Politics is always an incendiary topic, and sometimes some stories are painful to share, but you have to, anyway. Former Governor of Anambra state, and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023 presidential poll, Mr. Peter Obi, has been on the radar of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) soon after his unexpected but superb performance in that election. His thrashing of the APC candidate and now president Bola Tinubu, in Lagos, his home state, was a historic feat. It could be likened to the David vs Goliath duel or the sinking of the Titanic. Until then, it was unthinkable for any politicians to defeat Tinubu in his home turf. From that very moment, Peter Obi was “marked out” as one politician who must be dealt with before the 2027 elections.
That desperate search for smoking guns against Obi has heightened in recent times. The big guns in APC have been having sleepless nights over what to do to put away this man. Unconfirmed sources close to the corridors of power in Abuja say many strategy meetings have been held in recent months with a single agenda: Stop Peter Obi by all means politically possibly. “If one plot fails, try another”, one source said. The recent, unwarranted and irascible threat to Obi by the APC spokesperson, Mr Felix Morka in a TV interview, is just one in a series of such plots. Call it the beginning of a wider, vicious plots against Obi before 2027 arrives.
In his warped reaction to Obi’s New Year message, in which he lamented the state of the nation under the leadership of President Tinubu, Morka said “Peter Obi has crossed the line so many times… and whatever he gets he must manage it”. This is the voice of Jacob speaking but the hands of Esau(Genesis 27:22). What does Morka mean by his threat to Obi? Simple: Obi should be ready to face the consequences of whatever he gets from the government in power for dare speaking out regarding how the country is currently governed by President Tinubu.
Though Morka has since denied any threat to Obi, his friends and family, just as he has claimed receiving over 200 death threats in the past two weeks, there have been an outrage and high-octane reactions, most of them condemnatory of Morka’s incendiary comments from well-meaning Nigerians and in Diaspora. The public outrage is understandable. It an expression of anger at the emergence of intolerant leadership in the country that brooks no dissent. Nigeria is now in a slippery slope to dictatorship. Where did Obi go wrong? Where did he “cross the lines”. His New year message was in sync with the reality of the moment in the country. It was a pain cry of a politician who is genuinely interested in good governance and progress of his country. Beyond that, an appraisal of Obi’s New year message one can see a nuanced understanding that the political, economic and security situation of the country are worsening on a daily basis despite claims by the APC government that Nigeria is better today than Tinubu met it.
But the valid questions to ask are: Are things improving or getting worse in different spheres of our national life? Is your life better today or worse than when the Tinubu administration came to power? Is anyone safe from kidnapping in today’s Tinubu Nigeria? What about poverty level and cost of living? In 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), a government agency, in its survey said about 131 million Nigerians were “multi- dimensionally poor”. This represents 63 percent of the nation’s population. That figure must have increased today.
Did Obi cook up these facts? Truth is, Nigeria has been in its absolute worst under the leadership of APC. It’s simply a tragedy of how not to govern a country. As Obi stated in his New year message, “Nigeria and its fortunes are in clear reverse”. The indices are clear indicators of our national decline. Nigeria has fallen from being the largest economy in Africa, with a GDP of $574bn and a per capita income of over $3,500 in 2014 to 4th in Africa. Nigeria’s current GDP is less than 50 percent of what it was a decade ago, at exactly $200bn, with a per capita of just $1,000.
The steep decline is in every sector. For example, the Global Peace Index(GPI) ranks Nigeria 143rd out of 163 countries in terms of peacefulness. This is an indication of high level of distress. As a result of food insecurity, many families cannot afford a decent meal a day. A recent report showed that at N750 daily, prison inmates are faring even better in terms of feeding over other Nigerians. The new minimum wage of N70,000, which many state governments are yet to implement is far less than the cost of a 50kg rice. As Obi noted, the dire situation of cost of living has led to many avoidable deaths across the country.
According to a recent Global Hunger Index, Nigeria is ranked 110th out of 127 countries, a reflection of the critical level of hunger and food insecurity. While many Nigerians are dying of hunger and insecurity, the APC government has asked the hunger-stricken citizens to endure more, even as political officeholders are living in obscene luxury. The nation’s debt stock reached staggering N134trn last year, and is projected to increase to over N181trn by end of 2025. Inflation is still soaring. Many businesses have collapsed amid high operational cost.
Last year, the economy witnessed the exit of many multinationals, citing unfriendly environment. The electoral umpire has lost public confidence. It may get even worse as we approach 2027. The decimation of opposition parties is in top speed just to pave way for the re-election of one man – Bola Tinubu. Peter Obi is one of the few remaining voices still speaking up in the face tyranny. Who says Nigeria’s politics is not a fun to follow? Despite desperate efforts by the APC to ‘capture’ every geopolitical zone in 2027, including the South East, Peter Obi is remains the only politician driving our politics and defining public agenda.
More than anyone, he has been arguing articulately and emphatically, the urgent need to fix a broken Nigeria, clean up the mess, cut the cost and size of governance that APC has brought upon Nigeria. Everywhere he has gone – at home and abroad – Obi’s message resonates. It’s to the effect that Nigeria is drifting dangerously and needs a change of leadership, from the present self-centred, nepotistic leadership, to one that sees politics as a human enterprise, driven by ideas for solutions to the challenges confronting the nation and its citizens. This ‘divine right of kings’ should not have a place in our democracy. That’s why Obi is the target of the ruling party. They party apparatchiks are afraid of him.