[OPINION]
Tony Abolo
We are gone so far out of our moral compass of rectitude that discussing the possibility of Peter Gregory Obi being on the ballot in 2027 and even the possibility of winning seem such a remote conversation these days.
With characters well known for debauchery, certificate forging, drug courier, massive fraud, now occupying the highest echelons of governance it seems now to be the standard expectation of public conduct and hence anything else seem to be a deviation.
Nigerians love to complain about the effect of poor governance and lack of transparency in our public lives. Of course the consequence is the awful baggage of corruption which seems to be the only way to achieve any purpose in our lives, whether public or private.
You cannot get employment or get a contract or get recommended into any office or rise on the hierarchy of public service, if you have not been infested with the cognomen of corruption behaviour.
The more visibly corrupted you are, the more you are visible in Nigeria, and the more you can rise and be accepted in Nigeria public and social life. And so here we are, in the throes of a completely battered economy, a consequence of how public life is conducted, and how the public wealth is dissipated.
The public debt level has no correlation with the infrastructure on the ground nor the quality of life of the average Nigerians. We, the millions of Nigerians want to make and see a better country but we are neither willing to understand the cause of misery, nor the cause of our predicament.
It seems far easier for the multitude to talk about preferences and prejudices based on ethnic, historical, regional and religious reasons in their choices of a preferred leadership, whether at the state or national level. Pity that that, has been our social attitudes towards politics and elections.
We make it sound as if only our ethnic, religious and regional preferences resolve the conundrum of our leadership and development crises. This we have been doing in the 66 years of Nigeria and yet it produces no decent outcomes but we still in every four years run into the same pattern of choices and the outcomes are forever the same.
Ever after, we complain about whoever is the leader and his policy choices. The Nigerian political system is such that it is absolutely difficulty for now, to create a system that can enthrone a cleaner, leaner and cheaper system that delivers integrity, honesty, politics for service, and people willing to serve the public purpose.
We must admit that we seem or think that we are not ever going to come to any redemption. Some are resorting to prayers and fasting in the hope that in a miraculous way, good, honest and trustworthy persons will appear on the scene and then a new course correction would occur and new value systems entrenched. That is hoping for what may never come or near impossibility. Are you hoping that those who have acquired wealth by perfidy or fraud and stealing will give up willingly and allow a new method of equity and fair distribution of national wealth to take place?
So how did other nations overcame their moral albatross and become nations that embraced order and progress? Whether we like it or not, no cross, no glory. We must be prepared to bite the bullet.
A nation of good men must ARISE. It is possible in Nigeria which may not be exactly in our life times. But a start must be made.
We require a critical mass of other kind of individuals moving into our politics, persons who are willing to see how wealth and power is got without this current era of fraud, deceit, bribery and outright stealing.
The band of ‘good men’ will network locally and nationally into a movement. Politics for now is seen as a do or die affair and powers obtained by aggressiveness and violence and rigging – the snatch it, grab it and run with it principle.
Such men must move into a drive for a new movement of ‘revolutionaries’, people who want to change the status quo. Whether we like it or not, it would mean a confrontation politics against the present status quo – which will not give up easily.
In the case of the European society, it took the forms of Enlightenment, Reformation, Industrial and Scientific Revolution, Educational and new AI and progressive mindedness and of persons who seek to conquer the world through artificial intelligence and economic domination.
Today Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaire – a wealth attained through his Space X programme and Tesla Car revolution – not through malfeasance and stealing of America’s money.
These values and movement were what Peter Gregory Obi sought to drive about in 2023 in the hope that the oppressed millions would see their chains and throw way their shackles.
He is coming again in 2027 with the same message. You can observe that the vultures in the rapacious political class know that Peter Obi’s message is a threat to the dominance of economic destruction and increasing poverty and would not want to let go.
Have you seen in the APC, a classic vulture political group who are yet to say publicly what else we can expect to see in 2027? They merely indulge in vilifying and insulting Peter Obi, as if Peter Obi’s name is their manifesto.Fancy, Remi Tinubu offering an insulting advice to Nigerians, that frying akara, roasting corn and making kuli-kuli which does not cost much money to set up would be the best way for millions of ‘crushed’ Nigerians to get out of poverty.
Fine. Can we ask her, if that is what she and Bola Tinubu did to enable them arrive to Aso Villa? Please, like they say, the slaves have nothing to loose but their chains.
We need to believe in the power of the collective oppressed and so, in 2027, throw out your chains and seek your freedom. Peter Gregory Obi is not your problem.
Situate it where it has come from and exorcise the evil and satan in our lives. We know them. You know them. Be prepared to shout – Osho -be!! Hmm!! And let the chains fall off!! In 2027!!!!
