Obidients! The new word in our political lexicon. Like Andrew’s Liver Salt (apologies to Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso), it’s effervescent-ness is gradually losing steam. What we now see is frustration writ large. Or what do we call one Obiajulu Uja? The lone Obidient who wanted to outshine others by declaring in a loaded Ibom Air plane that President-elect Bola Tinubu should not be sworn in? In normal situations, that chap will not have access to any airplane in Nigeria for at least five years. I hold that he should be banned from airports for attempting to disrupt a flight and possibly highjack it. It is surprising that other persons who are Peter Obi’s supporters could not see themselves in Uja. They are embarrassed by the conduct of one of them. But the truth is that, that’s exactly how they all behave.
They live in self-denial – in a bubble. Quick to anger! Feeding themselves with different versions of inanities, propaganda and hyperbole. In trying to exonerate themselves from the embarrassment of Uja’s misconduct, they ascribe insanity to the man. But no doctor’s report to show. His lawyer is instead asking the government to conduct a medical examination on him.
It then means that most of Obi’s supporters in reality exhibit crazy behavioural patterns. Little wonder! At least it’s on record that Obidients are the ones that ascribed madness to their hapless colleague. On the other hand, they blamed the Friday evening show of shame at the Abuja airport tarmac on APC manipulation. The man was denied by his crowd and called a Tinubu agent; they gave him a new wife and said she works with TVC. They were referring to a certain Obiajulu Olabisi Ugboh – who is a presenter with the Lagos-based television channel. What’s the correlation? The lady’s first name is also the man’s first name. But the man and the TV woman are not related nor are they married. But since Obidients doesn’t bother to deploy their senses, they had to force parallel lines to meet in order to feel good.
Obidients should realise that their entire movement is created in anarchy, for anarchy and by anarchists. This is why IPOB and EndSARSists are the structure upon which they operate. Similarly, “thank you daddy, yes daddy” are the other eloquent testimonials to the destructive tendencies of that socalled movement without motion. The Christian religious exploitation by Peter Obi was never hidden, but all pretences to the contrary has been unclad via the leak by one of their favourite news websites. The telephone audio leak where Peter Obi made comments about religious war is too damning to be ignored. What’s more, his pattern of win and the demographics show clearly that it was all about vain-Christian dominance. It was that Zionist streak that characterized his campaign despite claims to the contrary. This cannot be far fetched. The man has a history of bigotry, starting from his personally supervised division between Catholics and Anglicans during his stint as Anambra governor. Coming in 2023 to call for religious war isn’t strange.
It’s in the profile of the man who claims a mandate he knows he lost fair and free. In his narrow campaign trips within church groups, he replaced Labour Party’s man, wife and child symbol with the Catholic church’s reverence of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. In other Christian circles the family image was termed God the father, son and holy spirit… While Peter Obi told the election tribunal that it should cancel the presidential election, but he goes to the public to claim victory. You ask which victory? Is it victory in Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Kebbi, Jigawa or where? Or is it victory in Kogi, Kwara (oh sorry, Bishop David Oyedepo didn’t deliver as promised), Niger, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti or where? With the above listed states alone, Peter Obi did not make and CANNOT make 25% in 24 states. Which means he had no pathway to victory, despite his 6 million odd votes.
It is only madness like the Uja lone plane disruptor that can make anyone in Obi’s camp to claim a silly mandate. It’s at best Treasonable Felony. And the guys in that camp should be careful. Democracy offers everyone a voice. But voices bring down empires too, especially fake news dissemination as practised by Obi’s supporters. After running and losing a national election, the best thing to do is preserve your little winnings and use your post election conduct to show why you should have been considered rather than the winner. The anarchistic and desperate undertones so far exhibited by Obi and his supporters may have killed off any future plan he may have for national politics. Decent Nigerians have taken note. Nothing ennobling can come from a movement which was founded and feeds on chaos. –
Uche Nnadozie is a public affairs analyst
