17th May 2026, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, Politics, Governance And Development, News,
By Sam Egburonu Esq
08023165410
egburosam1@gmail.com

At the end of the  2023 Election intrigues, some top political analysts swore that even before the end of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first term in office, Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential candidate, who suddenly emerged a national icon before and during the elections, will never be able to sustain the passionate and cult-like following he garnered.

Their argument was that the passion that intoxicated Nigerian youths across the country to rally round Obi, who did not have a single serving State Governor openly standing by his side then, was not based on his control of a tangible political structure and so, cannot be sustained beyond the immediate period of the political frenzy.

Some informed analysts added that Obi, fondly called Okwute (the Rock) by his fans, does not have and or make use of the Nigerian short cut style and cannot sustain the passion for long, not with a master strategist of Tinubu’s stature sitting pretty in Aso Rock.

The argument was so intensely rendered that even I, could not totally dismiss it.

With my fair knowledge of Nigerian political landscape and how the game is played in the field by the masters to create divisions and remain on top, I could not underestimate the power of Asiwaju to press  the right buttons and turn the table in his favour.

I also could not close my eyes to what I know of Peter Obi, especially the fact that he is not likely to agree to his minders’ advice to cut some corners and juggle a few things here and there so as to help stop Tinubu’s men from easily deflecting his growing popularity and reducing the number of his followers.

As a political reporter still active at the centre stage then, I observed and covered the pre and post 2022 and 2023 political developments in Nigeria, including the EndSARS protests that long preceded the elections but  which played major role in the eventual unification of Nigerian youths in 2022 and 2023 in search of genuine change.

So, I closely observed the election campaigns that drew so much from social media and the power of the internet in it’s recruitment drive, the emergence and innovative management of Obidients Movement that made a mincemeat of old ways of fighting political battles in Nigeria, the 2023 Elections itself which recorded the kind of mass turn out and participation never recorded in Nigerian election history and then the historic INEC’s IREV glitch that gave birth to what the opposition still describes as the anti-climax of 2023 Elections.

So, I understood perfectly well, why informed analysts concluded that the system that threw up the glitch at the last minute is capable of building new bumps on the road just to frustrate any aspirant, including a Peter Obi.

Some of the people who have this understanding, concluded that both Peter Obi and his associate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, may never survive the African Democratic Congress, ADC, traps.

With their smart, last minute defection to the newly registered Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, the two gave the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, enough reason to restrategize. Since it seems clear that the grand plan to ensure Obi was never on any 2027 Presidential Election ballot has failed, new arsenals have to be unleashed to stop Obi in 2027.

From what I have observed since the defection of Obi and Kwankwaso from African Democratic Congress, ADC, to Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, and since NDC zoned it’s Presidential slot to the South, it seems all that is left is to intensify the grand campaigns aimed at de-marketting Obi and Kwankwaso.

But if you ask me, I will say this strategy is not yielding any positive results to the people funding it.

It has become obvious that the more they try to de-market Peter Obi and his associate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, the more they help to further publicize them and put their project in the news.

Today, a few months to the 2027 Presidential Elections, when some swore he would have been schemed out of the game completely, Obi is not only at the forefront of the country’s politics, he is now so strategically positioned that his presidential quest, with the current prospect of pairing with an equally admired and largely followed politician in the person of Rabiu Kwankwaso, is indeed at it’s very best.

Not giving up, the ruling political party, APC or the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Presidency has resorted to the deployment of it’s mouth worriors to spew out anything ugly they can imagine in order to de-market Obi and belittle the likely effect of the joint ticket between Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso (OK).

At the forefront of this uncanny assignment seems to be Kenneth Okonkwo Esq, a lawyer and Nollywood fine face of Living in Bondage fame, who has been the subject of many controversies in the political arena in the recent time and Femi Fani Kayode, a former Minister, always involved in one controversy or another, whose recent appointment as an Ambassador generated so much exchanges following his rejection by the proposed host country. Even before ensuring that South Africa, where he was later posted to, formally accepted him as Nigerian High Commissioner, FFK devoted so much time to attack the person of Obi and the prospects of his 2027 Presidential Election project.

The irony of the development is that instead of developing quality contents on the achievements and visions of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who they are paid to promote, the mouth worriors have continually attacked and abused Peter Obi, thereby ironically contributing a reasonable part in the sustenance of PO and his Presidential project on the media space.

Today, Obi, the soft spoken Presidential aspirant on the platform of the newly registered Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, has sustained the position of
the most talked about politician and Presidential Aspirant in Nigeria.

I spent most of the weekend reading and listening to news and commentaries on current developments ahead of 2027 Elections and I can say here with great degree of certainty that Obi remained the most talked about politician or Presidential aspirant in Nigeria, no thanks partly to his bitter opponents.

In this circumstance, an idle or empty criticism or name calling of Peter Obi will only give his followers opportunity to further expose the grand conspiracy against him and use the issues raised to discuss and promote his promises.

This is certainly not what the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu want.

If it is true that APC and Tinubu are behind the dirty intrigues that have castrated PDP, Labour Party and ADC, I can say here that they would not want anything that will help to promote Peter Obi or to put him in the news.

So, it is strange that up till today, Kenneth Okonkwo, FFK and their pay masters are either ignorant of this fact or are unable to see how their attacks on Obi are helping to further promote and sustain the new OK message.

This is strange given that these same people claim to be professional publicists and masters of the game.

*RIVERS STATE ALSO ON MY MIND* ….

The intrigues that surrounded the All Progressives Congress, APC’s screening and clearance of Rivers State Governor Simi Fubara, is a pointer that this oil-rich South-South State is being programmed to be a hot spot during this forthcoming elections.

Federal Capital Territory’s Minister, Nyesom Wike’s vow to fiercely oppose sitting Governor Simi Fubara’s re-election is generally known to all.

As it stands now, following failure of all attempts to reconcile the two, the matter between Wike and Fubara will only come to a head during the forthcoming governorship primary election in the state, scheduled for May 21, 2026.

But still on the likely outcome of Rivers State APC Governorship primaries, I seem unable to situate Kingsley Chinda in the current Rivers chess board.

Chinda, a high-ranking lawmaker and a staunch loyalist of the FCT Minister, is known as a member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, (or has the lawmaker defected to APC) but the lawmaker was screened by the APC Screening Committee and cleared to contest for the APC Governorship Ticket against Governor Simi Fubara.

The game, to say the least, is scary.

It remains to be seen why our politicians enjoy this dangerous game of deliberate complications of our polity and our future.

-Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu Esq, a veteran journalist and lawyer, is a current affairs analyst.

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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