By Nwafor Okafor
A former governor of Anambra State and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has clocked 61 years.
In a tribute to marked the day( July19), his media aide, for close to two decades, Valentine Obienyem, described him as a revolution.
He said,”The newest phenomenon in town, Mr. Peter Obi turns 61 today. Contrary to the customary use of the day to see him through biographical prisms, we shall view him through the mass movement that has all the attributes of a revolution in which he is a prominent figure.
“As far back as one can pry into the history of Nigeria, one would see all manner of writers and commentators presenting the country in terms of the Hobbesian State of Nature. Our Nigeria of today has all the attributes of that hypothetical state. Do you remember the musicians of “Yagayaga” fame? The truth is that Nigerians have all become exasperated about the country. The frustration is many times magnified if one travels abroad, to countries like Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. In those countries you see oil revenue at work; how their leaders, even those that are not ‘democratic’, utilized their oil wealth to develop their countries.
“However, in Nigeria the opposite is the case. We have become the classic example of a country that is sick unto death. Even less-endowed African countries are all better than Nigeria. During my last one-week trip to Rwanda, I observed that their streets are always neat and did not encounter a single security check-point. Power supply in that country did not go off for a second. In Nigeria, there is practically no light and the cost of running power-generators is now forbidden such that banks and other large organisations have been compelled to reduce their operational hours. As a matter of fact, the energy situation in the country is getting worse. Having entrusted the governance of the country into the hands of the worst among us, the country now strangely looks like its rulers.
“Today, there is a bit of freshness in the air. Nigerians, especially the youth are saying ‘enough is enough’. For those pretending not to know what is happening, let them be informed that a peaceful revolution is presently taking place in the country. It will culminate on the elections of February 2023, when the instrument of that revolution – PVCs – will be deployed to sweep aside the crop of old, inept leaders that have held us hostage. Some of them are deluded that they are still “turnistically” very much relevant even while play-acting not to be aware of the current tide hovering over the country.
“Part of the effects of the incipient revolution as seen from the recent (July 16, 2022) Osun State governorship election is that Nigerians are moving away from parties to the merits of particular individuals. The fall of APC is enough testimony for this thesis to stand. The sheer number of young people that voted in that election portends a positive future voting pattern. Ideally, young men of sixty-five and below should be much concerned about a country they, everything being equal, have over 20 years to be in than those who are in the December of their lives.
“The call for a peaceful revolution, the weeding out of the old and rejected practices that has held us down is not a new development. Those that carried out the first coup were even referred to as revolutionaries, for trying to upturn a situation that Nigerians considered retrogressive at that time. Till today, many Nigerians believe that the country needs to be sanitized through a process that would involve the weeding-out of much nonsense in the realm.
Continuing, Obienyem said,”Most people that led revolutions in the past were in the beginning not of revolutionary cast. It was actually by a fatal chain of circumstances that these men were driven from the limits of moderation and precipitated into excesses at the very thought of which they would have shuddered. This is where we are in Nigeria. Who is happy with the country today?
“The likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello were all revolutionaries for the independence of the country. Some of them travelled abroad for further intellectual insemination. They saw the light, came back with enough of its pollen, and pollinated the minds of most Nigerians.
“Be that as it may, have our heroes laboured in vain? This is a tough question, especially when some of their progenies do not even believe in labour as a critical factor in nation-building. A sedulous analysis of the country today proves that the germinated pollen has not flowered as expected. Growth is impeded because there are chaos, disasters, and obstacles that need to be roughly cleansed. Revolution, like cleansing, is the removal of rubbish, the surgery of the superfluous, the conquest of inertia. It comes only when there are many things ready to die. Nigeria in truth, had died many times before. We had fought the civil war and experienced many coups in the past. These deaths achieved nothing because attempts at a rebirth ended in still-birth. The country is again begging to be killed in all fronts, so that it shall be born gain.
Obienyem said,”In the Nigeria of today, all the elements of a revolution are at work. To put it frankly, one can state with surety that we do not have a country as it is even difficult to define what Nigeria is today. In Nigeria, nothing works and the irony of it is that those at the helm either do not know or pretend not to know. Have you not watched them reeling out their achievements, how the country has become a better place under them?
“Watching the country and things getting bad, one should be full of praises for Nigerians for waiting longingly to use their PVCs to weed out nonsense which has become a by-word for the country. It is refreshing that the entire country is looking at Mr. Peter Obi as the symbol of that peaceful revolution, knowing fully that he is alien to violence.
“At 61 today, we ask: who is Mr. Peter Obi and why his choice to lead the peaceful revolution? How should we, who fret at the pin-pricks of private tribulation, understand a man who bears in his mind and person the storm and stress of the change Nigerians desire?
“Many people, including the youth see in him the very spirit to house their resolve to enthrone a new order for what he did in Anambra State, where, as the Governor, he had the opportunity to prove his mettle. He was mettlesome enough as he transformed that State beyond recognition.
“He(Obi) impressed all, except those untruthful to themselves, with his keen and quick perceptions of the development needs and opportunities. In addition to meeting up with the needs of the State, he left over 75 billion Naira for his successor, Chief Willie Obiano. These are part of the reasons the youth and all men and women of goodwill have confidence in Peter Obi’s character. He is manifestly free of every kind of corruption and is superior to all considerations of money.
“I, therefore, encourage the aides to those in power, people like Barr. Festus Keyamo, SAN; my big brother, Femi Adeshina; Abubakar Malami, SAN; Babatunde Fashola, SAN; our own Sen. Chris Ngige and all Nigerians of goodwill around Mr. President to advise him patriotically. Compel on him the perusal of solid history, to observe how revolutions that took place in the past started, to study in detail the rise, progress, decay and whence, how and by what accidents and errors those revolutions have occurred. He has the duty to manage it by doing the right thing and allowing the will of the people to triumph at last.”
