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If a reminder was necessary as to the potential damage some forces, seen and unseen, sponsored or teleguided, want to do to spoil the chances of Mr Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the Feb 25 Presidential election, in his valiant effort to overturn that election widely believed to have been greatly flawed, the insouciant and attention-seeking of one Lamidi Apapa, the leader of the breakaway group of the Labour Party, has provided it. The chicanery of this man, his lies against Obi, his antics at the Tribunal last week, all come close to that of the Procrustean in the Greek mythology who was portrayed as a trickster. He put travellers in his bed, stretching or lopping off their limbs.
I understand that in Yoruba mythology, it’s called Eshu Elegba , the trickster god of chance or Alusi ( god of bargains in Igbo). Eshu or Alusi enjoys confusion and is mischievous and unpredictable. There is no puns intended here. Only that our politics has become like a spin cycle that never stops turning. However, in the last one month(and counting), this man appears to have become the ugly face of some sort to subvert the judicial process against his own party. Last Wednesday, he got a dose of his own medicine when he was booed, almost lynched outside the Tribunal by anger of Labour Party supporters known as the Obidients. He lost his cap. Apapa’s scruffy outfit, white beards and misaligned left eye gave him away as a Taliban commander. But he’s not. He was just lucky to have been saved by the policemen present.
He admitted in an interview that he suffered psychological trauma as a result of the embarrassment he received at the presidential poll Tribunal. But he has boasted that he would continue to show his presence at the hearing, despite the heckling he got last week. He deserves much more than that trauma. After all, can a man take fire in his bosom without having his clothes burnt? Or can you go upon hot coals, and not have your feet burnt?(Proverbs 6:27-28). If you are one of those still shocked why this man is out there without shame, trying to sabotage his own party and presidential candidate, why a 73-year-old man is behaving like a minor, it’s all in the nature of our politics and politicians. If in doubt, picture a doughnut without a hole. What do you see? Like Judas Iscariot, you must have a betrayer among a group. Lamidi Apapa has come to represent the weird and ugly side of our politics, especially in this dizzying season. You see, Nigerian politics can get quite spooky sometimes. It is because our politics tolerates drama well. No politics of conviction. What matters to some of the politicians is personal, selfish, pecuniary interests. Without personal conviction beyond his own advancement, a politician is likely to be vanquished once the selfish goal has been achieved. Sadly, that has become the ‘occupational disease’ of our politics. A man like Lamidi Apapa cannot enjoy the fruits of partisanship without the thorn. That’s why he’s like the Procruste’s bed, a sort of nuisance to the Labour Party, a reproach and a counter-argument. Perhaps he’s out to gain attention, not influence.
For sure, he lacks what it takes to influence the outcome of the petitions before the Tribunal. According to Mr Akin Osuntokun, the Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, “the man is obsessed with recognition, because while we were seated at the Tribunal last week, the first question he(Lamidi) asked me was, “don’t you know me… you mean you don’t know me, and I responded, “I don’t know you, who are you?” Psychologists say these are traits of Narcissistic Personality Disorders- inflated self-esteem, lack of empathy, manipulative behaviour, among other symptoms. But narcissists are very fragile, and vulnerable. The flip side of their self-aggrandized feeling is very low self-esteem. It’s a negative self- image. Playing the role of a talentless spoiler, it’s all about how much damage Lamidi Apapa can do to Peter Obi’s petition before the Tribunal. Simple. The good news is that the Tribunal had long given assurances to be fair to all parties, and dispense justice without fear or favour.
Alhaji Apapa and his group are no longer in denial that they are acting the script of Obi’s political enemies. They have embarked on forum shopping in different courts to void all elections won by Labour Party candidates. Last week, Apapa accused Obi of taking sides in the current crisis within the party, and threw this mud, “I don’t want to expose him, but Obi deserves to be exposed. I have been trying to cover him, but he does not deserve it”. Imagine that!. Make no mistake about it: Lamidi Apapa could be the voice of Esau, but the hands of APC. Could this man be a double dealer, out to destroy Labour Party? Though he has denied collecting any money from the President-elect or from anybody for what’s he and his group are doing. This is amid allegations that he had collected N500 million from President-elect to undermine the activities of the Labour Party, and drive a knife into Obi’s petition before the PEPT, sitting in Abuja. Only time will tell if indeed, he’s a paid agent of any politician. Two months ago, I argued in this column that the repeated attacks on Obi by Tinubu’s surrogates are not just for now, it’s also for the future. You know why? The end of every election marks the beginning of yet another one, four years on. The attacks on Obi predate the presidential election. But the outcome of the election and the unexpected excellent performance by Obi reignited the present attacks. His political foes have come with smoking guns. But they have found no evidence to nail him. One of the landmarks of Obi’s presidential quest was his ability to draw a new generation of young Nigerians into politics. He played politics by its rules. Despite the unprovoked attacks on his person and supporters, he has remained presidential, cool and committed to the cause of pursuing his petition at the Tribunal, believing that either now, or in the immediate future, he will likely become the President of Nigeria. To borrow one cliché, Peter Obi ‘shook things up’. He reawakened our consciousness perhaps more than any politician has done in this political dispensation. His self-confidence and Christian faith have given him the courage to stand firm, despite sustained attacks.
Last week, Obi raised the alarm that his ‘duplicates’ were on ‘rampage’. “They now mimick my voice and call people. He lamented that “there’s no limit to which people cannot go to cause mischief on their target. I have been a target both locally and internationally”. Don’t forget that the audio of a leaked phone conversation between Obi and the presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church, David Oyedepo, before the Presidential election was, according to the Obi/Datti Campaign Council, was the handiwork of the APC propagandists. Nothing evil is beyond. Whatever will be the final outcome of the presidential election now before the court, history will record it for Obi that indeed, there’s so much that one man with strength of character and integrity can do to positively change the course of politics and governance in his country. The message, the energy that Obi has generated, during and after the election, cutting across ethnic and religious divide, are certainly things we have not seen in many years in Nigeria.
Obi has become a ‘nightmare’ of some sort to the political establishment. All of this is the reason for the present, desperate attacks on his person and the Obidient Movement. The game plan is, if one plot fails, try another. Today, Lamidi Apapa is the tool for these unwarranted backhand slaps. But, lies do have expiry date. The question is: Where did Obi go wrong? By simply challenging the outcome of the presidential election that local and international observers agreed was flawed.
The attacks are full throated. But unknown to his traducers, the present fraudulent plots are not going to make the man cave in. He has said that much recently. Obi has become a template, a pillar of integrity, disciplined, focused and thoughtful person, and an advocate of probity, accountability and transparency in governance. He is a man not giving to cheap lies, and the weaselly ways of our politicians.
