There is a new political consciousness among Nigerian youths. This avant-garde political consciousness is being championed by young Nigerians who call themselves ‘Obi-Dients’. The Obi-Dients support the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, the former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. They are attracted by Peter Obi’s ideology of frugality, economic production rather than the ostentatious consumerism and waste, and resourceful management and investment in key sectors, for economic growth and development. This political consciousness is what my good friend, the Caribbean poet, Édouard Glissant, in a similar context called ‘a long and painful quest’ that started from the ‘EndSARS’ era that sought to end Nigerian police brutality. It has now metamorphosed into the biggest political movement in recent Nigerian history.
Nigerian youths are asserting themselves and redefining the political landscape in the wake of incessant terrorism, hunger, poverty, unemployment, police brutality, and most importantly, their occlusion and political conquest by the old, corrupt, and ineffective politicians. These youths have never been interested in the lacklustre Nigerian politics of buffoonery. These are youths who, before now, were interested only in the reality TV shows like Big Brother Naija; football leagues and other sports; celebrity gossips; music and film, among others. In fact, they were pop culture and social media addicts.
With the free reign of banditry and terrorism in the North (as exemplified in the attack of General Muhammadu Buhari’s advance convoy in Katsina and Kuje Correctional Facility by terrorists the same day); insecurity in the South West and South East; rising inflation amidst surging rate of unemployment; free fall of the Naira; and the incessant labour crisis that has characterised Buhari’s administration, one can conclude that Buhari is incapable of getting anything right. Therefore, the country is on autopilot without effective leadership. These ‘muted’ horrible experiences have become a motif to challenge the existing normative political structure. The ‘affective’ charge of a country on auto-pilot on the youths has exploded, and now, there is an organic political consciousness sweeping through the country.
Local and international political analysts are trying to make sense of what is really going on, while the existing political establishment seems to be underrating, and refusing to acknowledge what is definitely troubled water that will ideologically displace them. This erupted political consciousness is capable of disrupting the diametrically different grand narrative of the existing political order, exemplified in the highly corrupt and monetised -so called- structure of the major political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
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The conviction of the Nigerian youths that every sector of this country needs sanitisation and re-sculpting is propelling the Obi-Dient movement. The sensibility of the Obi-Dients is a resistance to known conventional models of Nigerian politics where politicians and their allies buy attention at a very high cost. The Obi-Dients are reversing the status-quo. The paradox of the new political reality, which distinguishes the Obi-Dient movement from the old order, is that the new sensibility is articulated in the time, talent and resources the Obi-Dients are contributing to their convictions. The youths have initiated an eloquent dialogue of discontinuity that may transplant and estrange the historical Nigerian political tradition. Nigerian youths have united in the name of an idea.
There is a blatant attempt to manipulate Nigerian youths through religion and tribalism in order to divide, confine, restrict, deny and disempower them. Recently, a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso insinuated and projected ethnic division when he falsely claimed that Nigerians from the North would not vote for Peter Obi because of his tribe. Others like Reno Omokri, former adviser to the President Goodluck Jonathan tried to cryptically appeal to religious sentiment by blowing out of proportion the fact that Peter Obi, invested in a brewery when he was a governor; and claimed that Muslims, on that ground, will not vote for Peter Obi. These are a few instances among too many clandestine attempts at derailing the ideological movement of the Obi-Dients.
The old political order made up of old politicians and their younger mimic ‘men’ will stop at nothing to derail the Obi-Dients and their ideological alternative which will disrupt and perhaps, dismantle the old corrupt political order. They want to keep recycling themselves and replicating the system that has clearly failed everyone but themselves and their cronies. The Obi-Dients must beware of this albatross and ensure that their movement does not appeal to tribal or religious ‘enclosure’. The new political consciousness must be intellectually mobile; their process must be evolving and dynamic to be able to face different artificially created challenges and propaganda that will be thrown their way. Their message must be consistent, clear and simple, not abstracted.
There is a continuous name-calling and frame-up against this new political consciousness of the Obi-Dients from the centres of political powers and transcendent authorities. In the face of these challenges, the Obi-Dients must control their impulses. Peter Obi, apart from being consistent, has roles to play in shepherding the movement even though it is now beyond him and no longer about him. He must show leadership in a non-ambiguous way. He must also show the ability to be confrontational with the status quo when necessary, and not always being too apologetic.
Nigeria is under threat and there is a need to change the existing political status quo to one that will work for all Nigerians. The time is now and the Obi-Dients are asking, if not now, when?
.Destiny Isiguzo writes from Aba.
