and multitude of them are acting. Doubtlessly, Peter Gregory Obi , waltzed through the peoples' consciousness easily because of actions and inactions of recycled bad politicians that placed heavy burden on them. It is this also that is yielding into a movement that is wearing an amoebic character upending structure and form and bestriding the political landscape as a colossus.
We need reckon that the Obi phenomenon is distinct from the Obi phenomena, and at separate end with the Peter Obi personality. It requires an elevated mind to concretely draw them out and determine their latitude of confluence and divergence, and relate them appropriately to the unfolding rarity staring is harshly in the face. To brutally put it, the Obi phenomenon, derobed of preferred parochial denotation, proclaims one-off appearance of an inelegant political sophomore seeking a path of astuteness within the crowded political ecosystem to establish a presence. Liking it to a skirt fashioned deliberately to stealthily impose an unwarranted presence and unusual quality makes a better sense of appreciation. It is a thud of occurrence which sustenance is impermanent. The Obi phenomena, on the other hand, bespeak of unintended act(s) pursued initially with measured vigor over a short period of time but changed gear to greater degree of commitment on pursuers' part based on encouraging feedback from the environment resulting in sudden expansion of ( political ) momentum that will further elicit positive or negative action from the environment, in this case the electorate. It could be semi-permanent if the instigator resolves in rock-willed manner to pursue his course of action with adroit bullheadedness. The mind and souls of the people gravitates towards the course once they establish its credibility. This appear to be what Peter Gregory Obi is doing with the movement he has unconsciously activated.
Will this Peter Obi effort, therefore, amount to injection of poltical placebo on the people? We do not pray so because the need to shake down the table of invincibility and hegemony of power elites that have constituted themselves into slave masters is long over due. And since we are acquainted with what pharmacological effect of placebo means we had better hold through without yielding any ground until the real change emerges - not the one APC used in deluding the nation over the years. Indeed, the surge of enthusiasm sweeping the country testify to an acceptance of a new Order like one being g promoted by Peter Gregory Obi. Will politicking of the Nigerian variant, however, permit this to take place? Days ahead will determine if Obis' phenomenal political movement will be stopped or fade away like that.
...Dr Leonard Nzenwa is a former National Chairman, Inter- Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and African Action Congress (AAC). He can be reached through e-mail: @drLeonardNzenwa. ; nzenwal@yahoo,com NNL.