By Kay Lord
With today’s election in Anambra, and Soludo’s APGA winning, Peter Obi has finally been confirmed a paper weight politician and thrown into the dustbin of history as far as Anambra state is concerned.
Whereas, after Ojukwu’s death when he became the de-facto leader of APGA, what he should have done after his tenure as governor was to stay with APGA, dedicate and commit himself into making APGA the dominant party in the South East.
Can you imagine Peter Obi working his nails off and leading men and women into other SE states and build a powerful force of educated Igbo elite politicians across SE, using APGA as a vehicle to drive the Igbo political reinisance. Capture and make sure all Igbo states have an APGA governor, take over 80% of Senate seats and House of Rep seats from the SE and also dominate the state Houses of Assembly in the SE. But what did he do? He ran after selfish lucre.
What I described above is what Asiwaju Bola Tinubu did in SW, using Lagos as a spring board. After 8 years as Governor, Tinubu already obtained a Senate seat form. It was at the last INEC window to substitute candidates that Tinubu handed over the Senate ticket to Ganiyu Solomon, GOS. Tinubu said he had to drop his Senate ambition in order to have time to grow ACN as a party. He believed being in the Senate would not allow him the time to dedicate himself to take grow ACN as a party and spread to other SW states.
That’s the difference in leadership and foresight. Peter Obi because of promise by GEJ to appoint him as Secretary to Government of the Federation after PDP would have won the 2015 election, abandoned APGA and ran to PDP. What a man with a shortsighted vision. He even left his political son, Willie Obiano who he single handedly brought in and made governor in APGA and went away chasing shadows. Can you imagine Tinubu porting to PDP after making sure Fashola succeeded him as governor of Lagos?
Now, check this…within 8 years of Tinubu leaving office as Governor and dedicating himself to party politics alone, he already made sure ACN took over all the SW states and even Edo. That’s to show you what Peter Obi could have done within 8 years after leaving office as Governor of Anambra state.
Now, Peter Obi has no relevance even in his own home state. Why? Because he lacks the capacity to envisage that politics is a marathon and not a 100 meter dash and those who must assume political leadership and have great political influence must be long suffering and have a long term reward mentality.
Today, quote me, if Peter Obi had stayed in APGA and have worked to see APGA dominate the political landscape in the SE, he would be a powerful man politically to be reckoned with nationally because he would have a big platform to negotiate for power nationally. Unfortunately, Peter Obi bungled it because of selfish inclination.
Like him or hate him, that is where Jagaban made a difference. Ability to look at a more broader and collective success and not just about himself alone. Even, his greatest critiques and enemies can’t feign ignorance of his massive political influence. Guess what, he was just an ordinary governor who came into politics from the corporate background like Peter Obi. Today, who is the boss?
