This was a week that has truly tested the faith of Nigerians in their nation. Out of the blues, the news spread like wildfire that the advance convoy of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, an army general, had been attacked by bandits in his home state of Katsina. There are confusing stories of a Police Commissioner losing his life in the attack.
As a regular Nigerian, you are left in terrible shock. You are scared stiff. You don't have a convoy. You don't have any police security, no Army, no DSS, no Secret Service and you must go out, completely exposed, in search of daily bread. If the President's convoy is not safe, what then is safe in Nigeria?
On the same day, while you are still chewing the bitter kola, from the pit of hell, another crazy news story spreads. The nation's best known prison facility, the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja, the nation's capital, where many of Nigeria's most high-profile prisoners are kept, had been bombed and the gates flung open for hundreds of die-hard criminals to flee and disappear into thin air to further traumatize an incredibly traumatized nation.
Kuje is on the way to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja. So, our dear President, on his way to the airport, gets a photo opportunity of inspecting what is left of the prison. Thereafter, he drives to the airport in another convoy, boards a presidential jet and flies off to Senegal! While the nation is practically burning?!
I watched my good friend, Femi Adesina on television. He had been given the unpalatable job of explaining this oddity. I felt sorry for him. What was so important about the trip to Senegal that the Vice President or any of the coterie of ministers could not be drafted to handle? In these days of very sophisticated digital communication, could our President not have addressed the Senegal Conference from Abuja? Pardon me, but I felt like our president did not grasp the magnitude of what had just happened. In fact, if he was already in Senegal and heard such news, should he not have left the conference and headed home immediately?
Suddenly, I am not sure whether Aso Rock or the Central Bank is safe. Everything appears to be unravelling. Somebody said to me that our President was scared and was running away from the problem. I don't know what to believe anymore.
Politics aside, President Buhari owes Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi immense gratitude for what appears to be calm in the midst of a crazy storm. It is not the heavy rain that is keeping our country relatively cool. Things could easily have got out of hand. In the desert of hopelessness and despair that have enveloped our nation, Peter Obi is providing that oasis of hope. He has kept a lot of young Nigerians busy counting the months and days when our nation will be free of the locusts.
Like it or not, the young people of Nigeria are presently living on hope. Hope is their breakfast, lunch and dinner. The are busy on their smartphones sending out messages and composing "Obidient" graphics, poetry, skits and songs… waiting for what next Peter Obi will say to them … waiting for the day of their true independence from both the machine gun bandits and the bullion van bandits.
The Peter Obi project clearly has the hand of God in it. If Peter Obi had become the PDP presidential candidate, he would never have got the traction he is getting now. God set him free from the PDP. If Peter Obi had got Rabiu Kwankwaso as his Vice-Presidential candidate, it may have been seen as politics as usual. God set him free from Kwankwaso. Just yesterday, Peter Obi scored a big goal. His unveiling of a dainty, young and obviously well-schooled Yusuf Danti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate, is resonating across the board. The photogenic duo is different. They remind one of the unassailable Bill Clinton/Al Gore ticket in the U.S. This is at the time that Atiku Abubkar is having a huge Wike headache with his choice of Ifeanyi Okowa as his Vice and the Jagaban appears not to have decided whether he will have a Muslim/Muslim ticket or a Muslim/Christian ticket.
Those in the professional political industry who said that Peter Obi had no structure and will not get anywhere must be wondering what is going on.
Peter Obi is today the super-duper-star of Nigerian politics. He is the conversation everywhere. The attack dogs are having a hell of a time shooting down this moving target. Those trying to divide young Nigerians on the basis of tribe, region and religion, are failing. Seven months to the presidential election, everybody is talking about Peter Obi. The videos of his speeches are trending on Facebook, WhatsApp Instagram and everywhere else and the young people of Nigeria are gulping every word he says. The just extended massive registration for PVCs is essentially driven by young 'OBIdient' Nigerians who have suddenly come to the conclusion that to end the misery, desperation, joblessness and hopelessness that has engulfed the nation, they must change the politics. I predict again that the turn out for voting in 2023 will be unprecedented. The structureless campaign is now on auto drive.
As our Muslim brothers get ready to celebrate the Salah, it should be clear to everyone that the Almighty has not given up on our nation. Hope is in the air. Barka de Salah everyone!
See you next week.
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