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Somehow, we all should be relieved that, at last, the All Progressives Congress has now entered an appearance in the petition filed by Mr. Peter Obi at the Presidential Election Petition Court. Hopefully, this will lead to the return of reason – and of reasoned discourse. Quite a few reasonable people have watched in disbelief at how conversation in the public sphere deteriorated rapidly through what many believed were attempts to divert attention.
In a way, the efforts to divert attention from the matter before the 2023 Presidential Election Court would have succeeded were it not for the Obidients. It has been fascinating to read and listen to the ruling party and its intellectual support base make a go at this. Rather than address the substantive issues before the court, they elected to begin throwing everything in the books at Peter Obi, hoping perhaps to turn the nation’s attention away from the weighty issues that that he presented to the Presidential Election Tribunal.
What the ruling party did through the public intellectuals opened a feeling of déjà vu, making 2023 suddenly begin to look a lot like 1993. This feeling was real for me in at least two respects. Like 1993, I saw a presidential candidate crying in the wilderness that INEC “annulled” his mandate. From the exertions of federal ministers, I also beheld the executive unashamedly entering the fray, busily pronouncing on matters that are before an election court. Government ministers were deployed locally and overseas (at taxpayers’ expense) to affirm the credibility of the election. Nigerian writers and intellectuals backed up their efforts in public interventions. The discerning did not fail to marvel at the weapon of mass distraction that Nigerian writers and intellectuals wheeled into position to divert, confuse and mesmerize. The big guns among them entered a caveat to browbeat and intimidate.
This was the Great Distraction. Distraction is used intentionally, given that it is the foundation upon which rests most of the intellectual assaults in the media, traditional and new. Although there were two major candidates in court, the writers and intellectuals effectively isolated and entered an open season on Peter Obi, just like Babangida and Abacha people did in years past.
This was why the past weeks provoked the eerie feelings of déjà vu. Like 1993, it came loaded with subtle and blatant threats and intimidation, innocent objections, false claims, subtle and not-so-subtle blackmail. Everything is thrown in to obscure the point in dispute and end a reasoned discourse. In the arguments that were launched, projection, ad hominem, big stick, icon, shifting ground, and of course, what David Hundeyin identified as the strawman and red herring arguments were cooked up and served a la carte.
Amid the Great Distraction masked as public debate, it is a relief that we can now refocus on the issues that aggrieved parties have put before the tribunal. The long dogon turenchi suffused with logical summersaults will never be brought before the presidential election court. What the court will decide is whether Nigeria’s February 25, 2023, presidential election was free, fair and credible. The courts will give a response to the two major candidates that are in court to prove that the election was anything but.
In matters of Nigerian elections, we have all come to expect two answers to the question of fairness and credibility – the legal and the moral. The moral verdict has already been issued. Today, it exists in the reports of independent observers of the process leading up to and including the presidential tournament proper. And, as we read, most of the international observer reports questioned the credibility of the process. These reports confer a moral burden on both INEC and our security agencies.
Considering all that has happened these past few weeks, it is precisely for the consequences of this moral verdict that the moderating influence of Peter Obi has become a blessing to Nigeria. Nigerians, led by the Obidients, should have spilled out on the streets in protest with the validation of electoral swindle provided in the reports of the international observers. Even as we write, they are itching to, waiting for a signal from Obi to physically protest the announced election results. Which is why, contrasted with the scenario playing out now to 2011 elections, we are in a sane season. We still remember the destruction of lives and properties that followed public claims of a candidate that he was rigged out. It is therefore astonishing to hear government officials accuse any opposition candidate of treason.
It is also incredible that anyone would enter a caveat that positions Obidients as fascists and anarchists.
The current situation leaves the discerning wondering why those who ascended to power on the wings of freedom of speech provided by the Goodluck Jonathan administration are closing the door. And they are not only closing but also propping up foremost public intellectuals to secure the door to free speech. It began with a loud angry denunciation of the emilokan lampoon by youths of the Pyrates Confraternity. It has now ended with the upbraiding of an entire assemblage of youths using the social media to question a system that literally chokes them to death.
Those denunciations ignored the reality that the candidates have gone to court to seek the enforcement of the moral burden that INEC shoulders on the elections. They are seeking a judicial response on the issues because it is procedural, proper and enforceable. They are canvassing issues around drug dealing, double candidature, Abuja status in presidential elections, alleged breach of electoral laws and published INEC guidelines, and alleged misallocation of votes. The discerning can see through the intellectual noise around these issues and consequent efforts to degrade the credibility of announced second and third-placed candidates. These efforts aim to demonize, weaken and demoralize their support bases.
The propaganda at play by the intellectuals has been to play Peter Obi up as a man of exemplary character, one with enormous respect for the justice system. The praise is then followed by a savage attack on his supporters, making them look like deplorables out to harm rather than help the man. For most of the essays being churned out, the goal is always the same, to place Obi as a saint who is not a saint because he dines and wines with the deplorable. The subtext captures the proverb that birds of a feather flock together. And it leaves the discerning to wonder why it is that whenever anyone wants to knock Peter Obi, they reach for the Obidients.
The truth, however, is that the Obidient Movement is an amorphous entity. As with #EndSARS, there is no identified leader. It has always been a collection of social media influencers, secret admirers and funders, all supporting Nigerian youths who are worried sick about how we, the older generation, are making a fine mess of the world that they will inherit. Obidients do not have a leader. You can knock Peter Obi all you will using the Obidients but nothing you splash on him will stick. And this is because both parties – the Labour Party and the Obidients – have made it clear that they exist independently.
Let the noise stop and everyone turn their attention to the issues of concern in the Presidential Election Court. It is a relief that Mr. Tinubu has at last entered an appearance in the court, so we can rest from the Great Distraction.
