Every country that has gone on to become great, and occupy a pride of place in the comity of nations, once navigated a season of national turmoil and trouble, when it appeared that the ship of its nationhood was about to be wrecked by forces beyond it.
Many countries who have today stagnated or even retrogressed can trace their woes to the heady winds of those stormy days, and just how inept and naïve those they put in charge were at navigating them. For those countries which managed to steady the ship and even sail for safe or even still waters, capable hands came to the rescue; hands made dexterous by big hearts and clear heads.
Nigerias pirouette of promise was painfully halted in 1966 when renegade military officers inebriated by the toxic brew of youth and folly intervened to disrupt the path to Nigerias prosperity. A full-blown civil war followed in 1967 and raged with cataclysmic consequences until 1970.Today, the effects of that war continue to reverberate across generations to set the teeth of the Giant of Africa on edge.
Nigeria is in its own season of national trouble and turmoil –the Giant of Africa is in the pangs of childbirth, and how it fares would determine if the country produces a master stroke or an eyesore. With the clock ticking ferociously towards the general elections of 2023, a couple of prominent Nigerian politicians have thrown their hats into the ring.
Former Anambra State Governor Mr. Peter Obi recently paid a visit to the Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council to inform them of his desire to contest for the presidency. The visit and announcement only served as Mr. Obi`s assent to the growing calls from sections of Nigerians to run for the presidency of the country in 2023.
In 2019, Mr. Obi shared the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party with Mr. Atiku Abubakar who also recently declared his intention to vie for the presidency. They ultimately came up short in 2O19 but in the three years that have followed that electoral defeat, Nigerians have looked back multiple times at what could have been as the APC-led federal government has staggered from one embarrassing failure to another.
Mr. Obis declaration has whipped many Nigerians into a frenzy, especially those Nigerians, many of them young, who truly desire change, and a halt to their countrys slide into the doldrums. The excitement is not at all misplaced. Mr. Peter Obi is armed with political and performance antecedents that pack a powerful punch.
In 2003, after four years during which the ‘light of the nation’ state was cast into spectral darkness by the sickeningly incompetent administration of Mr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju of the Peoples Democratic Party, weary and wary Anambra voters lined up, and with a vengeance, voted in Mr. Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
But the Peoples Democratic Party would not have solidified its legend if it did not know a thing or two about political and judicial abracadabra. Thus Mr. Chris Ngige inexplicably found himself in the Government House in Awka.
Mr. Peter Obi, convinced that grand political sorcery was afoot, put all his eggs in one basket when he approached the Nigerian judiciary which had proven itself extremely shifty and unpredictable.
It took three years, but in 2006, water burst out of rocks when a groundbreaking judgment by the Supreme Court swept Mr. Ngige out of office with his tail between his legs, broke the backs of the PDP, and covered the face of then president, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, with eggs.
When in 2007, further political witchery from the powers that be surfaced, Mr. Obis cries for justice again drew the descent of the Supreme Courts gavel.
A governor across two tenures between 2006 and 2014, Mr. Obi put in an electric performance which emphasized prudence with public resources such that at the time he left office, he was said to have left about seventy-five billion naira in the coffers of the state. In a country where many outgoing governors leave mountains of debts for their successors, that was a remarkable feat.
Today, even eight years after leaving office, Mr. Obi`s sterling performance as governor continues to lampoon the loquacity of those governors who seize every opportunity to loudly lament that they do not have enough funds to develop their states, while doing nothing to slash their spending sprees or shake loose the shiver of spendthrifts they employ.
Mr. Peter Obi brings a breath of fresh air into Nigerias stuffy halls of power. He does not only answer the questions Igbos are asking about their place in Nigerias power equation, at sixty, he is youthful compared to the septuagenarians who are beginning to feel and flaunt an unspoken entitlement to Nigeria`s corridors of power.
For the ticket of the PDP, Mr. Obi will come up against Mr. Abubakar Atiku who for the sixth time in his political life announced his intention to run. It would be awkward for the supporters of both men who shared a single ticket in 2019 as they would have to support only one of them to wrest power from the clutches of the All Progressives Congress.
If the PDP is to succeed in reclaiming the power it lost in utterly unexpected circumstances in 2015, it has to put its house in order and run a tight ship, while putting its best foot forward. In this wise, Mr. Peter Obi is a gem who ticks many boxes.
His excellent job as governor of Anambra State, left people impressed by the prudence he showed in handling public resources especially because cutting the cost of governance became the mantra of his administration.
His sound business acumen and scandal-free public image no doubt contribute the wide appeal he enjoys in the eyes of many young Nigerians who want to see their country in the hands of a man who boasts both nous and nose.
In the last seven years, while the APC has struggled mightily with the rigors of good governance for which Nigerians elected its candidates into different offices, it has had little difficulty with decimating the opposition PDP which has consequently struggled to provide anything resembling stout opposition to the ruling party.
Having tasted from the pot of the APC and the PDP and seen that both offer nothing but poisons and potions, Nigerians would be reluctant to embark on another marathon of immiseration with any of them.
But if there is in both political parties someone who bucks the trend, someone whose oddity is not odious particularly because it uplifts, someone who can save Nigeria from self-destruction, it might just be Mr. Peter Obi.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
