What City People Found Out
One of the front runners in the race to dethrone President Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027 is the candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi. He is a man that has enjoyed a large following, largely from his kinsmen, the Igbos and from an ample amount of young people spread across the country. They see in him a younger, fresher candidate, a man different from the old order of politicians whom they insist have misruled and mismanaged the country’s resources for too long. They seek a change in leadership and the former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, suits the bill for them.
Peter Obi, who had a decent showing at the last 2023 presidential election, coming third position after Atiku Abubakar and Asiiwaju Bola Tinubu who emerged President, has once again set his sights on winning the Nigerian presidency in 2027. He is at the moment torn between running on the platform of the new coalition under of the ADC or sticking with the party that brought him to political prominence, the Labour Party. At the moment, it can be said he has a good momentum going for him, but there are still a few loose ends he is yet to tidy up and it has to do with his conduct during his time as Anambra governor, the state he led for eight years.
It is no longer news that, during the last presidential election, there were thousands of Anambra indigenes who did not vote for Obi. Many of them chose to vote for different candidates because they were deeply disenchanted with the way Obi handled the affairs of the state for eight years. They were angry with some of the decisions he took and some of the policies his administration came up with while in office. And so, they didn’t think he would make a good president if elected to rule the country. Many of them still haven’t changed their minds and opinions about Obi, but they keep their perception of him close their chests for fear of being attacked or persecuted by their own people owing to the toxic nature of Peter Obi’s supporters.
During the period of 2007 to 2014 that Obi was governor of Anambra state, he committed some sins that many Anambra indigenes are yet to forgive him for. Indeed, many of the presidential frontrunner’s opponents use every opportunity to draw special attention to some of these ‘sins,’ reminding Anambrarians and most essentially, Nigerians that Obi is not the saviour he portrays himself to be. Obi himself is aware that the current electoral cycle could be the final one he participates in. He is, therefore, determined to do everything necessary to win the loyalty of Nigerians and consolidate his support base, the Obidient Movement.
One of the ‘strategies’ Obi is using in convincing Nigerians, particularly the northerners, to be on his side is his proposal to serve only one four-year term if he was elected as president in 2027. The 64-year-old Obi says that he can fix Nigeria within that time frame and needs his new found party, the African Democratic Congress, to buy into his vision. With one leg still in the Labour Party, he has thus submitted a proposal to the ADC to that effect and Nigerians await the response the party will give him.
But the sins of Obi, while Governor of Anambra, are still haunting him against his 2027 aspiration. The presidential hopeful has, however, not escaped coming under fire for some of what his opponents say is his poor judgment on some socio-political issues; some Anambra indigenes who oppose Obi insist that Nigerians should not overlook his past political sins.
It is no longer news that a former presidential aide and social media influencer, Reno Omokri, made the most damning allegation against Obi when he said that the Anambra ex-governor did not build any school when he was presiding over the affairs of his state. Omokri had also challenged Obi’s supporters to name one school he initiated, started, completed and commissioned during his stewardship of Anambra State, offering a $10,000 reward to any of them who could do so.
Almost a hundred hours elapsed after Omokri had made the challenge and no Nigerian could prove him wrong.
He then said, “(It has been) Ninety-six hours after I gave the challenge, nobody has been able to name one school that Peter Obi initiated, started, completed and finished in the eight years he was governor of Anambra State.
“Instead, they have responded with insults, abuses and threats. I can name multiple schools built by Local Government and LCDA Chairmen in Lagos.”
Obi was eventually forced to reply to Omokri. His defence was that he promised in his party’s manifesto that he would improve the schools already in existence and not build new ones.
This issue is one that has continued to embarrass not just Obi himself whenevber it is raised but also Anambra indigenes who couldn’t explain why the governor didn’t build enough schools to go round especially as there were dozens of communities who didn’t have schools that their children could attend. Obi didn’t build any, not even one! Their kids had to go long distance to learn.
Many Anambra indigenes will not forget in a hurry how, Obi, as governor, declared that education was not meant for the poor and compelled Anambra secondary school students to pay three terms school fees at once.
The action of the ADC presidential hopeful had reportedly forced many students from less-privileged homes to drop out of school and, according to some observers, exposed Obi’s hypocrisy to education. This is one of the reasons why, today, many do not take Obi seriously when he criticises the Tinubu administration over issues regarding education.
A political analyst, Reginald Anene, told The Point, “Obi did indeed make a statement that education is not meant for the poor while he was governor. This statement was made in justification of increasing tuition fees in Anambra State University and introducing school fees for secondary school students.
“As governor, Peter Obi increased tuition fees in Anambra State University significantly. For non-professional courses, fees rose from N65,000 to N119,000 and for professional courses, the increase was even steeper, to N230,000. He also introduced a policy requiring secondary school students to pay three terms’ worth of school fees at once, which led to many students from low-income backgrounds dropping out.
It was this increase in school fees at Anambra State University that led to a face off between the students and the police that Obi had called in to quash the protests by the students. Obi also fired the VC, accusing him of taking sides with the students.
This statement ‘education is not meant for the poor’ has stuck with Peter Obi and some Anambrarians often use it to mock him and his supporters, reminding them of the torture he put them through trying to raise money to pay the exorbitant school fees for their children. He has also been criticized by Nigerians who have heard him speak about the need for education reform and seen him advocate for increased access to education for all Nigerians. They never fail to remind him of what he did to education in Anambra state.
Anene then urged Nigerians to forget Obi’s pretence of donating to schools, buying laptops, sinking boreholes and making fair speeches concerning education.
He submitted that Obi does not care about education and that was why he never built any school in his eight years as governor even when 70 communities did not have a single school.
Anene said those were some of the truths “a lot of us know” that would never make us support Obi whom he accused of being a pretender, sly and transactional.
In his opinion, Anene said Obi would do anything to deceive “our young people who do not know about his past records” and quipped, “This is why Professor Wole Soyinka calls his movement, ‘gbajue.’
Anene then concluded by saying that Nigerians should reject someone like Obi who steeply increases the school fees of students and then sets the police on them when they protest.
The third sin Obi committed in the eyes of many Anambrarians is his administration’s investment in a brewery during his tenure as governor. Many of Obi’s critics have mocked the brewery as the “legacy project”of the Obi administration in his state, wondering why he did not dissipate enough energy in the education sector.
Obi has, nonetheless, defended the investment. He said the venture has not only remained economically viable to the state but also became, even though the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service says otherwise, the state’s largest source of internally generated revenue and a major employer of labour. He also boasted that the brewery feeds 5,000 people and employs hundreds statewide.
“If I ever tell you what I suffered for that brewery to be built in Anambra State, you will not believe it.
“I had to go out trying to attract business to Anambra State. The biggest revenue source for Anambra today is that brewery,” Obi had said in June.
“That brewery is employing, at least directly, 500 Anambra people. That brewery is at least giving food to over 5,000 Anambrarians – those who use that business, distributors, truck drivers, everything,” he added.
The back-and-forth of the brewery aside, there is a growing number of northerners who are not comfortable that Obi “celebrates” a brewery in his home state. They argue that their religion frowns at alcoholism.
An All Progressives Congress chieftain, Alwan Hassan, harped on the severity of this“sin” And in his assessment, Obi would “import” alcohol into the North if he became President of Nigeria.
Hassan said, “Peter Obi is saying that he wants the North to support him and in the same programme he was celebrating a brewery in Anambra State and being the biggest importer of alcohol.”
He then asked sarcastically, “And you want the North to vote for him? We will vote for a president that will import alcohol in the North?”
If Hassan’s sarcasm is anythging to go by, then it can be said that Peter Obi is not likely to get the sort of votes he is looking for from the North, let alone win any Northern state.
Apart from the aforementioned sins, many indigenes of the state were also not pleased with Obi for choosing not to conduct any local government election in the state all through the eight years he was governor. The people believe this is one of the reasons why there was little development in the state during his time. And for this and many other reasons listed above, a lot of Anambra indigenes failed to vote for him during the last presidential election, and from the look of things, many of them haven’t changed their minds yet. Many of them are yet to forgive him of his sins, especially the older ones who still remember the trouble his administration put them through.
“Many of the people shouting Peter Obi today are either not from Anambra or they are young people who do not know what Obi’s tenure was like when he was governor of the state,” said an elderly woman in a video that went viral months ago. “I am from Anambra and I know what I and my family went through when he was governor. Universities were shut, students were protesting, doctors and nurses went on strike during his time, there were cases where patients died because there was nobody to attend to them. Civil servants too were treated poorly, so many things I can go on and on. So, only the young people that don’t know Obi are the ones shouting Obi, Obi! For the older ones like me, we know he will never make a good President!”
I know how many families suffered to send their children to school when Obi increased the school fees. A lot of children dropped out of school!”.
