Opinion: The inside man

Underrated, dismissed and not accorded any place in the political calculus of the 2023 general election, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, might have altered the electoral map of the country and her subsisting equation for good.

Perhaps the OBIdient Movement, like the #EndSARS protests, was a timely occurrence to reset the faculty of the political class. And, without a doubt, it did more than anyone had projected in the days leading to the elections.

Many analysts and supporters of this Anambra State-born politician had called his adventure a disruption. But beyond that, he is better described as “The Inside Man” – the one who stood between two political giants, blocking the pathway to the victory of one and freeing up the other’s, albeit inadvertently.

Had Obi not joined the race, the election would have been a no contest for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as Atiku Abubakar would have inherited Obi’s voters, who are mostly from his natural strongholds.

In the same breath, had Atiku not been in the race, the former vice-president’s supporters would have opted for Tinubu, being their most plausible option, and Obi would have been toast still.

Whichever way this is viewed, Obi has earned a new and different place in the annals of the nation’s body polity and in that stroke, become a political phenomenon, which if he sustains, would manifest at its own time like a full moon. And, of course, after building stronger consensus with other parts of the country.

All said, it was a hard fought election, and in spite of the misgivings about the winner, no one can take away the fact that Tinubu worked very hard and fought even harder for his victory.

You can say anything, but this power that Tinubu has now was not served to him a la carte. He went for it and “grabbed” it.

At this juncture, you all should congratulate the four candidates, including Rabiu Kwankwaso, the man, who has an overrated impression of himself and place in Nigeria’s political artery.