SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI
When the former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi suddenly dumped the Peoples’ Democratic Party for the hitherto unheralded Labour Party and became LP’s presidential candidate, I wrote in this column that it may have been Nigeria’s greatest political masterstroke of a lifetime.
Take a stand, stop the nation from sliding – Okoroji tells activists
There were however many in the professional political industry who did not agree with me. They were emphatic that Peter Obi cannot get anywhere. According to them, without the backing of the present corruption infested structures provided by the PDP or the APC, you cannot be the president of Nigeria. That was months ago. I am not sure that they are so confident anymore!
I also wrote the following in Saturday Breakfast: “The Peter Obi campaign must not be funded by Peter Obi. There has to be an independent, transparent and accountable financial platform set up immediately to which the average Nigerian who is “OBidient” can contribute his N100 or N1000 and ensure that the campaign is funded by millions of people and that Obi remains permanently answerable to the millions and the bullion van system of election funding is extinguished in Nigeria”
I wrote that because I hold a very strong view that as long it is ok for one man and his friends to provide the many billions of naira required for a serious presidential, gubernatorial, or other campaign for political office in Nigeria, the chronic corruption and illicit behaviour that bedevil our politics will never be brought under control.
I verily believe that one of the key failures of our democratic experiment is the fact that the campaign for office has become the biggest commercial investment in the land from which the investors expect not only to recoup their capital but to earn humungous profit.
Democracy as ‘government of the people for the people by the people’ becomes a farce when the people who are supposed to be central to the democratic process become mere pawns in the game. As we know, he who pays the piper dictates the tune.
In the last couple of weeks, it has been made public that the Obi campaign is setting up platforms to raise funds from the people for the purpose of his campaign for the presidency. I love it!
Some people are shocked by the development because in Nigeria the concept of a candidate for political office asking ordinary poor people to contribute money for his campaign, is strange. It is the candidate that is supposed to be dishing out money, left, right and center, to all comers. Where he gets the money from is immaterial and how he recovers the money is also immaterial. The consequence of the mercantilism involved is that the political office holder who with his friends, has invested the huge amount of money necessary to win elections, cannot be expected to take untainted decisions that serve the people. The recovery of investment surrounds every decision he takes, and the profit motive becomes central.
In other climes, to win the confidence of the people to contribute money to your political campaign is the first measure of your viability as a candidate. The amount of money each individual is allowed to contribute is also limited so that no individual controls the candidate. Barrack Obama raised more than a billion dollars through social media platforms from millions of Americans to successfully run for the presidency of the United States. From Day 1, it was clear that he was indebted to the millions of Americans and that it was his duty to serve them.
I think that the crowdfunding initiative of the Obi campaign is revolutionary. It is another masterstroke. No more bullion vans! It changes the narrative in Nigerian politics and expunges a cancer that has held leadership in Nigeria hostage.
The same way I heard that Peter Obi will never be a serious candidate because of his Labour Party platform, I am hearing that his preferred funding mechanism will not work. Many in Nigeria have become so soaked in our bad habits and bad manners that they cannot see any good idea working in Nigeria. I was told vehemently that the ATM would never work in Nigeria. I don’t know if there is any grown-up Nigerian who today does not have an ATM card. The ATM is working and there is a POS kiosk in every street in every village across Nigeria. Good things can work in Nigeria.
There are those who insist that for Obi to be viable, his bullion van must be on the streets dishing out money to one and all. To them, that is the nature of Nigerian politics and it will never change. To them, “we no dey give shishi” is nonsense. They do not understand that the frugality for which Mr. Obi is well known is one of his major selling points and their attempt to interpret it as incurable stinginess, falls flat with his millions of admirers.
There is no question that the biggest political movement in Nigeria today is the Peter Obi Revolution. The young people of Nigeria, the same age group that drove the #endsars movement, have concluded that for Nigeria to achieve true greatness, an end must be brought to our current bullion van democracy. It is apparent that a new structure is required that truly belongs to the young people of Nigeria for the repositioning of the Nigerian nation. In a revolution, you do not do things the way they have been done.
Every day, it is becoming clearer that a lot of the young people of Nigeria have caught the spark in the new type of leadership which Mr. Obi exudes, the kind of leadership that consistently challenges and questions the way Nigeria has been managed. The Peter Obi army looks up to him to do things differently and lift them out of their misery and bondage. The idealism is the fuel of a new Nigeria.
Let me repeat that the crowdfunding initiative of the Obi campaign is revolutionary. It is another masterstroke. No more bullion vans! It changes the narrative in Nigerian politics and expunges a cancer that has held leadership in Nigeria hostage. Bravo!
See you next week.
