TheCable

Peter Obi’s movement was belittled when he won the ticket to be the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the presidential election.

It was May 2022, and the former Anambra governor had just been outmuscled off the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket race. He left the PDP — with its national spread and political structure — and unceremoniously joined LP, a party in relative obscurity. Initially, Obi looked forgettable and unchallenging, and the race was set for a two-horse contest between Bola Tinubu of APC and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar.

The blizzard of support for Obi on social media was trivialised as a storm in a teacup. His movement was discredited for its lack of what political observers called “structure”. Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, mocked a planned “two million-man march” in honour of Obi in the state and insisted the rally would struggle to get 200 attendants. Tinubu labelled it an insult to his political pedigree to be mentioned in the same breath as Obi. Atiku said not even a miracle could make LP come close to winning the presidency.

Obi’s detractors were still in denial when the storm of “social media noise” spilled into the streets and pooled into mega rallies across the countries. Its chilly wind was harnessed by a dreadfully relentless crop of supporters christened the “Obi-dients”. They became the roaring voice of the usually soft-spoken Obi. A movement was born.

Even when the pre-election polls hinted at the increasing popularity of Obi’s movement, the major parties thought “Obi-dient” was a fad that would lose steam at the final bend of the lap. But it did not. And at the election proper, Obi polled 44 percent of votes in the south-south and a staggering 89 percent in the south-east. He also pulled off the greatest upset in the recent history of Nigerian politics by defeating Tinubu in Lagos. According to the election result released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obi amassed 6,101,533 votes to finish third with victories in 12 states.

LP, naturally, was the biggest profiteer from the movement, winning six senate seats and 34 house of representative slots.

The results have changed the political dynamism in some states, particularly Enugu, where Obi swept all the 17 LGAs and polled 428,640 votes; while Atiku, his nearest contender, fell shy of 20,000 in the state. The margin informed the politicians in the state of a tectonic shift from a PDP stronghold to a land ready for change.

Surprisingly, all the major top contenders in the state’s governorship election have publicly incorporated Obi’s movement into their campaigns.

It is natural for LP candidates across the country to cling to the tail shirt of their presidential candidate en route to power. But in Enugu, even oppositions are waving solidarity of the “Obi-dient” movement to appeal to voters.

FRANK NWEKE II

Nweke, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Enugu, was not quiet with the endorsement of Obi as his favourite candidate for the presidency.

He was vocal about his support for Obi despite APGA, his party, having Peter Umeadi as its candidate for the February 25 election.

While speaking at the 48th annual synod of the Methodist Church of Nigeria in Enugu in February, the former minister of information declared Obi as the best among the three leading presidential candidates.

“Of all the three major presidential candidates, Peter Obi is the best because he has character, capacity and integrity,” he said.

After the result of the presidential election for Enugu was announced, Nweke took his Twitter page to thank the residents of the state for voting Obi.

“Thank you, team. I am elated that our people rose to the occasion to cast their votes for Peter Obi,” Nweke said. 

“I am also excited to see that the old structures are being torn down in the state. This is what democracy is about. You have shown that, indeed, the people are the structure.”

Nweke also uses of pictures of himself alongside Obi in some of his campaign materials.

UCHE NNAJI 

Uche Nnaji, governorship candidate of APC in Enugu, has also leaned into Obi’s movement in the state.

In the presidential result from Enugu, Obi scored over 400,000 votes, while Tinubu managed less than 5,000 in total.

The writing on the wall was legible enough for the APC governorship candidate to glimpse, forcing him to layer his political messages with reverence to Obi.

“Obi is proven, is your governorship candidate proven?” he asked Enugu residents in one of such messages, begging the people to shun herd voting for a political party over an individual.

PETER MBAH

It is customary for candidates of the incumbent party to use the achievement and popularity of the administration in power as the primary source of campaign material. But it is not so in the case of Peter Mbah, governorship candidate of the PDP in Enugu, who actively campaigns on the tagline of “Obidient4Mbah.”

The loss of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the PDP governor of Enugu, to an LP candidate in his bid to represent Enugu north district in the senate has further confounded the situation for Mbah.

Mbah hopes that a hitchhike on the “Obidient” movement can help him scale through the people’s rejection of his party.

CHIJOKE EDEOGA

Chijioke Edeoga, governorship candidate of the LP in Enugu, is fully maximising his right piggyback on Obi’s popularity.

INEC announced LP was third in the presidential election. Obi rejected the result and vowed to reclaim his mandate in court.

Leveraging on the situation, the LP gubernatorial candidate in Enugu released a message that reads: “A vote of Edeoga is the restoration of Obi’s mandate.”

Virtually all the candidates in the state are playing on the sentiment and emotion of the electorate who voted Obi in the presidential election.