OBI’S ETHNIC AGENDA NOW COMES FULL CIRCLE | FEMI ODERE

For someone who’s desirous of presiding on the governance affairs of a multi-ethnic nationalities such as Nigeria as Peter Gregory Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate is trying to do, his little lies of having only one wrist watch and sleeping in the cheapest hotels when he was governor of Anambra State for eight years probably would not have counted for much if he hasn’t increasingly become adept at spewing out false statistics that are critical for the nation’s growth and development with a straight face.

The OBI-dients outside his Southeast geopolitical region, most of whom are now coming to terms with his predilection as a smooth operator, probably would have found some reasons for his lackluster performance in Anambra State if he had ceased and desisted from issuing outlandish lies such as having left humongous amount of money for his predecessor (which was immediately debunked by his successor) when he, in fact, used state money to run his family business that he hasn’t debunked up till today.

Perhaps the euphoria surrounding Peter Obi would have subsided by now if Nigerians had known very early that the Labour Party presidential candidate ordered the demolition of a Central mosque in Onitsha in 2012 when he was governor for no just cause.

Perhaps nobody would have known the extent of his desperation to become the country’s president if he hadn’t sat in the midst of his people in America where someone pointed told him they would electronically rig the election for him from there without calling the person to order.

And it’s probable that his morbid hatred of Nigerians of other ethnicities and faiths due to his past antecedents wouldn’t have been exposed to the generality of Nigerians if he hasn’t weaponised religion, at least in subtlety, by crisscrossing different church denominations in order to score cheap political points.

What now calls for concern is the emerging pattern that Peter Obi is set on ultimately “Biafranizing” Nigeria if he wins the coming presidential contest with the unveiling of his presidential campaign list. Although he has talked glibly in several fora about keeping Nigeria united, it beggars belief that Peter Obi could not find Nigerians of other ethnic extractions to spearhead his campaign in many non-Igbo states of the federation.

The non-inclusion of Nigerians from other ethnic groups and placing them in strategic positions in his 1,234-member presidential campaign team has now confirmed the suspicion that Peter Obi is no longer a closet ethnic champion but an unapologetic Igbo irredentist who’s in pursuit of an ethnic agenda.

Although it can now be said without any fear of contradiction that Peter Obi, in his inability, if not unwillingness, to imbibe inclusiveness in the Nigerian project is scrupulously following the footsteps of his political forebears from that region who had, at one time or another, been in the commanding heights of the federal government in the past, his presidential campaign council list perhaps attests to the fact that there may be a chronic lack of inclusivity chromosome in Peter Obi’s DNA and others like him.

For Peter Obi to have seen nothing inherently wrong in opting for one John EzeigbeUghulu, for instance, in the most cosmopolitan Southwest Lagos State to champion his campaign is another testament that the plan to upend the indigenous people of the state and turn it into a “no man’s land” is still being actively pursued.

A word to the wise is therefore enough!

FEMI ODERE
Spokesperson_
TInubu/Southwest Media Veterans Support Group