The candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023, presidential election, Peter Obi, may have come up short of victory at the polls, his role; however, as an opposition politician in the outgone year 2024 has continued to come under review by analysts.
Obi, who rose above the agony of defeat in the presidential election when he and his party had a low chance of success, has, by dint of hard work, managed to remain relevant in Nigeria’s ultra-charged political atmosphere.
His standing as an opposition politician had in December received a boost somewhat after he was adjudged the ninth most-talked about African in 2024, according to one of Africa’s fastest growing pop culture brands, Top Charts Africa.
True to the hype, the former Anambra State Governor’s every move and utterances precipitate public discourse and typically come under relentless scrutiny.
These press-worthy spotlighting of Obi’s political business and even private concerns were part of what attracted the attention of Nigerians first, and later on Top Charts Africa, who used Google algorithms to arrive at their results.
Now that a new political dispensation has been ushered in with the arrival of 2025, analysts reckon that Obi can continue to stake a claim to the presidential seat in 2027 by upping his political game and also ensuring that he stays, especially for the right reasons, in the consciousness of Nigerian voters via political conversations.
One of the obvious political moves Obi made in 2024 was his decision to extend a much-needed philanthropic hand to Northerners in need of some basic amenities.
The snag with this venture was that Obi is often criticised for being Southern Nigeria-centric.
Obi was attacked by his opponents who claimed that he has a strong affinity with the people in Southern Nigeria, especially those from the South East where he hails from, to really give a hoot about Northerners, hence the start of a major talking point in 2024.
During his Ramadan tour last year, Obi dug multiple boreholes in several localities in Kaduna, Kebbi, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto States, and the gesture rather than attract all the encomiums for his efforts, got him sufficient badmouthing from his detractors, including some disenchanted Northerners, who railed at him for what they described as “substandard boreholes dug by Obi.”
Before the 2023 presidential election and during the course of the electioneering campaigns, Obi frequented some of the most popular Christian ministries in Nigeria, such as the Dunamis International Gospel Centre, the Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners’ Chapel), and the Redeemed Christian Church of God, led by Paul Enenche, David Oyedepo and Enoch Adeboye, respectively.
Obi went to these churches – and some others – to woo Christians for their support and even though he was welcomed with open arms by those in the churches, he was accused by outsiders of turning the churches to campaign venues and making the house of God his favourite stomping ground.
“Obi must also be more strategic in 2025. He mustn’t allow anyone to teach him how to go about his opposition duties”
And in a bit of a dramatic frenzy, while shoring up his leverage among the Christian communities, Obi had also controversially told the church that it was time for them to “wake up” and “take back your country.”
For his trouble, Obi was called a religious bigot. His saving grace, it seems, is that his close ties with some renowned Christian leaders have shown that his support base in the church is still intact and this makes sense considering that there is a majority Christian population in Southern Nigeria that will have a huge impact on the results of the 2027 presidential election.
So far so good, Obi has been making good use of social media, whether through his posts on X, formerly Twitter or his participation in what has been described as the new norm in Nigeria – podcast shows.
In one of the podcasts he appeared on, he controversially said that night vigils should be converted to night shifts, and the backlash against his view from some disheartened Christian leaders reverberated through the polity.
On the X platform, Obi has been a strong and vocal critic of the Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress Federal Government and to his credit, the title of chief opposition politician seems to sit well on his head.
His hard work as an opposition politician has received some surprising support from one of his most avid critics, Reno Omokri, who was moved to say that the 63-year-old Obi was currently “the Number One opposition figure in Nigeria. Bar none.”
“The man, Obi, is severely flawed, but I admire how he has trudged on despite the obstacles he faces.
“Some people in one or two opposition parties have already been retired by Obi, but they just don’t know it yet because their money is keeping them on political life support,” Omokri said as he sounded off, detailing that “anybody in any opposition party who thinks that he is bigger than Obi right now is just deluded.”
Obi has also ensured that his voice continues to echo in the polity. He has relentlessly pointed out everything he thinks are the government’s shortcomings and 2025 will most likely not see a shortfall in this regard.
His New Year message to the ruling APC Government is a pointer to this.
A determined Obi heavily criticised President Tinubu’s management of Nigeria, claiming that the country was getting worse economically, politically and even security-wise.
The former presidential candidate, however, does not always have a monopoly of criticism.
In December when he criticised the unfortunate deaths of some Nigerians who were stampeded to death in Ibadan, Abuja and Anambra State, Obi himself was criticised by the Presidency who said he “benefits from the misfortune or the confusion of others.”
Obi has consistently said that the manner with which Nigeria removed its fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, brought untold hardship on Nigerians with the attendant strain on the economy proving to be debilitating.
Obi said he would have put measures in place that would mitigate any effect of subsidy removal if he was the president.
Some members of the LP, who endured a torrid leadership crisis in the party, said that Obi is not a proactive politician whenever the internal affairs of the LP were concerned.
Many more members say that even when Obi fails to act proactively, he is not known to react effectively to all the crises in the party.
They say Obi pays lip service to the internal dynamics of the party and wonder why he allowed the leadership crisis in the party to fester for a long time
Because of this, the party lost some notable members and are about to lose some more members who insist that Obi did not provide the necessary rudder he could use for steering the ship of the party.
When the August 2024 “End bad Governance protests” was shaking the foundation of Nigeria, many Nigerians were quick to mention that Obi did not fully participate in it.
The protesters said that the best Obi could do was to tell Nigerians that they have the right to protest.
Many protesters bemoaned his absence on the streets and they charged Obi to emulate the then APC leadership who in 2012 had protested subsidy removal by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
On the dos and don’ts in 2025 for Obi, a political analyst, Kizito Opara, said, “There are a lot of things I want Obi to do in 2025. The things that I want him to do but I will stick to and mention only some here.
“I would like Obi to become bolder and more daring.
“He is too soft on the government and a bit of radicalism would do him a world of good.
“I also want Obi to do more podcasts.
“There are many Nigerians who prefer podcasts to some of the drab interviews that take place on NTA and other television stations.
“Philanthropic works should also be prioritized by Obi. He should not give a damn to what his enemies said after he dug boreholes in the North. And remember that those who were mad at him for digging those boreholes don’t really care about the people.
“Obi must also be more strategic in 2025. He mustn’t allow anyone to teach him how to go about his opposition duties.
To Ben Njoku, a public affairs analyst, Obi should no longer contemplate an alliance or merger with Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party.
According to Njoku, who said Obi should stop acting as a pacifist, a merger with other players will be Obi’s political downfall and funeral.
“Obi should stop acting like a pacifist and start fighting, head-on, all the necessary political battles,” he said.
On other matters related to the presidential hopeful, Njoku said, “I like the New Year message he addressed to Nigerians and the government. It raised a few eyebrows and I want to see more of such in the months to come.
“Obi should also not act as if the Labour party’s affairs no longer concern him.
“And he doesn’t really need to be going to the houses of those who criticize him publicly, like the way he did for Donu Kogbara.
“If he starts trying to please everyone that way, he will lose more respect, instead of enjoying it.
“There is another issue that bothers me about Obi. He should not rely only on Christians again for his political success. He needs Muslims and even the traditional worshippers.
“And on a lighter note, he should stop wearing only black clothes in 2025. There are many of us who want him to upgrade his dress sense and do away with their slogan “we no dey give shishi.”
