₦airaland Forum

Obi’s transition from serious contender to Mascot, by Azu Ishiekwene

Friends, admirers, and the “Obidient” fanbase of the former Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, love to call him by the sobriquet “Okwute,” which in Igbo, Nigeria’s third-largest socio-linguistic group, means rock, boulder, or stone. Quite a nice alias – especially if you associate some doctrinal nuances of Obi’s faith with his first name, Peter.

The symbolism of the name Okwute, borne by males, signifies one who is strong, dependable and unyielding in Igbo cosmology. But a nice alias is not necessarily a fitting one.

The fluidity with which Obi moves around the political circuits has little, if any, resemblance to a rock, boulder or even a stone. Except, of course, if he’s a rolling stone, lacking in constancy, bereft of moss. A rock or a boulder is solid, come rain, come shine; it is constant in and out of season.

I’m not suggesting that Okwute should have remained in Onitsha or Aba. That would be absolutely ludicrous! After all, life is a journey.

Peter the Clay
I’m saying that this Obi is a Peter of Clay – malleable, confused, and lacking in staying power. He’s drifting, mistaking a jungle for a zoo. This should be a great source of worry for his troops, especially the social media-based avatars (without voter cards), who deify Obi and whose political signature tune is “the Obi-way or the highway.” His political history needs no retelling other than to record what a missed opportunity it represents.


After the tale of him winning the 2023 presidential poll – an election in which he punched above his political weight and won in 12 states – even if only with narrow margins outside his South-Eastern enclave, Okwute fragmented like sedimentary rock thereafter. It would have been sufficient for him to build on his good showing at the poll, but claiming he won an election in which his party had no agents in about 54 percent of the polling centres was a stretch.

A Yiaga Africa Report on the 2023 elections said that while the APC deployed agents in 96 percent of polling units, the Labour Party deployed agents in only 46 per cent. Agent deployment is a critical factor in election performance.

Failed romance
The man who became the de facto and adopted candidate of the Nigeria Labour Congress and sundry trade unions – a substantial voting bloc, failed to seize the initiative after the poll. He went on throwing tantrums, wasting energy and resources in litigation, and missed the opportunity to consolidate and build the structure of the Labour Party – a convenient vehicle he had appropriated overnight, barely three days before the presidential primaries of his previous Peoples Democratic Party in May 2022.

Justice Ayo Isa Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court and an eminent jurist, has criticised Obi’s midnight migration to LP as an illegality that would have excluded him from the presidential contest. Salami said Obi’s participation was the result of poor judicial diligence and perhaps a lack of experience on the bench.

Okwute’s jump also stirred speculations and gave credence to the claim that he was deliberately avoiding primaries in the PDP.

Missed opportunity
Yet his near-spontaneous entry into the LP created a political wave that came at high tide. Not only was it dynamic, but it was the stuff of legend. Sustaining it beyond the elections would have made a great difference because LP very much needed nurturing, growth and strategy. But Obi was not paying attention, focusing instead on the next election rather than rebuilding the party.

LP adapted to Obi rather than the other way around. It even accommodated Okwute’s capitalist credentials into its semi-socialist fold. Nothing really mattered so long as LP had a presidential candidate – an ‘Okwute’ in the race.

Without as basic a requirement as agents to represent it at the polling units, LP went into the general elections and performed barely short of a miracle, winning one governorship, six senatorial and 34 House of Reps seats in one go. It was a foundation on which any serious politician would have built an inspiring career.

But the momentum was left to waste, casting him in the light in which his former adversary-turned-friend, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, described: a Nollywood actor. Okwute watched the slow but sure unravelling of the LP, as it collapsed from factional crisis.

Rather than being the elder in the house and leading the LP to consolidate on its initial achievements, he bolted. He has now pitched his tent with the African Democratic Congress, ADC, an assortment of mostly aggrieved power-mongers.

The game in town
Yet, even in this temporary shelter, the only game is who takes the presidential ticket. While the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is preparing as if elections were tomorrow, collecting defectors, aggressively registering new members, and even testing its election situation room (all this despite its poor record in office), the opposition is missing in action. The opposition’s strategy appears to be to sufficiently discredit the process before elections to hide its own catastrophic incompetence.

Whether Okwute sees it or not, he has expended his store of political goodwill without reinvesting or making good capital of it. The man who won Lagos, the impregnable home of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Federal Capital, catchment area for the government in power, has by word and deed, proved that it was a fluke – an emotional response from the young and aggrieved and a bloc of Christian voters thirsty for change.

That Kano visit
On Sunday, Okwute visited Kano on a Sallah homage to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP. In 2023, an expected alliance between Okwute and Kwankwaso failed because Kwankwaso, with a wider political footprint but no less ambitious, would not be Obi’s vice presidential candidate.

Kwankwaso had said offering Obi the vice presidential slot under him was a “golden opportunity,” implying that Obi would be lucky to join his ticket rather than the other way around. For good measure, Kwankwaso said age, experience, and performance disqualified Obi from the presidency, hinting that the NNPP would collapse if he accepted a subordinate role to Obi.

With Obi now in ADC and Kwankwaso still nursing the remnants of his NNPP, it is a good time to ask who is gravitating toward whom. The ambitions of both men are well known, and the ADC’s presidential ticket is nearly foreclosed.

Obidients won’t accept anything less than an Okwute presidential ticket. Kwankwaso’s impressive crowd, more on the streets with their red caps than behind touchscreens, is no less vociferous. They won’t hesitate to tell Obidients that RMK is bigger politically, older, and a PhD holder with far superior performance as governor.

And the Kano crowd – especially at Sallah – was, as usual, huge and dramatic. They received the guest as they would a mascot. In Kano, every player thinks they have the crowd until they see a bigger one.

Obi has paid the price for a ticket to the zoo, but he’ll soon find that he’s in a jungle.

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/obis-transition-from-serious-contender-to-mascot-by-azu-ishiekwene/

renderme:
Obi’s transition from serious contender to Mascot, by Azu Ishiekwene

Friends, admirers, and the “Obidient” fanbase of the former Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, love to call him by the sobriquet “Okwute,” which in Igbo, Nigeria’s third-largest socio-linguistic group, means rock, boulder, or stone. Quite a nice alias – especially if you associate some doctrinal nuances of Obi’s faith with his first name, Peter.

The symbolism of the name Okwute, borne by males, signifies one who is strong, dependable and unyielding in Igbo cosmology. But a nice alias is not necessarily a fitting one.

The fluidity with which Obi moves around the political circuits has little, if any, resemblance to a rock, boulder or even a stone. Except, of course, if he’s a rolling stone, lacking in constancy, bereft of moss. A rock or a boulder is solid, come rain, come shine; it is constant in and out of season.

I’m not suggesting that Okwute should have remained in Onitsha or Aba. That would be absolutely ludicrous! After all, life is a journey.

Peter the Clay
I’m saying that this Obi is a Peter of Clay – malleable, confused, and lacking in staying power. He’s drifting, mistaking a jungle for a zoo. This should be a great source of worry for his troops, especially the social media-based avatars (without voter cards), who deify Obi and whose political signature tune is “the Obi-way or the highway.” His political history needs no retelling other than to record what a missed opportunity it represents.


After the tale of him winning the 2023 presidential poll – an election in which he punched above his political weight and won in 12 states – even if only with narrow margins outside his South-Eastern enclave, Okwute fragmented like sedimentary rock thereafter. It would have been sufficient for him to build on his good showing at the poll, but claiming he won an election in which his party had no agents in about 54 percent of the polling centres was a stretch.

A Yiaga Africa Report on the 2023 elections said that while the APC deployed agents in 96 percent of polling units, the Labour Party deployed agents in only 46 per cent. Agent deployment is a critical factor in election performance.

Failed romance
The man who became the de facto and adopted candidate of the Nigeria Labour Congress and sundry trade unions – a substantial voting bloc, failed to seize the initiative after the poll. He went on throwing tantrums, wasting energy and resources in litigation, and missed the opportunity to consolidate and build the structure of the Labour Party – a convenient vehicle he had appropriated overnight, barely three days before the presidential primaries of his previous Peoples Democratic Party in May 2022.

Justice Ayo Isa Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court and an eminent jurist, has criticised Obi’s midnight migration to LP as an illegality that would have excluded him from the presidential contest. Salami said Obi’s participation was the result of poor judicial diligence and perhaps a lack of experience on the bench.

Okwute’s jump also stirred speculations and gave credence to the claim that he was deliberately avoiding primaries in the PDP.

Missed opportunity
Yet his near-spontaneous entry into the LP created a political wave that came at high tide. Not only was it dynamic, but it was the stuff of legend. Sustaining it beyond the elections would have made a great difference because LP very much needed nurturing, growth and strategy. But Obi was not paying attention, focusing instead on the next election rather than rebuilding the party.

Related News
2027: Pro-Tinubu Igbo Group dismisses Obi–Kwankwaso alliance as non-threat
Glimmer of Obi/Kwankwaso combo, by Ochereome Nnanna
ADC's problem is ADC, not APC, by Azu Ishiekwene
LP adapted to Obi rather than the other way around. It even accommodated Okwute’s capitalist credentials into its semi-socialist fold. Nothing really mattered so long as LP had a presidential candidate – an ‘Okwute’ in the race.

Without as basic a requirement as agents to represent it at the polling units, LP went into the general elections and performed barely short of a miracle, winning one governorship, six senatorial and 34 House of Reps seats in one go. It was a foundation on which any serious politician would have built an inspiring career.

But the momentum was left to waste, casting him in the light in which his former adversary-turned-friend, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, described: a Nollywood actor. Okwute watched the slow but sure unravelling of the LP, as it collapsed from factional crisis.

Rather than being the elder in the house and leading the LP to consolidate on its initial achievements, he bolted. He has now pitched his tent with the African Democratic Congress, ADC, an assortment of mostly aggrieved power-mongers, in whose company the former Obi might have been immensely uncomfortable.

The game in town
Yet, even in this temporary shelter, the only game is who takes the presidential ticket. While the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is preparing as if elections were tomorrow, collecting defectors, aggressively registering new members, and even testing its election situation room (all this despite its poor record in office), the opposition is missing in action. The opposition’s strategy appears to be to sufficiently discredit the process before elections to hide its own catastrophic incompetence.

Whether Okwute sees it or not, he has expended his store of political goodwill without reinvesting or making good capital of it. The man who won Lagos, the impregnable home of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Federal Capital, catchment area for the government in power, has by word and deed, proved that it was a fluke – an emotional response from the young and aggrieved and a bloc of Christian voters thirsty for change.

That Kano visit
On Sunday, Okwute visited Kano on a Sallah homage to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP. In 2023, an expected alliance between Okwute and Kwankwaso failed because Kwankwaso, with a wider political footprint but no less ambitious, would not be Obi’s vice presidential candidate.

Kwankwaso had said offering Obi the vice presidential slot under him was a “golden opportunity,” implying that Obi would be lucky to join his ticket rather than the other way around. For good measure, Kwankwaso said age, experience, and performance disqualified Obi from the presidency, hinting that the NNPP would collapse if he accepted a subordinate role to Obi.

With Obi now in ADC and Kwankwaso still nursing the remnants of his NNPP, it is a good time to ask who is gravitating toward whom. The ambitions of both men are well known, and the ADC’s presidential ticket is nearly foreclosed.

Obidients won’t accept anything less than an Okwute presidential ticket. Kwankwaso’s impressive crowd, more on the streets with their red caps than behind touchscreens, is no less vociferous. They won’t hesitate to tell Obidients that RMK is bigger politically, older, and a PhD holder with far superior performance as governor.

And the Kano crowd – especially at Sallah – was, as usual, huge and dramatic. They received the guest as they would a mascot. In Kano, every player thinks they have the crowd until they see a bigger one.

Obi has paid the price for a ticket to the zoo, but he’ll soon find that he’s in a jungle.

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/obis-transition-from-serious-contender-to-mascot-by-azu-ishiekwene/

Mynd44 nlfpmod dominique

Obi should have stayed and resolve the in-house issue in labour party. That's what a true leader does.

renderme:
Obi’s transition from serious contender to Mascot, by Azu Ishiekwene

Friends, admirers, and the “Obidient” fanbase of the former Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, love to call him by the sobriquet “Okwute,” which in Igbo, Nigeria’s third-largest socio-linguistic group, means rock, boulder, or stone. Quite a nice alias – especially if you associate some doctrinal nuances of Obi’s faith with his first name, Peter.

The symbolism of the name Okwute, borne by males, signifies one who is strong, dependable and unyielding in Igbo cosmology. But a nice alias is not necessarily a fitting one.

The fluidity with which Obi moves around the political circuits has little, if any, resemblance to a rock, boulder or even a stone. Except, of course, if he’s a rolling stone, lacking in constancy, bereft of moss. A rock or a boulder is solid, come rain, come shine; it is constant in and out of season.

I’m not suggesting that Okwute should have remained in Onitsha or Aba. That would be absolutely ludicrous! After all, life is a journey.

Peter the Clay
I’m saying that this Obi is a Peter of Clay – malleable, confused, and lacking in staying power. He’s drifting, mistaking a jungle for a zoo. This should be a great source of worry for his troops, especially the social media-based avatars (without voter cards), who deify Obi and whose political signature tune is “the Obi-way or the highway.” His political history needs no retelling other than to record what a missed opportunity it represents.


After the tale of him winning the 2023 presidential poll – an election in which he punched above his political weight and won in 12 states – even if only with narrow margins outside his South-Eastern enclave, Okwute fragmented like sedimentary rock thereafter. It would have been sufficient for him to build on his good showing at the poll, but claiming he won an election in which his party had no agents in about 54 percent of the polling centres was a stretch.

A Yiaga Africa Report on the 2023 elections said that while the APC deployed agents in 96 percent of polling units, the Labour Party deployed agents in only 46 per cent. Agent deployment is a critical factor in election performance.

Failed romance
The man who became the de facto and adopted candidate of the Nigeria Labour Congress and sundry trade unions – a substantial voting bloc, failed to seize the initiative after the poll. He went on throwing tantrums, wasting energy and resources in litigation, and missed the opportunity to consolidate and build the structure of the Labour Party – a convenient vehicle he had appropriated overnight, barely three days before the presidential primaries of his previous Peoples Democratic Party in May 2022.

Justice Ayo Isa Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court and an eminent jurist, has criticised Obi’s midnight migration to LP as an illegality that would have excluded him from the presidential contest. Salami said Obi’s participation was the result of poor judicial diligence and perhaps a lack of experience on the bench.

Okwute’s jump also stirred speculations and gave credence to the claim that he was deliberately avoiding primaries in the PDP.

Missed opportunity
Yet his near-spontaneous entry into the LP created a political wave that came at high tide. Not only was it dynamic, but it was the stuff of legend. Sustaining it beyond the elections would have made a great difference because LP very much needed nurturing, growth and strategy. But Obi was not paying attention, focusing instead on the next election rather than rebuilding the party.

Related News
2027: Pro-Tinubu Igbo Group dismisses Obi–Kwankwaso alliance as non-threat
Glimmer of Obi/Kwankwaso combo, by Ochereome Nnanna
ADC's problem is ADC, not APC, by Azu Ishiekwene
LP adapted to Obi rather than the other way around. It even accommodated Okwute’s capitalist credentials into its semi-socialist fold. Nothing really mattered so long as LP had a presidential candidate – an ‘Okwute’ in the race.

Without as basic a requirement as agents to represent it at the polling units, LP went into the general elections and performed barely short of a miracle, winning one governorship, six senatorial and 34 House of Reps seats in one go. It was a foundation on which any serious politician would have built an inspiring career.

But the momentum was left to waste, casting him in the light in which his former adversary-turned-friend, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, described: a Nollywood actor. Okwute watched the slow but sure unravelling of the LP, as it collapsed from factional crisis.

Rather than being the elder in the house and leading the LP to consolidate on its initial achievements, he bolted. He has now pitched his tent with the African Democratic Congress, ADC, an assortment of mostly aggrieved power-mongers, in whose company the former Obi might have been immensely uncomfortable.

The game in town
Yet, even in this temporary shelter, the only game is who takes the presidential ticket. While the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is preparing as if elections were tomorrow, collecting defectors, aggressively registering new members, and even testing its election situation room (all this despite its poor record in office), the opposition is missing in action. The opposition’s strategy appears to be to sufficiently discredit the process before elections to hide its own catastrophic incompetence.

Whether Okwute sees it or not, he has expended his store of political goodwill without reinvesting or making good capital of it. The man who won Lagos, the impregnable home of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Federal Capital, catchment area for the government in power, has by word and deed, proved that it was a fluke – an emotional response from the young and aggrieved and a bloc of Christian voters thirsty for change.

That Kano visit
On Sunday, Okwute visited Kano on a Sallah homage to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP. In 2023, an expected alliance between Okwute and Kwankwaso failed because Kwankwaso, with a wider political footprint but no less ambitious, would not be Obi’s vice presidential candidate.

Kwankwaso had said offering Obi the vice presidential slot under him was a “golden opportunity,” implying that Obi would be lucky to join his ticket rather than the other way around. For good measure, Kwankwaso said age, experience, and performance disqualified Obi from the presidency, hinting that the NNPP would collapse if he accepted a subordinate role to Obi.

With Obi now in ADC and Kwankwaso still nursing the remnants of his NNPP, it is a good time to ask who is gravitating toward whom. The ambitions of both men are well known, and the ADC’s presidential ticket is nearly foreclosed.

Obidients won’t accept anything less than an Okwute presidential ticket. Kwankwaso’s impressive crowd, more on the streets with their red caps than behind touchscreens, is no less vociferous. They won’t hesitate to tell Obidients that RMK is bigger politically, older, and a PhD holder with far superior performance as governor.

And the Kano crowd – especially at Sallah – was, as usual, huge and dramatic. They received the guest as they would a mascot. In Kano, every player thinks they have the crowd until they see a bigger one.

Obi has paid the price for a ticket to the zoo, but he’ll soon find that he’s in a jungle.

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/obis-transition-from-serious-contender-to-mascot-by-azu-ishiekwene/

Mynd44 nlfpmod dominique

Obi should have stayed and resolve the in-house issue in labour party. That's what a true leader does.
If political party problem is too big to settle, how then do you want to lead a nation like Nigeria

A F mascot with a dirty hole..

Hahahaha but sadly that's the bitter truth but his people will disagree. Obi will NEVER rule this country called Nigeria. Bookmark this!

For someone they claim is inconsequential, y'all are pretty apprehensive about Obi.

Every riff Raff now calls Obi's name when they want to be in the news.

We know how painful obi leaving labour party to adc.You whr betting on using SW president moles in labour to make rigging easy .This would be easy by divided votes which will be easy to shout go to wike Court.
He is wiser than you people think

Jokay07:
Obi should have stayed and resolve the in-house issue in labour party. That's what a true leader does.
If political party problem is too big to settle, how then do you want to lead a nation like Nigeria

He should have stayed so that SW president moles in the party can easily Rigg the election for him
You think he is foolish

Streetinvestor2:
He should have stayed so that SW president moles in the party can easily Rigg the election for him
You think he is foolish

Yes.

renderme:
Obi’s transition from serious contender to Mascot, by Azu Ishiekwene

Friends, admirers, and the “Obidient” fanbase of the former Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, love to call him by the sobriquet “Okwute,” which in Igbo, Nigeria’s third-largest socio-linguistic group, means rock, boulder, or stone. Quite a nice alias – especially if you associate some doctrinal nuances of Obi’s faith with his first name, Peter.

The symbolism of the name Okwute, borne by males, signifies one who is strong, dependable and unyielding in Igbo cosmology. But a nice alias is not necessarily a fitting one.

The fluidity with which Obi moves around the political circuits has little, if any, resemblance to a rock, boulder or even a stone. Except, of course, if he’s a rolling stone, lacking in constancy, bereft of moss. A rock or a boulder is solid, come rain, come shine; it is constant in and out of season.

I’m not suggesting that Okwute should have remained in Onitsha or Aba. That would be absolutely ludicrous! After all, life is a journey.

Peter the Clay
I’m saying that this Obi is a Peter of Clay – malleable, confused, and lacking in staying power. He’s drifting, mistaking a jungle for a zoo. This should be a great source of worry for his troops, especially the social media-based avatars (without voter cards), who deify Obi and whose political signature tune is “the Obi-way or the highway.” His political history needs no retelling other than to record what a missed opportunity it represents.


After the tale of him winning the 2023 presidential poll – an election in which he punched above his political weight and won in 12 states – even if only with narrow margins outside his South-Eastern enclave, Okwute fragmented like sedimentary rock thereafter. It would have been sufficient for him to build on his good showing at the poll, but claiming he won an election in which his party had no agents in about 54 percent of the polling centres was a stretch.

A Yiaga Africa Report on the 2023 elections said that while the APC deployed agents in 96 percent of polling units, the Labour Party deployed agents in only 46 per cent. Agent deployment is a critical factor in election performance.

Failed romance
The man who became the de facto and adopted candidate of the Nigeria Labour Congress and sundry trade unions – a substantial voting bloc, failed to seize the initiative after the poll. He went on throwing tantrums, wasting energy and resources in litigation, and missed the opportunity to consolidate and build the structure of the Labour Party – a convenient vehicle he had appropriated overnight, barely three days before the presidential primaries of his previous Peoples Democratic Party in May 2022.

Justice Ayo Isa Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court and an eminent jurist, has criticised Obi’s midnight migration to LP as an illegality that would have excluded him from the presidential contest. Salami said Obi’s participation was the result of poor judicial diligence and perhaps a lack of experience on the bench.

Okwute’s jump also stirred speculations and gave credence to the claim that he was deliberately avoiding primaries in the PDP.

Missed opportunity
Yet his near-spontaneous entry into the LP created a political wave that came at high tide. Not only was it dynamic, but it was the stuff of legend. Sustaining it beyond the elections would have made a great difference because LP very much needed nurturing, growth and strategy. But Obi was not paying attention, focusing instead on the next election rather than rebuilding the party.

LP adapted to Obi rather than the other way around. It even accommodated Okwute’s capitalist credentials into its semi-socialist fold. Nothing really mattered so long as LP had a presidential candidate – an ‘Okwute’ in the race.

Without as basic a requirement as agents to represent it at the polling units, LP went into the general elections and performed barely short of a miracle, winning one governorship, six senatorial and 34 House of Reps seats in one go. It was a foundation on which any serious politician would have built an inspiring career.

But the momentum was left to waste, casting him in the light in which his former adversary-turned-friend, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, described: a Nollywood actor. Okwute watched the slow but sure unravelling of the LP, as it collapsed from factional crisis.

Rather than being the elder in the house and leading the LP to consolidate on its initial achievements, he bolted. He has now pitched his tent with the African Democratic Congress, ADC, an assortment of mostly aggrieved power-mongers.

The game in town
Yet, even in this temporary shelter, the only game is who takes the presidential ticket. While the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is preparing as if elections were tomorrow, collecting defectors, aggressively registering new members, and even testing its election situation room (all this despite its poor record in office), the opposition is missing in action. The opposition’s strategy appears to be to sufficiently discredit the process before elections to hide its own catastrophic incompetence.

Whether Okwute sees it or not, he has expended his store of political goodwill without reinvesting or making good capital of it. The man who won Lagos, the impregnable home of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Federal Capital, catchment area for the government in power, has by word and deed, proved that it was a fluke – an emotional response from the young and aggrieved and a bloc of Christian voters thirsty for change.

That Kano visit
On Sunday, Okwute visited Kano on a Sallah homage to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP. In 2023, an expected alliance between Okwute and Kwankwaso failed because Kwankwaso, with a wider political footprint but no less ambitious, would not be Obi’s vice presidential candidate.

Kwankwaso had said offering Obi the vice presidential slot under him was a “golden opportunity,” implying that Obi would be lucky to join his ticket rather than the other way around. For good measure, Kwankwaso said age, experience, and performance disqualified Obi from the presidency, hinting that the NNPP would collapse if he accepted a subordinate role to Obi.

With Obi now in ADC and Kwankwaso still nursing the remnants of his NNPP, it is a good time to ask who is gravitating toward whom. The ambitions of both men are well known, and the ADC’s presidential ticket is nearly foreclosed.

Obidients won’t accept anything less than an Okwute presidential ticket. Kwankwaso’s impressive crowd, more on the streets with their red caps than behind touchscreens, is no less vociferous. They won’t hesitate to tell Obidients that RMK is bigger politically, older, and a PhD holder with far superior performance as governor.

And the Kano crowd – especially at Sallah – was, as usual, huge and dramatic. They received the guest as they would a mascot. In Kano, every player thinks they have the crowd until they see a bigger one.

Obi has paid the price for a ticket to the zoo, but he’ll soon find that he’s in a jungle.

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/obis-transition-from-serious-contender-to-mascot-by-azu-ishiekwene/

Mynd44 nlfpmod dominique

You dont tell the obidients the truth
They will eat you raw.
Next time ,just write to prove that peter OBI is even more than OKWUTE

PlasmaTV:
For someone they claim is inconsequential, y'all are pretty apprehensive about Obi.

Every riff Raff now calls Obi's name when they want to be in the news.

That "apprehension"..."The only person Tinubu fear is OBI" only exist rent free in you people head.Its just another Buhari is jubril of sudan rubbish and delusion you people do experience to make yourselves feel good.
Even people discuss portable,peller,speed darlington and blessing CEO.Does that mean that they are indispensable to us in the society?
Peter OBI is a very useful tool in the hand of Tinubu.If you know you know!

Chai, this writer has really attempted to slaughter "Okwute" with his pen but one thing that rings true from his write up is "no padi for jungle"!

Mascot is an understatement. Just call him a clown

The only mascot is bulabaha

The rise and fall of PO, he is a terrible manager.
I like as obidiensts don calm down, no more chochocho

Nigeria has produced many leaders...Tinubu might be its first mascot president

Obi is now known as serious cintender even though they had constant denied it.Obi remains cynosure of all eyes and an engmatic political giant.

Very useless set of people who have no shame.
They told him to go to court and he did and while in court they told him to go and prepare for 2027 instead, the man is already preparing for 2027 yet they won't let him rest.

Obi is making them feel relevant that's why they'll use his name at any given opportunity to trend as if he is the only opposition.

PlasmaTV:
For someone they claim is inconsequential, y'all are pretty apprehensive about Obi.

Every riff Raff now calls Obi's name when they want to be in the news.

You mean PETERU is the one you're crazy about like this? Ah.. na wa o.

He moved from APGA to PDP to LP to ADC and he's not stopping yet. And not that he formed these parties.. Not that he merged them. He gate crashed into them all and you're proud of him?

Please stop being ridiculous.. 😂😂😂😂😂

PETERU is an ambitious ambiguous gate crasher... Was he ever a bouncer? 🙄

osuofia2:
The rise and fall of PO, he is a terrible manager.
I like as obidiensts don calm down, no more chochocho

welcome

bitter obi is a baby politician and should still be in a crèche……..a baby still learning how to walk but want to rub shoulder with his masters😂😂😂he is nothing but a well packaged fraud…….okwute Abi nah rock wey Dey fear face primary election…….how can such a man then win a national election? We hope and pray ADC make the mistake of giving him the party ticket…….he will be defeated before 12noon on election day……Tinubu till 2031

renderme:
Obi’s transition from serious contender to Mascot, by Azu Ishiekwene


Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/obis-transition-from-serious-contender-to-mascot-by-azu-ishiekwene/

This peter of clay is who I prefer...he is stronger than the old man you are vouching for till 2031

Jokay07:
Obi should have stayed and resolve the in-house issue in labour party. That's what a true leader does.

you can’t give what you don’t have, which is leadership and strategy which is what gringory lacks…….he doesn’t build but destroy, that’s why he is ever ready to jump to another party when he can’t get what he wants…….he will still leave ADC for another party, just let wait and watch

Truer words have not been spoken!

udemzyudex:
Very useless set of people who have no shame.
They told him to go to court and he did and while in court they told him to go and prepare for 2027 instead, the man is already preparing for 2027 yet they won't let him rest.

Obi is making them feel relevant that's why they'll use his name at any given opportunity to trend as if he is the only opposition.

Who are the 'they' and the 'them'?

You people won't read sha. Chaii

Streetinvestor2:
He should have stayed so that SW president moles in the party can easily Rigg the election for him
You think he is foolish

Read what you wrote again and see if it makes any sense.

But I doubt if you would be able to read your own short post again as it’s so obvious that you didn’t read the article in the first place.

Any politician who is surrounded or being hailed by people like you will eventually fail and even after failing, you will still blame others for the failure.

Clowns everywhere
Can anyone explain the crime in changing parties when you're not in an office?
Oga Azu should have been aware that it's the responsibility of the party to provide polling agents not the candidate. That you're expecting Obi alone to provide agents in over 75k polling units shows why exactly the structure of criminality persists and breathes well in Nigeria.

You can fault Obi for trusting the same system he claimed he was looking to recast to do its constitutional job of delivering the cutlass to him. But blaming Obi for LP not having agents in majority of polling units just shows why we are not practicing democracy in Nigeria and how ill-prepared all these smaller parties are and maybe justification for why they shouldn't exist at all!! Obi is not the party and he never set out to be.

On Justice Salami, I think we shouldn't put too much premium on a man who couldn't even get his facts right about Obi's participation in PDP primaries. Worse still, he criticised his non-ascension to the supreme court while conveniently forgetting that he rejected the same role when it was presented. What he asked of the court is not explicitly a ground for disqualification in the laws. It's his opinion but cannot be a correct interpretation since appellate court decisions are not arrived at by only one man. Or are they now?

As for failure to organise LP into a credible opposition, I also blame him for his initial hesitation to take on the role of leader in the party though I suspect he was looking to avoid the financial consequence of being leader of a party especially a fledgling one with new political "mouths". But if we're going to be fair to him, events have shown that we can't blame him for the friction that occurred. The players know themselves. They know who or what they are working for and what their beats are in the dance. Major players are Abure, Apapa, Otti and even Datti-Ahmed. Oga Azu should interrogate the affairs of each one mentioned in the party before conveniently throwing all the blame on Obi just for cheap talking points.

Stop all these useless blabbing and blowing of hot air.........

Why can't Nigerians demand for Free Fair and Credible election, let's see who will truly win the election in Nigeria.


Enough of all these emotional statements when we not really interested in GOOD ELECTION.



🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Igbos are not 3rd largest spoken language.
We have told Nigeria to conduct census with ethnicity attached to it, but they refused.
Igbos are the largest in Nigeria.

This paid write up is more apparent than true. Although structurally well crafted with high sounding disinterested tones, it is latently laden with the burden of sincerity of intention.
Well Okwute must have noted your belated unsolicited advisory