Somebody sent me an intriguing and insightful message. He said: “Out of hatred for the cockroach, the ants voted for insecticide—and they all died, including the housefly that did not even vote.” There is a very annoying statement I hear in this country, and I hate it with passion: “An Igbo man can never rule Nigeria.”
Who told you that? Why? How? And who are you to make such a statement?
That brings me to the issue of His Excellency Peter Obi and the ADC.
I was listening to Professor Patrick Lumumba of Kenya, and he said that in many African countries, when a man’s records are clean and there is nothing against him, people don’t like to vote for him. They prefer people who have skeletons in their cupboards—so that when they are probed too far, they can point to what is inside your own cupboard.
So if politicians in the ADC say they don’t like Peter Obi and decide to vote for Mr. Insecticide, na dem sabi. During my 40th marriage anniversary, Christmas, and the New Year celebrations, I and my wife discovered that it was mostly people outside my immediate family—not my children, not even my extended family—who celebrated me the most.
They brought gifts, they showed appreciation. Why? Because they valued the impact I made in their lives more than some people who were close to me.
If the Igbo politicians like, let them gang up, hate Peter Obi, and vote for Mr. Insecticide. Unu ga-ahụ
Peter Obi, in my view, is a rare phenomenon—a rare occurrence in the history of Nigeria and Africa.
If, however, Nigeria decides not to vote for him, then I have a suggestion.
Your Excellency, Peter Gregory Obi, establish something that will last longer than one or two tenures. Establish the Peter Obi Leadership and Development Centre for Africa, somewhere in the East. Raise leaders. Train leaders. Let young people from across Africa and the world come to be equipped to govern nations.
That will be an institution that outlives any presidency.
