At the recent Achebe Colloquium, a distinguished panel made up of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Gov. Peter Obi discussed the upcoming election in Anambra state. Following the discussions, I asked Gov. Obi a question in which I stated openly that the governor had disappointed me.
Thereafter, I noticed the governor walking around like a chicken beaten by the rain. The smile on his face had vanished. His bones moved as if they had become brittle. I also had people, who had no idea where the rain began to beat us, come up to me to argue in defense of the governor. Decency, therefore, requires that I explain why Gov. Obi is a disappointment.
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I used to believe in Peter Obi. I committed it to writing, too. I have met Peter Obi several times and have listened to him in public and in private. For a long time, I believed the words that came out of his mouth. I was convinced that he was a different kind of politician.
While most of our political actors often argue that the end justifies the means, Peter Obi always insists that, “when the premise of an argument is wrong, the conclusion is also wrong.” While Nigerian politicians believe in a ‘do-or-die’ approach to politics, Peter Obi repeatedly states a new premise. “The society we abuse today,” he says, “will take its revenge on our children.”
Little did I know that it was all talk. Yawa!
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When he got his mandate back, after the Supreme Court sent Andy Uba packing, I watched to see how Peter Obi would handle himself. At first, there was a feeling of relief that the renegades were off the purse of the state. Like many observers, I relaxed. And months and months after, there were signs that Anambra state was not emerging as the hub of distinction we had hoped for. The state was not leading the renaissance we had been promised.
To be fair, after Gov. Ngige’s transformation from a member of a gang of bandits to a reformed citizen and his success in using his stolen mandate to improve the lives of the people of Anambra state, the expectations were high. Peter Obi bought into that by projecting himself as a different kind of governor. He was supposed to be the wise one, the deliberate one, and the one who would shift the paradigm.
Three years after, it was apparent that Gov. Peter Obi dropped the ball where it mattered most.
His first and greatest failure is his inability to build a political party behind him. Under Peter Obi, APGA diminished. A party that was supposed to spread its tentacles into the five eastern states lost its grip on Anambra state. Of course, Obi has a lot of excuses why he failed in this regard. Without putting such a structure in place, Obi is now like a chicken standing on one foot. Whatever achievement he made is going to be washed away by the first storm that will hit the state after his tenure.
The second failure of Gov. Obi is his ridiculous superiority complex that makes him believe that nobody in Anambra is as good as him. He is the only saint in the state. He is the only perfect individual. As a result, he must personally manage everything and oversee every detail, no matter how small. That attitude leads to gridlocks in several areas of the state’s affairs. At any time, there are more items waiting for Obi than those moving forward. Despite the sponsored articles in newsmagazines that have Obi on their cover pages, nobody dares call what he is doing a form of action. He is running a state as if it is a bank.
The third failure of Obi is his inability to live up to the expectations he created for himself. Obi is always eager to make promises in categorical statements. I heard him several times say that if he failed to transform Onitsha in his first year, he would resign. On other occasions, he promised an open government. But now Obi cannot answer simple questions; like how much he is getting as a security vote each month and what he is doing with it. When he was asked to explain the source of the money that was found in his vehicle, he said that several tribunals here on earth and in heaven have cleared him of any wrong doing. Such evasive answers on matters of public funds, from a man who once boasted of having more money than Chris Uba, is disheartening.
The fourth failure of Obi is a failure to outgrow his naivety. At Achebe’s Colloquium, Obi was called up to speak to a worldwide audience of election monitors, U.S. and European policy makers, CIA and M16 agents. And what did Obi say in his boring and rambling speech? Obi told the world that Maurice Iwu had promised that the 2010 election would be free and fair and that Vice President Goodluck had guaranteed it. Unbelievable! It was his chance to alert the world of the impending robbery.
Because Obi failed to build a party in his state and around the eastern corridor, he is now isolated. Only a club of saints descending from heaven can rescue him from a definitive flop in the upcoming election – fair or unfair. Because Obi believes he knows it all, he has alienated everyone else. He will be carrying his cross alone. Because Obi failed to live up to his own expectation, he is indistinguishable from the rogues hovering over Awka, waiting to pounce on the state treasury. Because Obi cherishes his naivety, those who have been fighting for him and for the state are running out of patience.
While answering a question at the Colloquium about why he has done nothing to bring to justice those who destroyed government properties in Awka, Obi suggested that corruption should be managed. He is not for its eradication, it now seems.
“I am not a saint,” he confessed.
It reminded me of Tiger Woods saying the day after he smashed his Escalade in an accident, “I am not perfect.” Obi has smashed his Escalade. It is a matter of time before he tells us that he has not been true to his values.
During one of his visits to America, Obi acknowledged that he was doing a bad job in the field of media outreach. Letting his personal assistant distribute newsmagazines with him on the front cover, at the Colloquium, is proof that he is bereft of ideas. No newsmagazine will answer for Obi the simple question of how much money he gets as security vote and what he does with it. In fact, it is an insult to our collective intelligence to distribute propaganda material when what we want are simple answers to simple questions.
Politicians like Obi who love to carry themselves as if they are squeaky-clean but do not want to come clean when asked by their constituents may reconsider coming abroad to parade themselves. Not everyone abroad wants to buy a home for them. Some have higher expectations. Some of us want them to simply explain the basic. If they cannot, maybe they should sit tight at home where people clap for them for paying teachers their salaries; not spending money to solve people’s problems; and for personally changing the oil in all of Anambra state government cars.
More than once, I heard Peter Obi say he would not be running for re-election and that the next title he would have was ex-governor. Unfortunately, Obi is running for re-election. Where Obi and I do agree is that his next title will be ex-governor. What is sad is that he could have gotten there without diminishing hope and without making himself look a little like Andy Uba.
Deep inside, Obi is a trader who parades himself as an intellectual. I rather have as governor an intellectual who parades himself as a trader. While they are all hypocrites, the later character will be much more at home in Anambra State.
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