The evolving Peter Obi phenomenon is one that needs to be studied, even if not now, sometime soon.
First, Obi is from the largest minority ethnic group in Nigeria. At least that is the way it would appease the “furious gods of Nigeria misrule and injustice.”
By the designs of those who have made themselves “gods” of Nigeria, no national figure is supposed to be allowed to emerge from there or from anywhere not appealing to the insatiable hunger of the greed and most bland political class in the world.
But these same big wooden “gods” will never and indeed never factor in the possibility of their persisting misrule and wickedness to be the catalyst needed to wake up the dormant social forces which no other force has defeated throughout history.
Nigerians, I mean the real Nigerians, not from the clan of the “gods” are all from one ethnic group which Dr. Ifeoma Okoye called the “citizens of the ‘Fourth Republic” in her novel.
Their tribe is one: “hunger, disease, lack of housing and insecurity. They have been fooled, used and dumped, treated less than a dog can ever be treated, denied access to ordinary basics of life, and yelled at to do their worst.”
They are not Igbo, not Hausa, not Yoruba, not Birom or Tiv or Kanuri or Ibibio or Ijaw.” They are the wretched and raped. Contrary to belief of the citizens of the “wooden god” tribe or ethnic group, they are aware of where their curses are coming from.
I read a piece in which an update is talking of not winning election in Nigeria unless you have the blessing of the so-called Northern establishment and the counterparts in the West and the East.
Well, if you would say such establishment controlled voting in the North, or elsewhere, did it ever control voting in the South East? Remember Ohaneze’s directive in 1992? It was ignored and the majority of the votes went to Abiola. They resorted to rigging to save face.
Remember the same directive in 2003? Remember Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)? Remember the directives and appeals to stop youths from backing the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB)? These failed because that establishment lives on pretensions and propping from the outside.
That establishment means nothing to the Igbo man.
Now, up North, does that establishment control Kano voting? No! There are more.
It is normal, revolutions pass people by and they only wake up to either join or sit down and fold their hands.
Just take a few minutes and watch the clips on people in hundreds of thousands struggling to get the Permanent Voters Card, PVC. Boy, smell the coffee, some aroma is coming from the fireplace. What is burning? What is cooking? Nigerians in the age bracket of 17 to 65 are dead serious to participate in this election.
But wait a minute, how did the general apathy to elections in Nigeria just die?
What is speaking now is neither Peter Obi nor Igbo. It is hunger, insecurity, hopelessness, shames of mothers, and resignation of retiree fathers who cannot even stand the shame of being called fathers any longer.
Ogazimorah, a lawyer and erstwhile Newspaper Editor, wrote from Enugu
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
