Why Peter Obi is a rightly-wrong pick
Idon’t know why candidate Atiku Abubakar rushed to pick a running mate. I agree with southeast elders that he should have consulted widely. Who told him that there were no better-qualified candidates in the southeast? Ones that could be easily manipulated for selfish purposes. Ones with no hatred for godfatherism. Why Obi?
In our climes, going slow is a sign of prudence. Atiku should have kept his supporters guessing until the very last minute. In case the Turaki has been suffering from amnesia, it is my duty to jog his memory and warn him about the unenviable characteristics of his new political bride.
Like every Naija big man who has ever walked through a foreign campus, Obi boasts of having been to the best institutions in the world. He came out of their compound a deracinated man, devoid of the foreign accent and the slave wardrobe. It is rumoured that he only changes his Chinese watches when they stop working.
For a politrician, he doesn’t have the required bullish voice. The geopolitics of Igbo politics makes Anambra its heartland; some even call the pan-Igbo cultural association - the Ohanaeze Ndi Anambra because the state is home to men (forget women) of political timbre and calibre, and intra-national ballistic missiles.
Once upon a voting season, Anambrarians made the mistake of selecting Obi as their flag bearer. His disdain for godfatherism cost him his mandate that he later redeemed through the courts. Subsequently, he dumped them all in the pool of irrelevance.
As governor, he removed ‘executive’ from the appelation and installed prudence and frugal lifestyle a directive principle of state policy. Only APC’s Chief Bisi Akande rivals his austere political lifestyle. He cancelled the operation of fuel dumps and slashed the 20-car convoy down to five. They only tanked up when he is in the convoy to avoid the temptation of fake receipts.
As governor, he lived like a hermit and treated his beloved wife and two children with utmost impertinence. He openly admits to denying his wife the use of the title of first lady and it’s accompanying perks. His children were forbidden luxury personal cars or access to official ones. He never failed to remind family members that only he was elected governor. Had Ibrahim Abacha had him as father, he’d still be this plain, ditto for Yusuf Buhari who had to go to Germany to convalesce. Obi made his children trek, bus or take the taxi - like the Joneses.
Under his watch, Anambra Government House was a ghost town without the coveted Office Of The Friend Of The Governor, popular under President Jones. His cook dared not print a business card. When Anambra big men and women requested to see their governor, to prevent entertaining them, their governor visited them instead. In their homes, he welcomed himself to their tasty food after telling his cook to take the night off. He drank their exotic wine and gladly accepted any takeaways, only he wouldn’t entertain guests with government money.
As a result of Obi’s unenviable frugality, Anambra schools topped the league at WASC and JAMB producing potential hermit intellectuals where roadside vendors and spare part vending is desired. Workers and pensioners were well fed because they did not have to go on strike or beg ‘the authority’ to pay them their dues. Obi paid contractors, saved money and owed no one nearly turning Anambra into a communist state.
Governors go to Abuja for their share of the national loaf. Governors change official vehicles every six months but Obi stuck to one Prado SUV and wouldn’t let go. When he flew to Abuja, he bought an economy class ticket believing that a 40-minute flight made no room for luxury and that downed planes respect no one. Obi had no friend among managers of Abuja’s high-class hotels. He would use them but negotiated a single room at a transport company’s guesthouse instead of funding government liaison office and lodge. He queued at airports and carried his own bag, rejecting official protocols.
Obi had no economic value to potential assassins or kidnappers who nearly turned Anambra into their fiefdom. But he was not impervious to their operations. He got them investigated, arrested and tried. Once they were convicted, Obi obliterated their landmarks from the Anambra landscape by pulling down the palatial mansions they built from their blood money. He even introduced compulsory registration for non-indigenes.
By the time Anambra had survived two terms of Obi’s Spartan style of governance, godfathers raised to obliterate his legacy. The party that fielded him went into crisis and then oblivion. Apparently, Obi did not reject his own entitlements and might have expanded his business empire from prudent savings as he has enviable holdings employing people in Naija rather than secret accounts in Swiss banks. The EFCC appears to have nothing on him as he roams freely since leaving office.
You could see why southeast godfathers felt uneasy with his choice as potential vice-president. The effect of his frugality on their status is undesirable. Certainly, Obi is not their choice and their anxiety could result in un-Atikulated southeastern votes. Anyways, it’s too late to stop this marriage even with fears that other regions might turn their doubts into protest votes.