Obi Momentum: Outraged over failed governance, young Nigerians are taking back their country

It’s early days yet, still the People’s Democratic Party may yet rue the departure of Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State from its fold, as what started out as one man’s quest for political power has caught fire among young people, animating a quest to wrest power from Nigeria’s marauding rulers.

Across social media platforms, young Nigerians are leading the movement to take back their country from the hands of a plundering political class they now see represented in the country’s two major political parties: the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

In a May 24 letter addressed to Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP’s National Chairman, Obi announced his decision to resign from the party, he was seen as one of the frontline runners for its presidential ticket.

“…Unfortunately, recent developments within our party makes it impossible for me to continue participating and making constructive contributions.

“Our national challenges are deep-rooted and require that we each make profound sacrifices towards rescuing our country,” he wrote.

At the time, many analysts faulted this decision, but against the notion fast gaining currency that the major political parties are the platforms that have facilitated a national heist and enabled failed leadership, it seems strategic even, that a candidate seen as a refreshing change does not bear the burden of representing a political party that typifies carnage.

Appeal

Obi’s appeal among young Nigerians unlike previous political aspirants is not influenced by wads of crisp currency, bags of rice or cans of processed tomato paste, it is increasingly seen as a chance to put out to pasture corrupt and feckless politicians, whose best ideas on running a government went out of fashion half a century ago.

Peter Obi’s candidacy is spreading like wild fire across social media. HIs followers alone are now over 1 million. He joined Twitter in 2019 following his emergence as the running mate of Atiku Abubaker in the 2019 Presidential election, gaining over 14,000 followers in less than an hour of joining the social media site.

Obi’s charm is the promise of a government that is frugal, an economy that is productive, a government with high regard for education and healthcare, a government that is responsible and responsive, where its leaders view public funds as a sacred trust, where a past leader will cite his achievements and confidently tell you to go and check without fear of contradiction.

A breath of fresh air!

Obi is an unusual candidate and many young people say these unusual times call for nothing less. Under Buhari, Nigeria’s GDP has grown by 0.18 percent on average, hobbled by two recessions, ruinous policies including shutting down borders, expanding subsidies on fuel and electricity which has spurred corruption. Now the state-oil firm the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation limited (NNPC) can no longer make remittances as crude sales are used to offset debts and pay subsidies.

Read also: Obi urges speed as Southeast voter numbers lag

The country is indebted to the tune of $39billion and is using over 90 percent of its revenue to service debts and fund a large, unproductive bureaucracy. Over 30 percent of the population is unemployed with many young people leaving the University to join a labour market where jobs are few and prospects fast shrinking.

University lecturers have been on strike for four months asking for improved pay and working conditions even as politicians burn cash in foreign currency to induce party delegates. The government that promised to lift 100 million people out of poverty ended up throwing the same number into extreme poverty.

Buhari came into office promising to fend off bands of disparate terrorists called Boko haram whose attacks were concentrated in the North eastern part of the country. Seven years later, the threat to the homeland has metastasized. Marauding herdsmen, cattle rustlers and bandits are having a free rein inflicting horrors across the length and breadth of the country while the security agencies stare helplessly.

With many young people disillusioned and only the prospect of fleeing their country seen as their only path to a secure future, many have adopted Obi’s presidential bid as their last hope to rescue their country from its inexorable march towards a failed state.

This grim prospect, feared over the next eight years in the hands of the ruling APC and the opposition PDP, is galvanising young people better than any financial inducement. Many say those who emerge victorious in the presidential primaries of the major political parties have given them little cause for cheer. It is now helping to spur the biggest political movement since the June 12, 1993 elections.

ThE #EndSARS protest may have been crushed by the Buhari-led government, but the lessons from that movement are being transferred into the new movement to elect, for the first time in a long time, a candidate who left office without the taint of corruption and crass opulence that characterise Nigeria’s rapacious political class.

Just like the #EndSARS movement, the movement to make Obi president is spreading across the country having been born on social media. Young people are mobilising Nigerians to register for their Permanent Voter Cards carrying on a sensitisation campaign that is far more effective than the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can dream of.

Some groups provide free transportation as part of the mobilisation efforts.

Others are offering their buildings, including residences, religious houses and business premises to the INEC for use as registration centers.

INEC is playing catch up. On Thursday, the electoral body issued a release saying it will provide an additional 209 registration machines as reports of large turn-outs in the South East, Lagos, Rivers and other northern states overwhelm their staff.

Now, there are calls to extend the deadline for registration as the electoral body clearly lacks the capacity to register willing voters within the time frame. Meanwhile INEC thinks the surge has something to do with confidence in its ability.

“The sudden surge is an affirmation of the increasing confidence Nigerians have in our electoral process,” said Festus Okoye, chairman, information and Voter Education Committee of INEC.

This would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic!

Structure

Many analysts have pontificated that Obi’s biggest weakness is that he is representing a party without widespread party structure. They say elections are not won on Twitter and some of his most vocal supporters on social media do not even have a Voters card.

“Whenever I hear of no structure, my answer to it is simple,” Obi said while receiving the the Labour party certificate of return as its flag bearer in 2023 presidential elections, “The 100 million Nigerians that live under poverty will be the structure, the millions of Nigerian youths who don’t know where the next meal will come from will be the structure, our mothers and fathers, the old ones that are dying and being owed their gratuities and pensions will be the structure, the lecturers that are being owed, the students who are not in school will be the structure. Structure is about human beings,” he said.

However, the influence of social media cannot be wished away in Nigeria’s elections. In 2015, the APC deployed keyboard warriors to galvanise the people against the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Some of those who led the charge like Tolu Ogunlesi eventually became media and communication aides to Buhari. Obi’s followers today are drowning out the voices of others and just as it was true in 2015, many genuinely believe in the cause.
This movement however, is more potent because, unlike the 2015, it is not bought!

Yet the practical reality of governing effectively will require that the Labour party turn the focus from just capturing the presidency. It needs a significant number of legislative seats and a fair amount of state houses to push its agenda. Analysts say, alliances are important to winning elections as well as ensuring credible candidates are found to fill other positions.

“In the light of the crystalising rainbow coalition to save Nigeria in Labour Party, we wish to invite all well-meaning Nigerians, including women, youths, the physically-challenged, the poor, and the well to do, among others, to immediately join forces with the Labour Party to rescue Nigeria from the heightening insecurity and imminent collapse foisted by incompetent rulers of Nigeria, currently trading in delegates all over the country,” the Labour Party said in a release.

In the wake of this movement Obi’s defection to the party has stirred, it would need to walk this talk to stand a fair chance.