In this week's column, I argue that while I'd vote for Obi if I had PVC (because Tinubu and Atiku are no options) we need to pay attention to the parallels between Obi and pre-2015 Buhari and between "Obidients" and BMC trolls:

https://twitter.com/farooqkperogi/status/1583668528703733760?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet



By Farooq A. Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

As Peter Obi’s acceptance surges across the country and the prospect of his becoming president of Nigeria is now a real, graspable possibility, we shouldn’t ignore the uncanny parallels between him and Muhammadu Buhari and between his zombielike, unremittingly indecorous, and compulsively vituperative online supporters (called Obi-dients) and Buhari’s supporters, most of whom later transmuted into Buhari Media Center (MBC) trolls on social media.


Like Buhari, Obi is being constructed—or, more correctly, reconstructed—as a blank slate on whom admirers are inscribing all kinds of positive, superhuman attributes. The inscriptions on the empty slates brook no dissent. Contrary evidence, however incontrovertibly factual, is met with the most brutal rhetorical violence.

Like Buhari, Obi has been propelled to the public imagination by riding on the high waves of populism even when they both lack the personal charm and the rhetorical ingenuity to engineer it by themselves. They have never articulated any profound policy positions, but their railings against an ill-defined “elite” of which they’re ironically a part, resonate with people who are angry with a dysfunctional political class.


Their supporters project their desires onto them and attribute to them a willingness and capacity to do what it takes to move the country in a different direction even when nothing in their history and predispositions suggests that.

In one of Buhari’s run for president, he was asked during a presidential debate how he’d address the decline in education standards in the country when his children were in UK universities. He had no coherent answer.

When Obi ran for governor of Anambra State, he pledged that he would so improve the education in the state that his children would return from the UK to attend Anambra schools. Well, his children not only still live abroad and never went to school in Nigeria, they’re citizens of a foreign country.

As I pointed out when Obi released his presidential campaign list that was riddled with avoidable duplications and omissions, a man who couldn't be bothered to even look at the list of his campaign council members—or, if he did, didn't know enough to know people who should be in it—won't be any different from the people we have had in the past.

The attributes people venerate in him were also projected onto Buhari in 2014/2015. One of my Obi-supporting friends said Obi "Not being greedy or avaricious on issues of money, not being flamboyant by living like a king while millions wallow in poverty, being able to save, being accessible to the people, listening to the people, etc.” are the proofs we need to know that he will be different as a president.

But people said exactly the same of Buhari. But see what he has become. Being in power is different from seeking power. Attributes such as access, empathy, etc. often disappear as sure as tomorrow's date when people get to power. I am friends with a man who used to be close to Buhari because he used to tell Buhari uncomfortable but helpful truths, which Buhari had said he admired. The man’s relationship with Buhari endured only a few months after Buhari became president.

Like Buhari, Obi is popular with a core demographic that is animated by religious and ethnic politics. On ethnic and religious tolerance, Obi’s record isn't different from Buhari's, according to media reports I've read. He called Ngige a Yoruba man in 2013, implying that it's undesirable to be Yoruba. In 2013, when Idemili women protested after being disenfranchised, Obi said the women were from Osun State in order to delegitimize them.

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2022/10/obi-is-new-buhari-and-obidients-new.html?m=1

You like obidents or you hate obidents, if you value Nigeria, and you love your kids you will vote peter obi.

.

Summary is no sensible Nigerian would vote for either Atiku or Thíefnubu.

Summary of your situation is attached below

Southern president!! ATIKU IS ZERO

Psychology and cognition is lacking here!

If you don't know, you are indirectly an "Obidient" too (since Obi is your choice)


So saying you hate Obidients indirectly means you hate yourself

Me too. I will vote for Obi.

Nigerian youths are behind Peter Obi

Sergio103:
Psychology

Are you an Obidient or a Peter Obi supporter?

Remember what Farooq said about Obidients:

They're narrowminded, verbally primitive, ignorant, tunnel-visioned automatons who think their illiterate trolling can stop people from expressing views that are contrary to theirs.

They constitute a risible horde of unthinking troll brigade on the Internet and are incapable of the most basic level of cognitive complexity. If you’re not one of them, you are against them. If you don’t sacrifice your critical faculty on the altar of Peter Obi political idolatry, you’re against their idol.

He wants to dine with the devil but he is worried about the lenght of his spoon.

You cannot support Obi and not contort yourself out of shape.

All very true. But at the end, people will still vote for Obi because they have a flawed idea of what good governance is...and good governance is not voting tinubu or atiku or buhari for third term

The truth is, there is no such thing as a perfect leader. Leaders are how we make them...not what we project onto them. The thing is, we are all free to vote for Obi, but if you just go home and sit down , satisfied that you have an Ibo president....that's the path to bad governance

At the end, it is not who we vote for, are we ready also to put heat under their legs to make sure they work well?

Modified

This comment is not meant to attack anyone's tribe. If it is taken that way, then it can be safely assumed that I am attacking all the three major tribes in this country.

The annoying thing about the political section of nairaland are the high numbers of nigerians who see themselves, regardless of religion or tribe as perpetual victims. If you cannot get over it, it is not my concern.

pinkPUSSY:
Summary of your situation is attached below

Doctor but the people you treated 8 years ago their life no better. They are carrying drugs and joining Esn.. Doctor is like u use fake medicine oo?

Am very curious to know the number of votes Tinubu will gather because it will show the very number of Nigerians with MENTAL PROBLEMS.

Corrinthians:
Are you an Obidient or a Peter Obi supporter?

Confusion is all I see

NwaMamaIwota:
shatap omenka
hahahahaha

You are here again with your idiocy. Obidient Xombie.

That Omenka must have dealt with you so much you see him everywhere you look. Your torment is just beginning.

Sergio103:


Confusion is all I see

In yourself right?

Corrinthians:
You are here again with your idiocy. Obidient Xombie.

That Omenka must have dealt with you so much you see him everywhere you look. Your torment is just beginning.

mynd44 nlfpmod Seun Dominique
Rule 2

Your likeness is inconsequential right now as long as you vote for Peter Omoluabi Obi.

Ok

Corrinthians:
In yourself right?

In kperogi.
If you support Obi, you are indirectly an Obidient.

There's no echelon in it.

So saying he hate Obidients actually implies he hate himself

Fair enough.

Nobody votes for presidential candidates because of their supporters.

You vote for presidential hopefuls because you believe in them and trust them to deliver.

Peter Obi is the best candidate in this race.

Peter Obi is more sound than Buhari, Buhari knows little about what's going on in his environment unlike Peter Obi. There is no comparison at all, There is no way you can compare Peter Obi and Buhari, Buhari what? the only similarity is love and goodwill . every other thing there had no basis for comparison.
Beside, Peter Obi never said anything to Ngige, that was a made up lie, it could be from Dola akuyili.

Taqiya pro max. Is he not fulani? When he enters into the polling boot, we know exactly who he is going to vote. Only foolish zombidiots will be any fulani taqiya specialist saying he will vote any other person than Atiku.

Sometimes this acclaimed writers sounds stupid, do you expect millions of different people not to have different ways of expressing their frustration. People are really frustrated, Nigerians are really calm and that's why they are still suffering.

Tinubu and Atiku are indeed not an option. I am really as a Nigerian that out of 100 million adults, Tinubu and Atiku are the ones that was picked to represent the two major political parties.

I urge my fellow citizens in the North, if you insist on voting for a fellow northerner, then vote for Kwankwaso. If there was no Peter Obi in the ballot, I would have voted for Sowore.

Massiveglory:
You like obidents or you hate obidents, if you value Nigeria, and you love your kids you will vote peter obi.

Some Obidients are complete nuisance and occult. I am Obidient but some of these Obidient are aggressive and too fanatical for my licking .
I believe some idiots from IPOB abandoned Thier Biafra or death .They suddenly forgot thier undying love for Nnamdi Kanu and quickly keyed into the Nigeria project by seeing Obi among the contestants.
I wish they would just crawl back to the hole they came out from and let the real Obidient be. They are making the Obidient movement look like an aggressive one when we are not .
They are the ones that send out death threat to any one that speaks against the party or Obi.

pinkPUSSY:
Summary of your situation is attached below

That Macaroni’s comment is just incisive.
It puts bigots struggling to rise above petty ethno-religious sentiment in their place.

Kasssandra:
All very true. But at the end, people will still vote for Obi because they have a flawed idea of what good governance is...and good governance is not voting tinubu or atiku or buhari for third term

The truth is, there is no such thing as a perfect leader. Leaders are how we make them...not what we project onto them. The thing is, we are all free to vote for Obi, but if you just go home and sit down , satisfied that you have an Ibo president....that's the path to bad governance

At the end, it is not who we vote for, are we ready also to put heat under their legs to make sure they work well?

And what is wrong with an Ibo man being the president of Nigeria?
Una go just dey cap dust, Omo vote who you want ....

I have the same reservation. Atiku shameful denouncement of his earlier stance against the killing of Deborah in College of Education Sokoto really pissed me off. Tinubu have never been a consideration.