A Leader And A Fool?

Keen observers of Nigeria’s political scene can observe that a political trap is being set for the bredrin Peter Obi, who is easily the most popular and charismatic leader in Nigeria’s political terrain. Certainly, Peter Obi is not the most eloquent of men. To be brutally honest, his shrill, raspy voice lets him down too greatly for that. But make no mistake about it, this bredrin packs everything else a politician in a sane country needs and much more besides.

He has a charismatic presence. He smiles easily. He is empathetic, he has gravitas, he has wealth, he is truly humble. He is intelligent, he is smart, he has vision. He is shrewd. He is honest. He is hard-working. He has good judgement.

I n I could go on and on, but let me end with this, which is perhaps the greatest gift a politician can ever have. He has common sense. One of I man’s pet theories, is that it is easier to acquire a doctorate in any field than it is to acquire common sense. When they say, common sense is not common, there is a lot of truth to that, beyond what we many of us may think.

Having veered into politics successfully, Peter Obi naturally has many enemies. Much more than you can think about. Mostly driven by envy, his enemies cannot exactly point to what it is about him that they hate so much. His genuine popularity among the poor and downtrodden, something they must pay heavily to earn, triggers spontaneous hatred towards him from his political adversaries.

Not finding anything credible and tangible to sustain their dislike and hostility towards him, they manufacture all sorts of allegations and fabrications, seeking to whittle down his incredible public support.

The latest accusation his adversaries have leveled against him is that he is not a rabble rousing, table pounding, protests leading politician. His opponents expect him to be combatively charging up and down the streets at the head of a mob, making the country ungovernable for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The APC admittedly, has not, and cannot convince any sane observer that they did not steal a political mandate earned by Peter Obi and the Labour Party at the 2023 general elections.This many swear they did in collusion with the corrupt INEC the electoral governing body, and the even more corrupt Nigerian Judiciary.

Having stolen his mandate, the APC are at their wits end about how to deliver good governance to Nigerians. Not only has the current president Bola Tinubu impoverished Nigerians, but he has also dropped the Nigerian Economy from the second largest in Africa when he assumed office to the fourth largest, and still dropping, currently.

Recall that under President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Nigeria’s Economy was ranked Number One in terms of GDP in Africa. Under his successor President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, it dropped to Number Two, and became the poverty capital of the world.

So, the APC is grasping at straws, creating diversions and seeking to whittle down support for Peter Obi, in any manner they can conjure. The APC having admitted to themselves that there is no way they can defeat Peter Obi in a free and fair election are looking for other ways to neutralize and decommission him politically.

One of such ways is to lure Peter Obi into becoming a street champion agitator. Their plan is to sow and spread the seed of discontent among Peter Obi’s supporters that Peter Obi is too gentle, too peaceful, and too ready to choose non-violent means to confront political challenges.

The paid or unpaid people who spread this disinformation propaganda in the media, start by praising and eulogizing Peter Obi to the high heavens, and then proceed to say that they are withdrawing their support for Peter Obi because he is too mild in his approach to leading an opposition. But it is a trap that is being set for Peter Obi. A trap sponsored by agents and paid hacks of the ruling APC.

There is nothing the APC would love as much as for Peter Obi to be lured into adopting the Imran Khan populist model of violent activism leading to political self-destruction. Recall that the very popular Pakistani cricket captain Imran Khan, veered into politics, founded his own party, became Prime Minister of Pakistan, and led violent street demonstrations against the state when he was deposed in 2022.

Imran Khan survived an assassination attempt while participating in street protests in November 2022 and is currently facing charges for organizing street protests in 2023 and 2024. To all intents and purposes, Imran Khan is politically decommissioned for the time being. This is the path the APC are praying for Peter Obi to tow, but by the Grace of Jah Jah Jesus Christus, he will not fall into their trap for the following three reasons.

The first is that you don't play to your opponent, i.e. APC's strength which is agberoism or thuggish conduct in total disregard of the rule of law, but you must play to their weakness,which is that the APC having found themselves in power since 2015, cannot secure Nigerians, either from bandits, or from poverty.

The second reason is that Peter Obi is the brain, if you like the head of a movement to fashion a new Nigeria built on the rule of law, and on the principles of equity, merit, civility, and inclusivity. In this movement, the people themselves are the muscles. If you must, you protest with your muscles, and reason with your brain, not the other way around, protesting with your brain and reasoning with your muscle.

Let us be frank here, the people have a right and a duty to protest publicly against misrule by their leaders when they are aggrieved. It is their democratic right to do so, and it is the duty of the those in authority to protect citizens exercising their democratic right to protest.

But there is no law or convention that says that a leader of the opposition must ipso facto become the leader and organizer of protests, because there is a very thin line separating leading ororganizing protests and making a country ungovernable for political purposes.

The third reason is that Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu constituting the Buhari-Tinubu Express to national disaster led, public protests targeted against former President Goodluck Jonathan in the approach to the 2015 presidential elections. Their participation in those protests did not make them better leaders than Jonathan.

If anything, they proved to be egregiously worse leaders than Jonathan, who they mocked as clueless. This buttresses the fact that violent or semi-violent agitations and leading public protests do not by themselves, a good leader make.

To sum it up, you don't have to stand in the path of a derailed train wagon which the APC is, in order to show the world, you are a strong leader. If you do that, you are not strong, and you are not a leader. You are stupid, and you are a fool.

The bredrin Peter Obi is a leader, he is not a fool.

We are 👁👁.
Anthony Chuka Konwea, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, MNSE, FNIStructE, MNICE.