I have decided to coin the title of this week’s essay like a typical title of a literary academic paper. Writing academic papers is an engaging enterprise different from the weekly newspaper and magazine musings. Members of the literary fraternity will easily relate to ‘rethinking’, ‘reimagining’, ‘revisiting’ and ‘reconsidering’ of multiple literary paradigms, which deserve a second, more critical scrutiny to reveal their undifferentiated, unheralded continuum. Thanks to Jacques Derrida for giving us deconstruction, a theoretical armament that explodes the barriers of meaning, granting us the freedom to interpret ideas and texts from different perspectives. In my deconstructive mood, I have decided to take a second look at Mr. Peter Obi’s recent submission that if he wins the 2027 presidential election, he would serve for only one term. No doubt, Mr Obi is Nigeria’s undisputed political sensation. That reality is palpable and reverberates with affective immediacy. Any contrary interpretation is immaterial. Nobody in Nigeria’s political history has influenced the collective political sensibilities of the populace the way Mr Obi has since his emergence as a contender for the highest office in the land. While his army of admirers eulogize him, insisting that he represents the possibility of a new Nigeria, his legion of detractors continually malign him for the audacity of his political aspiration.
Surely, Peter Obi has redefined Nigeria’s political architecture since the 2023 presidential election. Without any structure, no governor, senator, local government chairman, electoral officers, party agents, police, army, and no inducement of the electorate, he got over six million votes as officially declared by INEC. Many of his followers think the figures were higher. Before the election, some people swore that he would never win any state in Nigeria. Many people staked their lives that he would suffer the greatest electoral disgrace in the history of Nigeria. But he marched on with his army of uncompromising supporters, convinced in his vision for a new Nigeria. He only campaigned for nine months, and over six million Nigerians voted for him. He won Lagos and Abuja. That was quite symbolic. Many people won elections across the country because they identified with his Labour Party. These politicians campaigned with Obi’s photographs and won. Anywhere Nigerians saw Obi’s photograph, they voted without minding who the candidate was. It was that convincing. The heavens coalesced with the earth and confounded sublunary minds. The impossible happened. Over six million Nigerians voted for him.
The 2027 election is two years away, but the electoral fever in the country speaks volumes about what to expect in the next twenty-four months. From his body language, Peter Obi is offering himself again to serve Nigerians in the capacity of a president. Although other politicians are positioning themselves in the same way as suitable candidates for Aso Rock, Obi is attracting all the praises and vile attention from his admirers and traducers alike. For many people, insulting Peter Obi has become a professional calling. Content creators are having a field day with his name because they are sure of traffic to their media handles. Obi is the game. Everyone waits anxiously for his comments on national issues, even though he is an ordinary, private citizen. His actions have become a yardstick for measuring the electoral idiosyncrasies of Nigerians come 2027. What did Peter Obi say? Has Peter Obi visited the scene? The North will remember. The South will remember. Such effusions are familiar in Nigeria’s chaotic political terrain these days. Indeed, Obi’s image has given relevance to many of his detractors and opponents. Yet, there are other presidential hopefuls towards 2027, but Obi is the ripe fruit that must be stoned consistently.
Recently, Peter Obi declared that if he wins the 2027 presidential election, he would serve one term of four years. That declaration, like many of his pronouncements in the past, has elicited several reactions. A governor in the Southeast, habitually manifesting ancestral neurotic tendencies, has claimed that any politician promising to serve one term of four years needs a psychiatric examination. Although the governor parades himself as a professor, his primitive, stone age, vindictive politicking gives him away as a sure candidate for spiritual exorcism from acute jaundice or other kind of psychiatric affliction. That is a matter for another day. I am only concerned about Peter Obi’s avowal that he would serve one term of four years if he is elected as the president in 2027. Did he mean what he said? Those close to him have assured that he will keep to his words. Those not close to him have criticised him, saying that his promise is informed by morbid desperation for power. Peter Obi has said that those who do not believe him are judging him by their inverted, crooked standard because they see governance as a bazaar, therefore, they do not think a politician can turn the fortunes of the people around in four years.
I have critically examined Peter Obi’s promise to serve for a one-term of four years and I have a different opinion. Although an elected president can serve one term of four years, and quit the stage, it sounds like an alien idea in Nigeria, where power is not about service but about self-fulfilment. Nelson Mandela served for four years and left the stage. Therefore, it is possible and achievable. However, Peter Obi made that promise without considering the people he would serve, their inclinations and wellbeing in the positive aftermath of his four years of governance. In a broken country like Nigeria, where every defining index indicates decay and retrogression, where the mindless profligacy of the ruling class contrasts with the anguish of the populace, where clannishness and nepotism are identifiable parameters strutting our sovereign corridors, the people would not let go of a leader who brings demonstrable, positive, and radical changes to the polity. What happens if Nigerians in their millions hit the streets and insist that Peter Obi should continue after his first term of four years? Would he turn the people down and walk away, given his commitment to deliver the people from the depths of squalor?
If indeed governance is about the people as Peter Obi has always argued, then he must rethink his promise to only serve for one term, that is, if he wins, if the principalities and powers of Nigeria’s politics will allow a free and fair election to take place. It would be a different scenario if a leader fails the electorate and breaks all the promises made before the election. It would be a different ball game if a leader pulverizes and impoverishes the people through inconsiderate, ill-conceived economic decisions. It would be a different situation if a leader, through unconscionable, power-drunk attitude, admits the people into the peonage and penury clan after only two years in the saddle. Of course, the people would vehemently, with one voice, reject that leader in the polls. But it becomes a different circumstance if a leader, through humane, people-oriented policies, engineers a turnaround in the country to the benefit of everyone. It would be a different scenario if a leader cuts the costs of governance, stops the official waste and haemorrhage and revives an ailing country. The people would endorse such a leader to continue in office. That is practical politics. Therefore, Peter Obi’s promise to serve for only one term may not have considered the latter scenario.
Nigerian politicians must thank their stars that Nigerians are very simple, unassuming people to govern. They don’t ask for too much. It would be very easy to become a hero in Nigeria as a leader by doing the basics. It is not rocket science. A country that has suffered so much under successive administrations would easily breathe a sigh of relief at the slightest change of fortune. Such positive development will resonate across the length and breadth of the country and the call for the leader to continue in office would be difficult to ignore. This is why Peter Obi’s promise to serve one term of four years deserves a critical rethinking. Unless Peter Obi designs a workable succession prognosis that would continue his good works if he quits the stage after four years. But it is easier to erase a positive legacy than to preserve it. Nigerians are desperate for good governance and would give their arms to support a responsible leader. Whether the people would allow a man who changed their fortunes for four years to walk away is in the realm of infinite conjecture. Surely, a new Nigeria is possible and when it materializes, it should be sustained. Leadership should be about what the people want and not what the leader wants.
