The fear of Peter Obi

I love quoting the famous Emperor of Ancient Rome, Marcus Aurelius. He once said, “When a bunch of known corrupt people unite against one man and spare no effort to ridicule him, blackmail him and attempt to assassinate his character, blindly follow that one man!”

In Nigeria, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, is that one man. He is the stubborn grass which sprouts up again soon after it is uprooted. He is a moving billboard and the nemesis of corrupt and evil politicians in Nigeria. Simply put, the fear of Obi is the beginning of wisdom for his political opponents.

This explains the desperation to push him out of the 2027 presidential contest. Last week, Obi was in Benue State to pay a solidarity visit to the communities affected by the 2025 Yelwata killings. Along the Gboko Road, by the Air Force Base in Makurdi, some suspected sponsored thugs blocked his convoy. They brandished sticks, stones, clubs, and some other dangerous weapons.

If not for the maturity of Obi’s security details, there would have been bloodshed. Of course, the NDC presidential candidate did not encourage them to retaliate. He is a decent man and cannot descend to the level of having altercation with thugs. He eventually turned back and left the state.

Some observers and politicians from the state pointed fingers at the Benue State Government as the sponsor of this brigandage. The state government denied it. It said it was not even aware that Obi was visiting the state.

Obviously, it will be foolhardy for the government to accept sponsoring thugs to attack a political opponent. But then, when a witch cries in the night and a baby dies the following morning, no one needs a soothsayer to know the cause of death. 

In April 2025, Obi had similarly planned to visit Benue State to see internally displaced persons. He was stopped from doing so. The state governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, warned against such visits. He said he could not guarantee the security of anyone visiting his state without his clearance.

Alia is not alone. In July 2025, Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, warned Obi not to visit his state without his knowledge and approval and that his security “is not guaranteed” if he entered Edo without prior notice. Obi had visited the state where he donated the sum of N15 million to St. Philomena Hospital School of Nursing Sciences.

Okpebholo claimed the visit triggered unrest and violence. Many Nigerians wondered if the freedom of movement as guaranteed by Section 41(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria has been expunged from the statute book. They excoriated Okpebholo, just as they did Alia.

Well, Obi dared Okpebholo. He visited the state among other dignitaries to welcome the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, and some other defectors into the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in February 2026. Party chieftains were still in joyous mood when armed hoodlums invaded the secretariat of the party in Benin shortly after the event.

They later trailed the party chieftains to the private residence of a former governor of Edo and ADC chieftain, John Odigie-Oyegun. Obi and other party stalwarts were inside the compound then. The thugs opened fire and destroyed Odigie-Oyegun’s gate. They also vandalized some vehicles parked outside. Some people sustained injuries. The police quickly launched tepid investigations.

In September 2025, suspected hoodlums similarly invaded the venue of a rally organised by the Lagos State chapter of the ADC at Alimosho Local Council to mobilize supporters and welcome Obi and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate in Lagos State. The hoodlums caused chaos and violently dispersed the participants. Several attendees reportedly sustained injuries. Up until date, it is not certain if anyone has been severely punished for these criminal acts.

With regard to the recent Benue incident, the police informed Nigerians that 46 people had been arrested. I have a feeling that the case will fizzle out with time. Nigerians have short memory and not many people will remember the case after a while. Life goes on.

The APC and its chieftains know what they are doing. They know that in a free and fair contest, they will go nowhere, as the angry masses will vote them out in 2027. So, part of their strategy appears to be to instill fear in people and stifle the opposition so they can have easy ride in the upcoming election.

They tried the strategy in 2023. Somehow, it worked for them. Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, warned then that voters who would not vote for the ruling party should not bother coming out to vote in Lagos State. Truly, some perceived strongholds of the opposition were attacked in Lagos and voters prevented from voting. In some places, ballot boxes were snatched and destroyed.

The police pretended to have questioned Oluomo; just as they pretended to have questioned the Lagos State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Mustapha Olanrewaju, popularly called Sego. In October 2025, Sego said whoever voted against the APC in 2027 would face consequences.

Even the Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, warned, in March 2026, that opposition party figures should not campaign in the South-West. In his dangerous opinion, only the APC and President Bola Tinubu are authorised to campaign in the region. He singled out Obi and the presidential candidate of the ADC, Atiku Abubakar, as candidates who should not dare campaign in the South-West.

It is intriguing that Obi, who they said has no structure, is monitored and feared this way. The ruling party has control of 31 of the 36 state governors. It has the presidency which controls the security agencies. It has the war chest. It has great influence over the judiciary.

It has engaged a good chunk of e-rats who twist facts on the social media in order to confuse gullible and uninformed citizens. It has the power to tell the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare ‘technical glitches’ on the election day and announce doctored results. But with all these powers and influence, why is the ruling cabal still afraid?

The answer is simple. Darkness is never comfortable with light. That is why thieves like to operate under the cover of darkness so that nobody sees them and their evil deeds. Politicians can manipulate things but they don’t want the whole world to notice their shenanigans. They want to be seen as being credible, and that they have the mandate of the people to govern. That is the structure they boast about.

Obi aptly calls it structure of criminality. The massive love he receives anywhere he goes saddens his opponents. At the airport, at funerals and other public events, many Nigerians want to hug him and take photographs with him. Some call him President-in-waiting. The fact that he will be on the ballot has given hope to many frustrated Nigerians.

What he has going for him is character, humility, competence, and transparency. If there is any whiff of corruption against this man, they would have stopped him since with anti-graft agencies. But they have examined him thoroughly, and there is nothing implicating to hold against him.

Surreptitiously, they move against his business interests to cripple him. In June 2025, bulldozers emerged from nowhere and brought down a property belonging to a company, Next Foods Limited, managed by his younger brother in Ikeja GRA, Lagos. The said property had stood in the area for over 15 years.

Obi cried foul. He said the act was a coordinated lawlessness and impunity as the demolition allegedly occurred without proper legal notice or valid court order naming the actual owner. But the powers against his interest are formidable. The invaders were said to be unidentified individuals backed by security personnel. The immediate reaction of the Lagos State Government was to deny direct state involvement in the demolition. It ordered a full investigation. So far, the outcome of the investigation still wears a hat.

There comes a time in the history of a people when they take the bull by the horns and say enough is enough: Enough of the misrule in Nigeria; enough of the manipulation of the electoral processes; enough of the acute hunger and poverty in the country; above all, enough of the high rate of killings and other forms of insecurity that have ravaged the country.

We have a choice to put a stop to poor governance by voting people who have pedigree and are accountable. Obi is in that league and is better prepared to change the country’s negative narratives.