By By Engr Kelechi Abonuyo
When Okonkwo of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was exiled for seven years, his maternal uncle – Mazi Uchendu – received, provided and quartered him. By the end of the prosperous seven years in exile, back home in Umuofia there was a new era, which Okonkwo could not understand. So, that time that he unsheathed his machete to behead the messenger of the new era, not a single Umuofia man stood by him. A lot had changed while he was away, in the dark.
Reasonable people now use the Okonkwo story to determine how they should react in times of paradigm shift. Thank goodness, we are grateful to Mr. Peter Obi, who now represents a new, rugged, political paradigm shift in Nigeria. Mr. Obi comes with some counter narratives to the old orders, which are interesting to Imo people, whose gubernatorial party primary elections come in the wake of the presidential election.
Mr. Obi came prepared and therefore struck the Nigerian people with the sterling qualities of a superb Chief Executive Officer, if you consider the Nigerian state as a viable enterprise. Many others stuck in the old ways of politicking, much unprepared. The message of skill-sets, education/experience, attitude and type of person are the main ingredients [that] human resource experts look out for, when they want to hire the best hands for a specific job role. Those were the pitch message that the hiring electorate, most of whom are youths, heard to practically seize the floor of the land on behalf of Mr. Obi, the indefatigable presidential candidate of the Labour Party. He is from the southeastern part of the country, which had been shortchanged of this position for more than 58years. This shortchange is a veritable sentiment in the campaign, but Mr. Obi devised other means instead, whereby he projected his sterling capacities to turn-around the fortunes of the nation. And it caught fire with massive acceptance before he can have landed on his public speeches and party ticket.
Another smart move was his ability to tune down his billionaire status, in order for the Nigerian people to run the process by themselves. This is an important achievement for a country, where financial status is the only capacity, where politics cost the earth. Mr. Obi’s success deletes this ugly trend from our evolution, together with god-fatherism – a terrible lexicon in Nigeria’s politics – by which super-rich folks anoint and sponsor their lackeys to positions of authority and trust, in order to milk the treasury dry through corrupt means. Mr. Obi’s candidacy threw up the concept of support groups, which style themselves with the hashtag Obi-dients, 152 of them in his case, which are the major drivers of his ideology. The new era is most likely a born-again Nigeria with double political polarity based on ideological differences, the difference being the extent and how a heavily capitalist market should be mingled with socialism. Mr. Obi’s understands and explains it in a marvelous, better way. And whenever support groups march for him, they accompany their determination for a new Nigeria with youthful agility and soulful rendition: Obi Kererenke!
Going forward in Nigeria’s politics, the walls of geo-political demarcation, also known as zoning, have fallen down in Jericho Wall style. In its place is now the ideological demarcation. All those who are presently caught up with and believe in the Petrine Message belong to the same ideological zone, irrespective of north or south divide and their first derivatives.
The first place where these analyses made a remarkable landfall like a hurricane is in Imo State, shattering money-politics and the geo-politics of Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu, which now aligns ideologically. Pundits say [that] to solve complex human problems as we have in Imo State, it is important to collect Mr. Obi’s like terms in the state, as in complex mathematics. After some rigorous considerations and consultations, the Imo State Political Revolutionary group led other 16 support groups to adopt and enlist Rt Hon Ike C Ibe for the Imo State gubernatorial contest, under the Labour Party. The groups matched his skill-sets, education/experience, attitude and type of person to those of Mr. Obi, including some verifiable achievements, and drew a parallel. Since then, with the support of the various support groups, with most party and non-party leaders across the state and some outside sources, the Rt Hon Ike C Ibe of Imo State has taken inspiration from Mr. Peter Obi of Nigeria, with whom he now walks and works hand-in-hand. And there is now a newer soulful rendition in our march: Ike Kererenke!
The rendition now rends the air, and many politicians of old tricks, tactics and mindsets are now stranded like Okonkwo of Achebe’s fictitious story. A new era is now upon us, thanks to Peter Obi and his workaholic Obidients.
Contact the writer: kabonuyo@yahoo.com
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