By David-Chyddy Eleke
Days back, while speaking in a podcast interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwu, Mr Peter Obi the presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress (ADC) insinuated that his life may be in danger. He has severally lamented about frustration by forces from the presidency, who are bent on ensuring he is not on the ballot in 2027. I think these fears are serious and should not be wished away.
I was in Anambra State as a reporter when Mr Peter Obi was governor of the state. I covered and reported his activities extensively during the period from 2008 when I was transfered to Anambra to 2014 when he left after a second term as governor.
Even after he left office, I have continued to cover his activities as a private individual, joining his convoy to places where he donated cheques or attended other social activities, including political events.
Within this periods, I have learnt a few things about Mr Peter Obi, and one of them is his courage and fearlessness. Whether you agree or not, Obi is a highly courageous man, and at the same time, fears less for his own life. That is why I think that for him to express fear for his life, it may be more serious than we think.
Anyone who joins Obi’s convoy would agree that when he visits certain places that have security concerns, he prefers his vehicle to lead the way as he sits beside his driver on the front seat of his car, while his pilot vehicles and security details quietly retreat. I have noticed this many times over, especially during the peak of insecurity in the South East when we visited some troubled places in Anambra.
We once joined Peter Obi to a farm in Ezeagu owned by an Anglican Diocese in Enugu State. Obi rode in the vehicle of the Bishop who was taking us to the farm, and we traveled for close to an hour into the forest. When we eventually got to the farm, Obi said to the Bishop: “My Lord, if you were not the one leading us, I would have said that we had been kidnapped.”
Everyone including the Bishop fell to laughter as he said this. Then he went further to tell us a story. He said once went to Kogi State and donated a cheque and decided to come back through a lonely road that led into Anambra through Anambra West Local Government Area.
He said: “We got to a certain point and security people stopped us. When they saw me, they told us we can’t proceed that the road was dangerous. They said we had the choice of sleeping over at the checkpoint or returning to town to sleep and continue the journey the next day. I thought about it and I told them, since the road is lonely and no vehicles are using this road, the criminals who everyone is afraid of may have left after waiting for long and seeing no vehicles. So, we will continue our journey.”
He said the security men protested, but they continued the journey and arrived safely. That is who Peter Obi is, nothing scares him.
Also, once, I ran into a DSS operative who used to work with Obi before he was redeployed out. He told me that all the years he was attached to Obi, he never experienced any attack, and also never saw “Oga panicking about anything. He is always calm and never feared about anything”, the guy stated.
Some of these are the real reason we have to be afraid that for the first time, Obi expressed fear for his life in the build up to the 2027 presidential election. If it isn’t serious, the Obi that I know will shrug it off and trudge on.
His wife once stated that she had donated her husband to Nigeria, and I think Obi himself sees himself as someone who has sacrificed himself for the betterment of Nigeria, but I think his alarm about fear for his life should worry every progressive Nigerian and should not be taken lightly.
Nigeria belongs to all of us. Every Nigerian who desires to, should aspire to any office that they think they are capable of. Obi thinks he is capable of being president of Nigeria, he should be free to aspire. Not even Obi’s Igbo origin should deter him from aspiring. Nothing must happen to him now, during the election or after. Those fingered in this plot to stop Obi from contesting by whatever means should beware. Should anything happen, Nigerians know those who have been fingered.
