CHUKWUEMERIE UDUCHUKWU
In a bid to impress an audience that has long destroyed its voter cards in line with the command of its Supreme Leader, Peter Obi made a very baseless and careless statement. It is a fact that the Leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who also proclaimed himself as the Supreme Leader of the organisation, is no longer detained but is jailed in line with a court judgment. It is not only careless but politically suicidal for Obi, who is presently the Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), to say that there is no reason for him to be in Sokoto Prison.
What Obi indirectly said here is that he is against the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which he should be contesting to defend and protect. A presidential candidate who aims to get the support of all, including the legislative and judicial arms of government, as well as all the institutions of government, should not be making utterances that show a clear disrespect for, or lack of regard to, any of the arms or institutions.
Moreover, Peter Obi and his supporters should not expect Nigerians to trust him with the very powerful office of the presidency when he has shown clear support for a convicted leader of a proscribed organisation.
Sincerely, I don’t know why some politicians make the silly mistake of focusing on convincing people who have no electoral value. Past elections in the South-East have shown that IPOB members do not vote, that they only make noise online, and that they have no influence in electioneering. I still do not know why some politicians allow themselves to be distracted by trying to please them. For example, despite the boasts and threats of the organisation to the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, whom the organisation’s Supreme Leader always referred to as “Supreme Court Governor”, the Governor not only won his re-election, but also won in a landslide. The APC also recorded key victories in the National Assembly and State Assembly elections in the state in 2023, and that showed that real voters voted based on performance and that IPOB had zero influence in those elections.
Peter Obi should be telling Nigerians what he will do differently instead of making silly remarks. Anyway, maybe he resorted to such tricks because he has nothing to campaign with, following his unremarkable performance as Governor in Anambra, which made it impossible for him to influence the emergence of any of his anointed candidates as governor since he left power, and he knows he cannot win a presidential election.