At the Peter Obi event in New York


Sonala Olumhense
Sonala Olumhense


As a Nigerian with considerable interest in public affairs, the Grand Ballroom of New York City’s Hilton Midtown Hotel, the venue of “Afro-Economics & Government Policy: A Conversation with Governor Peter Obi,” was my destination last Sunday.

The engagement followed others in the United States, some of which had been mismanaged by local organisers who chose to charge a gate fee. Not New York, which was free to every registered attendee, thanks to the Columbia University’s Africa Business Club and Black Law Students Association.

The Hilton Grand Ballroom is a cavernous facility capable of accommodating 3,000 persons. For a city with nearly 700 hotels pre-COVID, Hilton bills the facility as the city’s largest ballroom. At the height of the event, it was about two-thirds full.

On arrival, I was exactly half an hour ahead of schedule. I was therefore even more impressed to find over 100 other Nigerians ahead of me at the door, some of them from faraway states.

On the evidence of the New York event, I report that Labour Party presidential candidate Obi is not a myth or a hoax, contrary to what some snake-oil merchants suggest.

He is no product merely of social media, or merely an Igbo man seeking an Igbo presidency. The Nigerians I saw, heard, and interacted with were from various parts of Nigeria.

Who is Obi? He may be a Nigerian who wants the leadership of Nigeria to alter her story, history and trajectory, but he is the candidate of time and chance.

That makes him a formidable candidate, and on the evidence of last Sunday, I now fully understand those videos of widespread excitement each time he is identified in public, which offend the Nigeria political establishment (structure, if you like).

I have previously written in this column that Peter Obi, the metaphor, is the rephrasing of the question for the APC and PDP conglomerate.

Most Nigerians admit: Nigeria is a pathetic failure. Obi’s advocacy is a commonsense proposal to re-engineer the country beginning from its leadership recruitment.


The background here is no mystery: Nigeria is at its lowest ebb of morale and coherence since her independence in October 1960. Since then, she has suffered relentlessly at the hands of ruthless politicians and a mostly-rotten military machine which dresses up some of its most brutal, greedy and pretentious in civilian attire and dumps them on the nation.

The danger is that Nigeria is now rotting at a precipitous pace, the nation hurtling towards disintegration with nothing working for most people except those who wield power, their cronies and their families. What this means is what the rest of the world can see: a nation of tremendous potential that is running out of time.

It is the popular outrage against this mess that is fueling Mr Obi and his message: to reset Nigeria.
At The Conversation, he took questions from a panel of two, and then from a pile that had been written by the audience at the beginning of the programme. Throughout, it is significant that not once did he read from a prepared text. He did not have an army of aides whispering clarifications of questions or explaining elementary concepts. He avoided no questions.

Was I satisfied with every answer he provided? No. There were a couple in which I felt he was under-prepared.But was I satisfied with him? Absolutely. It was the first time since 1983 when, as a young journalist, I joined a panel to interview the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, that I encountered a Nigerian politician at a very high level who spoke with confidence, control, and conviction. He was on the floor for a couple of hours, pausing only to drink water. He did not go to the bathroom or pause for a doctor to monitor his vitals.

You could tell not simply that Obi is literate, but that he is educated and that should you seek his certificates, he will give them. You could tell that he is not intimidated by books or facts, and that should he see a library, he would walk in not as a tourist but as a reader.

You could tell not simply that he is educated, but that he wants to extend that privilege to Nigerians in their own country. He explained his philosophy, including why it is outrageous that in a country in which there is supposedly a government, the ASUU strike has been permitted to keep students at home for over half of 2022.

He addressed the correlation between education and poverty, advocating the first as the antidote to the second. He pointed out how, by merely implementing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, such nations as India and China lowered their poverty rates.

Who should be the next Nigerian leader? He warned that the forthcoming election “will be about character we can trust, competence, capacity, commitment to do the right thing,” dismissing the absurdity about the presidency being conceivably someone’s “turn.” The election, he affirmed, is a political contest and “not a chieftaincy title,” and “will not be about connection.”

On corruption, Mr Obi drew attention to the importance of leadership by example. “Corruption kills entrepreneurship, professionalism, and hard work,” he said, stressing that it must be fought through the personal example of the leader, his family and those around them.


He called on Nigerians not to vote based on sentiments of religion or ethnicity because the same challenges confront Nigerians everywhere. “Don’t vote for me because I am from the South-East,” he said. “If you go to the North, it is not safer than the South. It will not be about religion (either); Muslims don’t buy bread cheaper than the Christians.”

Members of the PDP and APC have often dismissed Obi’s popularity on the grounds that his party lacks a structure. Responding, Mr Obi said, “The structure they talk about is the structure of criminality and that is what I’m coming to dismantle.”

Predictably, the crowd roared because everyone knows how APC and the PDP have rigged their way into those offices over the years with arrogance, using money, the security agencies, thugs, and even the electoral commission.

What is Obi, then? If you think of him merely as a contestant for public office, you miss the point. Obi is a conversation, a confession, and an opportunity to rethink. He is the epochal conversation Nigeria has not had with itself since the rails fell off following the civil war in 1970. He is a confession that this conversation—demanded far more by the #EndSARS generation than the Grand Ballroom demographic—is not optional.

I recommend this template,as a non-campaign engagement at home or abroad to hear and be heard. Office-seekers who are comfortable with ideas, or whose power is not in buying support with money or aides who love unearned riches more than they do their families, should try it.
Let us talk about what constitutes hope for Nigeria. Let us hear your ideas. That is what Peter Obi is doing. And he is not renting his crowd.
https://www.facebook.com/206270189411151/posts/pfbid0NYp9zLkVcmxw81ZiY386q84ydhrNahMFNVbr4GT7Z2Ubcw6TUvyAsJsHFBSZn9abl/
https://punchng.com/at-the-peter-obi-event-in-new-york/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1662896656

That is why the dont want you.

The major reason they're having sleepless nights over you and sent out their children of hate and paid urchins to attack your supporters in social media.

May God help you to succeed. It will he a long walk to Nigeria's freedom.

Exactly

I am Yoruba
I am Obidient
I am Yusful

Redomi:
I am Yoruba
I am Obidient
I am Yusful

Waa gbayi jare. But wait a minute....our people are coming to call you ipob . For the first time in my life, I'm beginning to see the realities...that the true tribalists in Nigeria are our people. I'm really speechless bro. I used to think tribalists and ethnic bigots were igbos or hausas. This is sad!

Igbos voted obj in 1999 while we voted falae. They've voted yaradua, jonsthan, atiku too and these were non igbos. Their votes had determined who became Nigerian presidents in the past.

I dont even care who becomes president so long as that person has a good plan for Nigeria. I'm sorry I don't see that personality in atiku and Tinubu.

But you inherited political structure from Ojukwu in Anambra and used same as a Godfather to anoint Willie Obiano and enthrone him as Governor after you.

You chased after national structure of a ruling party and so decamped from APGA despite swearing never to leave, and then joined PDP that was in government in 2014.

You also accepted nomination as presidential running mate in same PDP with national structure, in your pursuit to become Vice President in 2019.

You wanted to exploit the national structure of PDP and purchased presidential nomination forms, only to chicken out when defeat stared you in the face.

You can only decieve zombies that they are your structure when you are a chronic political prostitute and desperate ticket hunter who would say anything to decieve even the elect.

Your structure hunting episode of Wike in London is still in our memory. You even had to beg Obasanjo to follow you beg Wike for some political structures.

Shame on you.

This man is high on expired weed

Redomi:
I am Yoruba
I am Obidient
I am Yusful

I am Igbo
I am BATified
I Love Shettima

Throwback:
But you inherited political structure from Ojukwu in Anambra and used same as a Godfather to anoint Willie Obiano and enthrone him as Governor after you.

You chased after national structure of a ruling party and so decamped from APGA despite swearing never to leave, and then joined PDP that was in government in 2014.

You also accepted nomination as presidential running mate in same PDP with national structure, in your pursuit to become Vice President in 2019.

You wanted to exploit the national structure of PDP and purchased presidential nomination forms, only to chicken out when defeat stared you in the face.

You can only decieve zombies that they are your structure when you are a chronic political prostitute and desperate ticket hunter who would say anything to decieve even the elect.

Your structure hunting episode of Wike in London is still in our memory. You even had to beg Obasanjo to follow you beg Wike for some political structures.

Shame on you.

Your definition and understanding of structure is what Peter Obi defined as structure of criminality.Your principal Bola Amed Tinubu bought the structure of criminality of Apc presidential primary with stolen wealth .Which in a free and fair primary devoid of dollarisation He Bola can never come a distant 4th among other competent contestants.The structure of Apc criminality and Bola Ahmed is the structure of hoping on rigging ,vote buying and inducement of Inec staff.
Mr..Peter Obi ,your president elect come 2023 by God's grace has never involved in himself in any structure of criminality. Know that and know peace

Lier !!!!!!This man always talk as if he is not among the past and present politicians that made Nigeria what it is today .If you want to argue with me .Tell me his job that make him to become Millornire . Tell me the story of Pandora.

Eriokanmi:
Waa gbayi jare. But wait a minute....our people are coming to call you ipob . For the first time in my life, I'm beginning to see the realities...that the true tribalists in Nigeria are our people. I'm really speechless bro. I used to think tribalists and ethnic bigots were igbos or hausas. This is sad!

Igbos voted obj in 1999 while we voted falae. They've voted yaradua, jonsthan, atiku too and these were non igbos. Their votes had determined who became Nigerian presidents in the past.

I dont even care who becomes president so long as that person has a good plan for Nigeria. I'm sorry I don't see that personality in atiku and Tinubu.

This is exactly why most sensible Nigerians will not vote for Tinubu or Atiku.
My own be say ... Naira exchange rate to Dollar be N708 today (may be more by the end of today), and THAT IS SCANDALOUS!
You may not believe it, but that is why Igbo people support Obi, NOT because he is Igbo.
Remove Obi and replace him with Orji Kalu or any other dye-in-the-wood Nigerian "party man" Igbo politician, and Igbos will not vote for him.
Tribalism cannot keep children in PUBLIC SCHOOLS or make private schools affordable. It cannot bring down the cost of food and other essentials.
Nigeria loses too much money to kleptocracy, and that is why things are the way they are today.
We need a SPENDTHRIFT who leads by example so that every kobo will count.
Every kobo should be invested in critical public resource like SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, and small business support.
Under Obi's presidency, medical tourism abroad will reduce because Obi himself will not like to spend "shishi" abroad for treatment.
Enough of my sermons, but you get the point.