Following his remarkable run in last year’s presidential election which disrupted the status quo in Nigeria’s political affairs and also raised an army of Nigerians eager for the dismantling of the country’s old political brigade, the candidate of the Labour Party at the 2023 poll, Peter Obi, has gotten his hands full fending off mounting controversies to his potential 2027 presidential aspirations.
Obi was the second runner-up in the polemical political slugfest which pitted him against former Vice-president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, and the eventual winner and incumbent president, Bola Tinubu, who flew the flag of the All Progressives Congress.
Hence, the 62-year-old former chairman of the board of the Security and Exchange Commission needs no introduction as one of Nigeria’s most famous politicians alive today; under him, the political net worth of his supporters, the OBIdients, has improved in leaps and bounds, but Obi, a larger-than-life personality, might not be immune from the many controversies mercilessly buffeting his Aso Villa master takeover plan.
“If care is not taken, the controversies trying to engulf Obi today will be his undoing in 2027,” said a civil servant, Okwudire Iroanya, who added, “And yes, I believe he will want to contest in 2027, but it will not be like 2019 or 2023 at all.”
Iroanya then predicted, “Obi’s current controversies will make the election in 2027 a different kettle of fish as things, I am afraid, will not be easy for him.”
Obi joined the big league of Nigeria politics when Atiku picked him as his running mate during the build-up to the 2019 presidential election.
The PDP was optimistic that Obi’s impressive résumé would help to defeat the then APC president, Muhammadu Buhari, in the election, but in spite of the hype generated, the Atiku-Obi partnership ran out of luck and did not smell the sweet scent of victory.
When the 2023 presidential election came knocking at the door of his political ambition, Obi thought himself to have come of political age and so he ventured to contest against his former boss, Atiku, for the right to be the PDP’s flag bearer.
In the end, Obi’s daring political adventure did not work out well for him and cross carpeting to the Labour Party became inevitable.
In the Labour Party, Obi quickly snapped the sole presidential ticket up and his new party, thereafter, was not only resuscitated but also became a serious contender for the highest political office in the land.
More importantly, too, apart from the new-found acceptability of the Labour Party to Nigerians, the party was embraced by the many people who wanted “new blood” in the system; in their school of thought, the Labour Party would be the panacea to the myriad problems affecting the country.
Obi would then become a folk hero. But following the presidential election which he lost, cracks began to appear in his new party’s quest to present a united front.
A leadership crisis erupted in the Labour Party when a group led by factional chairman, Lamidi Apapa, began to square off with another group headed by the national chairman of the party, Julius Abure; when the ensuing legal fisticuffs climaxed at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abure and two others were ordered to stop parading themselves as officers of the party.
Last week, however, the Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the High Court, putting Abure back in the driver’s seat of the party’s affairs and fined Apapa, who is expected to take the supremacy battle to the Supreme Court, N1 million for his trouble.
It is worthy of note, therefore, that as the fight between Abure and Apapa lingers; Obi will yet not escape getting caught in the crossfire, especially because of Apapa’s verbal salvos.
It will be recalled that at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal last year, Apapa engaged in bitter exchanges with Labour Party members backing Abure and even had his cap yanked off his head as he emerged from the court.
He, thereafter, told journalists that Obi was taking sides with Abure and that he would “expose” the former presidential candidate.
“On Peter Obi taking sides, I don’t want to expose him, but he deserves to be exposed. Sometime ago, in one of the interviews he (Obi) granted, he said he does not know me at all.
“I have been trying to cover him, but he does not deserve it,” Apapa threatened.
It was not long before the embattled factional chairman began to open a can of worms.
According to a statement credited to his faction, Apapa accused Obi of allegedly siphoning $15 million and N12 billion meant for his campaign.
His faction also claimed that Obi used the money “for the cure of Abure’s poverty lineage” and to “help other Abure Indigenous People of Biafra supporters in the Labour Party to get a lifeline.”
Not done, the statement also said that the national leader of Labour Party, Obi, fraudulently diverted all monies due party agents across the country who then refused to represent the party at various polling units during the election.
For clarity sake, during the 2023 electioneering campaign, Obi had launched an official website to solicit funds ahead of the poll and in a show of benevolence, Nigerians who live in the diaspora allegedly contributed $150 million to his coffers while those at home collectively doled out N100 billion.
“It is unfortunate that a party like Labour is going through these unfortunate incidents we are seeing today. I mean, they were acting like saints before the general elections and for me then, they could do NO wrong”
The funds donated to Obi, as well as those realised by the Labour Party from the sale of nomination forms, has been stirring so much controversy and led Oluchi Oparah, the National Treasurer of the party who received a six-month suspension, to say that Abure had to account for N3.5 billion proceeds from the sale of nomination forms and fundraisers.
Even though the matter is still in the court of public opinion, Obi, whose reputation is at stake, promised the appointment of a reputable audit firm to deal with the fraud allegations in the party.
“When I am involved in money, it must be transparent,” Obi had added, distancing himself from any wrongdoing.
A chieftain of Labour Party, Faduri Joseph, however said about the campaign funds saga, “Our candidate (Obi) cannot claim to be an alternative to corruption but refused to come out clean to Nigerians and the party of how much kindhearted Nigerians donated, both home and abroad to support the movement and the new Nigeria agenda for the world to trust and believe us next time.”
After the chairperson of Obi’s fundraising team, Aisha Yesufu, disclosed that Obi only received N595, 976,994 million in donations, activist and newly minted lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, said the Obi campaign finance audit released was “so funny” and that the money (in dollar) former Rivers State governor and FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, gave the Labour Party was higher than the figure announced by Yesufu.
Not only this, Adeyanju has also been rubbishing Obi and the Labour Party’s popular mantra, “we no dey give shi shi.”
Adeyanju accused Obi of trying to give him what he (Adeyanju) called “thank you for coming” money after he had a two-hour meeting with the Labour Party generalissimo during the presidential campaign.
Adeyanju also said Obi was a “fraud” who paid influencers to promote him on social media.
On the long string of controversies Obi has to contend with, a political analyst and chartered accountant, Ifeoma Ogbonna, told The Point, “To start with, it is unfortunate that a party like Labour is going through these unfortunate incidents we are seeing today. I mean, they were acting like saints before the general elections and for me then, they could do no wrong.
“Accusations and counter-accusations have been flying around, allegations and denials have become commonplace in the Labour Party and who could have imagined that Abure would be arrested in Edo State because of a petition written by the Apapa faction to the police? This kind of drama is not good politically for Obi.
“And as if that is not enough, Nigerians have started to question Obi on many fronts. Obi’s knowledge of the economy has been questioned by his former friends in the PDP, Daniel Bwala and Reno Omokri.
“Obi’s style of opposition politics has been questioned and criticised, his stewardship as governor during which he allegedly pumped state funds into his business and using his late elder brother’s academic credentials, have also all come under scrutiny.
“And though Obi has not been held responsible and deserving blame for doing something wrong and his party has denied most of the allegations against him and Abure and even insisted that Obi was not under pressure to dump the party, all the issues are nevertheless diminishing his aura of respectability,” Ogbonna said.
