TIME to throw all the pretences away. Peter Obi is the biggest political challenge Nigeria faces as the presidential race revs to reckless gears.
He is daring, deft, and deaf to the din of traditional political practices.
What do we do with Obi? What do we do without him? Are we ready for Obi and his proposals?
The answers are cures to the hyped hypocrisies masquerading as competence to manage Nigeria. The most intriguing of these nagging issues is the displacement of competence with entitlement.
Obi does not preach. He simply shares in crisp citations evidential proof of what he did in Anambra State as Governor. He intends to replicate them as President of Nigeria if elected. We applaud. Will the matter end there?
Nigerians claim their country is at the brinks. The same Nigerians want someone to pull the country back from the proclivity to accelerating demise. Obi has offered himself. His proposals are clear.
No Governor left the hefty sums, and investments he bequeathed his successor. No Governor compiled his handover note, revealing cheques that had been left to pay teachers, pensioners, contractors, other obligations. No Governor invested in meaningful education, health, human resources, infrastructure as Obi did. His records in other areas are indisputable.
He then swore an affidavit to authenticate the details of h it’s tenure at a High Court.
The savings he made in local and foreign bonds were worth $156m in March 2014. Nobody has done a fraction of that. He never borrowed; he left no debts.
Obi lifted Anambra State out of the chaos it was. He ignored the fat cats that dubbed themselves godfathers. He rescues a state that had adopted rambunctiousness as its alias.
Alas, other things impress Nigerians, chiefly, how much someone is willing to give them to get into office. The season of harvests for political merchants is here.
Many aspirants have lined up seemingly for the same mission. Many words are being tossed about in line with the season. What stands Obi out is the clarity of his thoughts, exampled by his works as governor, and simple enough to understand positions on every issue.
Where others have leaned heavily on the turn of the South East to produce the next President, an engagement on fairness, Obi has built on his competence to court a nationwide following that is not procured through a heavy pocket. There are more differences.
He is frugal. He lives it. People mock him for his simplicity that abhors the pomp of office. He reminds Nigerians that the country is in dire straits and needed to be cured of its wastefulness. Parts of the wastes are repeated with dedicated choice of leaders that take us to booming doom.
President Muhammadu Buhari remains a sterling example. Those who chose him to feed their selfishness have spent the past seven years defending his bumblings. They blame everyone except the man and themselves for his serial failures.
Obi has said he would not buy delegates. Those who were expecting a bounteous harvest have bulked. Are we no longer ready to fight corruption?
Nigeria is bound for further doldrums if measures that can redeem it are mixed up with choices that eat our tomorrow today.
Obi is ready to offer innovative service that would strip Nigeria of the huge baggage she lugs around as it tries to make progress. Obi is that opportunity.
He is not a saint. If it were, he probably would not be in the race. His demonstrated abilities to turn around situations should count for something.
If we ignore Obi, we would have chosen to continue with the next level of nothingness. We can change for better when we join Obi to make a difference in our lives as a people, and a country.
Read also: Peter Obi most preferred presidential candidate – Poll
Finally…
IF we are what we eat, what are those who have nothing to eat? Food prices are still soaring. The determination of our leaders to nurture poverty is disturbing.
WIFE of the President Aisha Buhari wasted public resources (someone said her long absences left her office with unspent budgets) last week in a dinner with presidential aspirants. The State House banquet hall was so filled that it seemed all Nigerians were in the race for the presidency. A press statement would have been a prudent way of pressing her demand for a female Vice President. Only a sprinkling of presidential aspirants attended.
THE tardy responses to freeing victims of the Kaduna train attack stand as another confirmation that the security and welfare of the people is not the purpose of government. Senators, who are unable to get the President to act, but make payment of ransom an offence, are part of the challenges we face.
YUL Edochie has provided us one more national distraction by his new marriage. We have deployed our vaulted expertise to dissecting a very personal and private affair, speculating it could birth forms of marriages unknown in these parts. Matters of the heart defy logic and are best viewed away from the parameters of consistency.
WHO will be the next President? Profiteers, prophets, plain thieves, who live on the gullible, are whispering names, making millions in the process. Thirty years ago, one white-wearing fellow was parading Nigeria, at the instance of his prophet, claiming he would succeed President Ibrahim Babangida. He didn’t even join a political party. He wrecked a financial house pleasing his loquacious prophet.
A NAMELESS individual lost $75,000 cash – over N45m – in the precincts of the All Progressives Congress (APC), nomination form bazaar. Nobody has apologised to him over the general insecurity in Nigeria, there are no talks of compensating him. People are rather asking about the source of the money. Some suggest that he should be taken in for money laundering. I offer my sympathies.
HAPPY celebrations to our Muslim compatriots on the occasion of EIdul-Fitr, and to Nigerian workers on May Day.
.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
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