Obi-volution and the Rise of a People’s Democracy

It is just a little over three weeks since Peter Obi emerged presidential candidate of the Labour Party. Obi defected to the party after it became clear that the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) primaries would not give him any chance at the ticket. Since Obi’s emergence on the Labour Party’s ticket, the momentum of public interest in the 2023 general elections has spiked. His candidature has become a wind, sweeping uncontrollably across Nigeria, starting a political revolution that may well be described as an obi-volution.

The sudden show of interest in the 2023 presidential election is due to at least two factors. First, the Electoral Act 2022 as amended, has returned a significant measure of political power to the people. It has castrated the mechanisms by which massive rigging occurred in past elections. Nigerians now have more confidence that their votes will count. Second, for the first time in many years, Nigerians have a really credible candidate on the ballot, whose appeal to the presidency is not out of primitive entitlement, but an effervescent desire to build the country. This desire – which resonates deeply with the common man – is the centre of gravity of this obi-volution.

Understandably, the other two political parties – the PDP and the APC – and their supporters are in a quandary. The current political conversation is revolving round topics they are not familiar with. It is a conversation built on personal conviction rather than personal convenience, genuine loyalty to country rather than mere loyalty to party, and sacrifice rather than paymanship.

On their part, they are trying hard to bring the conversation to topics they are familiar with. To argue that Peter Obi cannot win the election because he has no structures, does not share money and his polling agents will be bought over on election day. They forget that in this election, Nigerians are spending their own money on Peter Obi. They are not waiting for funds to come from the party because this time, they want the government to be truly a government of the people by the people and for the people.

Supporters of Peter Obi are not to be distracted by such arguments. No doubt structures are important but they are built by people, and structures built on the personal convenience of the few cannot withstand those built on the personal convictions of the majority. In the end, this is what this election is about – it is a movement of common Nigerians to take back their country from political entrepreneurs who have made merchandise out of the people’s poverty for far too long.

Qualified young citizens desirous of reading certain courses at the university have been turned away repeatedly because they have no structures to stand for them. Qualified applicants have been denied jobs in places where vacancies exist because they have no structures to endorse their applications. A system of oppression has emerged in which the Nigerian citizenship is no longer enough to access citizenship privileges in Nigeria. This system is exactly what the people are up against.

The weeks and months ahead will be interesting. One thing that is predictably certain, however, is that the ongoing obi-volution will continue to gain momentum. Alliances and cross-alliances will be built. Funds will be spent where necessary. All throughout history, there comes a time when people become fed up with their contradictions and get up and do what is right, not because it is convenient or safe, but because somehow they can no longer hide from their shadows. That time has come to Nigeria and a people’s democracy is rising. It is a new day.