Our today’s discourse on the emergent leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) focuses on Peter Obi, a maverick populist politician who contributed, in being a prominent and active member of the National Opposition Coalition Group (NOCG), to the eventual adoption of the ADC as the consensus political party of the opposition coalition.
Peter Gregory Obi – the populist rhetorician, and consistent advocate for prudence, good governance, and the rule of law:
Personal Attributes, Social Engagement & Characteristics:
Peter Gregory Obi, 64, was born in Onitsha, Anambra state state, in Nigeria’s South-East region, on 19th of July 1961. After his secondary education at at Christ the King College, Onitsha, he enrolled in the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Enugu State, where he studied Philosophy, and graduated with a bachelor degree in 1984. Following his graduation, like the arch-typical Igbo man, renowned for their fierce sense of independence, entrepreneurial zeal, and uncommon business acumen, Peter Obi delved, head on, into the world of business, pitching his tent in import trade and banking – and ended up a successful trader and entrepreneur who rose to become the corporate titan, who at a time, was the chairman of the board of directors of four major financial institutions — Fidelity Bank Plc, Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Future Views Securities Ltd, and Paymaster Nigeria Plc, in addition to being on the boards of other important public financial institutions like Guardian Express Bank Plc, Chams Nigeria Plc, Emerging Capital Ltd, and Card Centre Plc.
Following his very successful business career, Peter Obi forayed into politics. He joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) party, and contested the Anambra state governorship election in 2003. Though, the notoriously controversial Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Chris Ngige of the PDP the winner, and had him sworn into office, Peter Obi disputed the ‘grossly rigged’ election and challenged it in court. He won the case. The Supreme Court declared him the duly elected candidate, and had him sworn-in as the state governor on 17 March, 2006. Subsequently, he served as the governor of Anambra state between 2003 and 2011, under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) party, a two termed tenure that was interspersed with two interregnums. The first, followed his impeachment and removal from office, on 3 November 2006, by the PDP dominated Anambra State House of Assembly for “gross misconduct”. Obi challenged his impeachment in court, was successful, and it was annulled by the Supreme Court, which ordered his re-instatement. Thereafter, he resumed as governor, on 9 February, 2007. The second interregnum occurred when the incorrigibly notorious national electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in disregard of the about 96 days interruption of obi’s four-year term, insisted, and conducted, the 2027 governorship election in the state, even as Obi explained that he was yet to complete his constitutionally stipulated tenured days. The controversial election, which was ‘won’ by PDP’s Andy Uba, was boycotted by Peter Obi, who again was compelled to resort to the court of law for judicial intervention. Yet again, the Supreme Court agreed with Obi’s submission and annulled INEC’s ‘illegally’ conducted election – which enabled Obi to serve out the remainder days, from 14 June, 2007 to 17 March, 2010, of his first term as governor. Afterwards, Obi successfully ran for re-election and held the governorship till 17 March, 2014.
Peter Obi brought the archetypical Igbo business traits; Spartan frugality and watchful prudence over finances; proven mechanisms for successful capital accumulation in business, into politics. This was unacceptably disruptive of the traditional political culture and practice as known to the typical ‘professional’ Nigerian politicians. Here, politics is all about the ‘sharing of the national cake’, and the end-game is for the political office holder to become, not just rich, but unassailably wealthy, and thus, untouchably powerful. Having some penny counting frugal maverick casting eagle-eyed watchfulness over public finances, presiding over an important ‘public largesse’ holding office, such as the governorship of a state, was an anathema to the gamut of the establishment of ‘professional politicians’ – from the all powerful nominating ‘godfathers’, to the siloviki, the nomenklatura, and the subalterns; a coterie of avaricious political haute monde characterized by their rapacious allurement of the public treasury, and whose ‘modus vivendi’ is unfettered access to the ‘sharing tables’ of public wealth. Peter Obi, notorious for his tight fisted frugality, and watchful vigilance over expenditures, was characteristically, a political ‘misfit’.
Factually his brushes with the state house assembly, which eventuated in is impeachment during his first term as governor, was mainly over his disruption of the established practice of the ‘sharing’ of public funds with political godfathers, their ‘elected’ nominees, and recommended underlings. Peter Obi’s world view, shaped by his ingrained frugal persona, was the exact antithesis of this practice. As he has frequently stated, his motivation to enter politics was to redress the obnoxious state of affairs in his home state of Anambra, which was being poorly managed and ran aground by the political class. He is particularly alarmed at the unbridled corruption and mismanagement of public funds by the ruling elites, which he decries, is holding back the socio-economic progress of the state.
Thus, despite the fact that he accomplished some notable feats during his time as governor, such as in the visible improvements in the state’s infrastructure, healthcare, and education systems, which earned him numerous awards including the Most Prudent Governor award in Nigeria, by This Day, in 2009, the Best Performing Governor on Immunization in Southeast, Nigeria, by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in 2012, the This Day, Governor of the Decade award, in 2020, and the Leadership Excellence Award of the Year, in 2022, and also, in his unusual feat of leaving a healthy, near-full, state treasury bequeathment at the end of his tenure, to his successor governor, he found himself scorned and shunned by the political establishment of the state, which was dominated by his own APGA party members. The APGA leadership, and party apparatchiks, were unhappy and disappointed in him for not ‘sharing’ the ‘dividends of democracy’ with them, and thereby, denying them their ‘God-sent opportunity’ to make money. Thus, labeled as a ‘stingy’ political turn-coat, once out of office they distanced themselves from him and locked him out of the important decision making functions of the party, which practically rendered him a political outcast.
To salvaged his threatened political career, Peter Obi was compelled to dumped the APGA party, and joined the nationally ruling PDP party in 2014, following which, he was appointed as the chairman of the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), by President Goodluck Jonathan, a development which kept his then floundering political career alive.
In overall Peter Obis’s characteristics and attributes as a business and political leader are defined by his frugal and transparent approach to governance, whether corporate or political.
Famed for his austere lifestyle, Obi believes that leaders need to be prudent in their management of public funds, a believe which is reflected in his efforts to cut down all unnecessary government expenses while he served as Governor of Anambra State. Frugality and down-to-earth simplicity are the defining features of the Obi persona. Thus, unlike the typical ‘big man’- Nigerian billionaire or politician, Peter Obi, in and out of office, travels, not by private jets, chartered planes, or by first or economy class tickets, but by the regular ‘common man’s’ commercial class air tickets. And he shows up at events and destinations alone, bearing his own brief case, as he eschews the usual status signposting retinues of hangers-on, ‘aides’, and convoys of luxury SUV’s that traditionally announces the arrival of the archetypical Nigerian ‘big man’ and ‘ogas’.
This ordinary ‘common-man’ simplicity of peter Obi, and his non-stop harpings on the need for prudence, and economic production, rather than the ostentatious consumerism and wastefulness in the management of public resources, which he emphasizes, is Nigeria’s pathway to economic growth and development, though disdained and scoffed at by the rich and powerful, is what enamors him to the ordinary folks of the country, particularly the youth, who see in him the mirrored opposite of the corruption-fuel opulent lifestyles of the ruling elite, who plunder the country and live large, at the expense of the overall well-being of the society. Because of this, a vast section of his youthful supporters not just idolize him, they fetishize, and even messianisme him.
Political Vision, Ideological Stance & Leadership Engagement
In pronouncements and advocacies, Peter Obi somehow comes across as a Javier Milei like rightist liberal capitalist populist; a firm believer in the globalist liberal economic philosophy of liberalized private sector driven economies, superintendent over by lean governments guided by the cost cutting, prudent management approaches lectured by globalist financial institutions – the World Bank, IMF and world trade organization (WTO).
In his numerous public presentations, it is clear that he is hugely inspired by the rise from ‘dirt-poverty’, into global economic powerhouses, of the so called Asian tigers; Taiwan, South-Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia, often citing their rise, under the tutorage of IMF and World Bank, and their economic liberalization principles, as his vision for the potential socio-economic transformation of Nigeria. His finance-capitalism oriented ideological stance should not surprise given his post graduate education, and solid grounding, in western institutions such as the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, Harvard Business School, Saïd Business School in England, Cambridge Judge Business School, and Kellogg School of Management.
However, though the present President Bola Tinubu led APC federal government is also operating along the very same IMF and World Bank prescribed economic liberalization principles, Obi avers that they are either very poor pupils, or plainly false and pretentious apostles of these principles, citing the bloated government they run, factually the largest ever in Nigeria’s history, and their lavish binge ostentatious spending, and the run-away corruption under their watch; which he posits, is directly responsible for the hyper-inflation, monumental cost of living crisis, and the alarming insecurity spikes that is driving Nigerians into unimaginable poverty, anguish, and angst.
Therefore, as the extreme rightist APC federal government’s draconian anti-people policies, and its corrupt and imprudent socio-economic management approaches, continues to exhale extreme poverty, hunger and despair, upon the Nigerian populace, it came as no surprise that, as the Labour Party which he presently belongs to remained engulfed in its unending bitter leadership dispute, which has torn it into two irreconcilably antagonistic factions, Peter Obi, the maverick populist advocateur, despite his postured difference in style, did not hesitate to join the National Opposition Coalition Group (NOCG), which consist of equally prominent political leaders from across the country who have resolved to band together to rescue the country from the insensitively inhuman, and exclusionist mal-governance of the Bola Tinubu led irredentist APC federal government.
Peter Obi’s appointment as the de-facto leader of the opposition coalition in the South East zone of the country, a role that places on him the responsible for coordinating the growth and expansion of the opposition coalition’s adopted ADC party in the states of the south East; the states that have ignobly remained the most marginalized, and derisively excluded, from federal development programs – from the time of the inception of the APC rule of the country in 2015, is a recognition of his mass appeal as a popular populist mobilizer of his people.
As a leader who came into politics as an accomplished corporate titan from the business world, where prudence, management competence, and diligence oversights over resources are the standard watchwords that differentiate corporate success from failure, Obi’s believe is that governments could be run along similar lines and guardrails. For him, government is meant to work for the good of the people, and political leaders should, rather than prioritize their personal interest and benefits, align their interests with the interest and aspirations of the country and its people.
Therefore, the circumstance where the political parties he had previously being member of, the APGA, and the PDP, operate as oligarchical fiefdoms that exist for the extractive plunder of the country’s resources and wealth for the exclusive benefits of the ruling elite, even as the country and its people wallow in deplorable backwardness and deprivations, is what Obi finds unacceptable and condemnable.
Peter Obi’s oft-stated vision and motivation is to engender the economic prosperity and social advancement of Nigeria. For him, finding the pathways to the socio-economic development of the country, and the prospects of its prosperous growth, and its social and economic stability, constitutes the crux of his leadership engagements – a stance that aligns with the viewpoint that devising routes to the stable social and economic growth of the country, rather than wasteful ostentatious spending should be the overriding focus of the country’s leaders.
Influence & Networks
From boardrooms where he sat, either as the chairman or member of the board of directors of numerous blue-chip banks and companies, Obi has successfully transformed from a corporate titan into an emergent political titan; rising from an initially impeached state governor, to become a two-term governor, chairman of the federal Security and Exchange commission, the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 elections, and the most ‘disruptive’ presidential candidate, who came a close third in the 2023 presidential elections, winning the same number of states, 12 out of the total 36, as the declared winner, and runner up in the epic electoral contest.
Naturally, he has developed extensive alliances and connections to both the high and the ordinary people, in the course his eventful business and political career.
While his rise, influence, and network in the corporate world, and during his earlier days in politics as a state governor, could be adduced to his own business acumen and innate qualities, his dramatic post-governorship rise, from the provincial backwater politics of Anambra state, to his expanding network, and growing influence in national politics, could largely be attributed to his selection, by the political colossus, the PDP presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, to be his running mate . Campaigning as a protégé, alongside the former vice- president, the inimitable Atiku Abubakar, is what singularly introduced and exposed Peter Obi around the most important political circuits and circles of the country as an emergent political leader to be noted. Though the Atiku Abubakar/Peter Obi PDP team controversially lost the election to the then incumbent president, Mohammadu Buhari of the ruling APC, a defeat attributed largely to the incumbent party’s unwillingness, at any cost, to countenanced defeat, and the presidency brow-beating the pliant electoral body, and corrupting and intimidating the supreme court to submit to its will and dictates. Nontheless, at the end of it all, Peter Obi successfully emerged at the national stage as a star political actor.
Thus, in 2023, with the sentiment in the country pervasive that the presidency be rotated to the south-east region, a region that have yet to produce a president, from the time of the advent of democratic governance of the country, Peter Obi, threw his heart in the ring, and declared his intent to contest in the PDP presidential primaries.
Unfortunately, the PDP primary field was crowded with, Nigerian style, deep pocketed political gladiators. And as is well known, party primaries, in the Nigerian context, are majorly, market-places and shopping centers for the purchase of votes. Party delegates part with their votes only to the highest bidders. With vote prices averagely bided at $30,000 per delegate’s vote, it was known that a frugal Peter Obi, repeatedly mouthing his “I no give si-si” (I will not pay a penny) mantra stood zero chances. Sensing a looming calamitous defeat, he quit the contest midway, and resigned his membership of the PDP in disgust, citing the existence of a party clique collaborating against him, and complained of massive bribing of delegates and vote buying during the party’s presidential primary. Such was his disgust that he later-on, described the PDP as a ‘structure of criminality’.
Following this, he was invited by the little known Labour Party (LP), who handed him their presidential ticket for the 2023 election – which turned out to be one of Nigeria’s most disruptive and competitive presidential election contest. This was mostly due to the formation, and the dynamic activisms, of the “obedient movement” – an agglomeration of Obi’s army of supporters, comprising mostly of social media savvy youths who, enamored by Peter Obi’s signature anti-establishment frugality, and imagery-laden political messaging, absolutely idealize, fetishize, and messianisme him. Nicknamed the “obidients“, a name coined from Peter’s surname, “Obi”, this army of vociferous supporters, enthralled by Peter Obi’s ideology of frugality, disdain for waste and ostentatious consumerism, and his messages of prudence and accountability as being the key to unlocking the economic growth and development of the country, picked up the gauntlet, criss-crossed the country, and over-ran the internet and social media spaces, campaigning, at their own cost and expense, for Peter Obi. And, in the process, turned the previously little known Labour Party (LP), and it’s equally not so well known candidate, Peter Obi, into potent third forces locked against the two national political heavyweights parties, the APC and PDP, and their equally formidable candidates, incumbent president Bola Tinubu and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.
At its conclusion, the declared winner, president Bola Tinubu of the APC won in 12 of the 36 states and garnered 36.6% of the votes, amounting to 8.79 million votes, with the runner up, PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, also winning another of the country’s 12 states and garnering 29.1% or 6.98 million votes, while the second runner-up, Labour Party’s Peter Obi won the remainder 12 states, and collected 25.4% or 6.1 million votes. But outstandingly, Obi not only won in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, which is the seat of the federal government, he resoundingly defeated the winner, president Tinubu, by a landslide, in his home state of Lagos. This performance is a testament to the potent ‘youth-power’ networking influence of the obedient movement, which acted as the driving force that powered and propelled the Obi’s presidential election campaign.
The closes semblances to the ‘obedient’ movement, as political action movements, are the USA’s Republican Party’s Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, and Nigeria’s New Nigerian Peoples Party’s (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso’s “kwankwasissiya’ movement. The difference however, is that, while Donald Trump and Rabiu Kwankwaso are the originators, fulcrums, and the engine-houses that power and drive their respective movements, which make these movements merely centripetal forces acting at the behest of their principals control, the Obidients are self founded, by disparate amorphous groups of youthful social media warriors who operate on their own whims and directions. Therefore they act, rather, as a self-propelled centrifugal force surrounding their beloved idol, Peter obi, pulling him here and there. Basically, the obedient movement is the igniter, cannon, and the cannon-ball of Peter Obi’s present times political networking force and influence.
Obi’s massive appeal to the youths, his subsisting love-fest with the obedient movement, and the south-east region where he comes from bitterly aggrieved with the exclusion and marginalization melted on it by the APC’s irredentist federal government, are what advised his colleagues in the National Opposition Coalition Group (NOCG), to confer the leadership of the opposition in the southeast on him – and to promise him the conduct of a transparent free and fair ADC party’s presidential primary in the 2027 election.
Advocacy & Social Contributions
Though factually a bourgeoisie Billionaire by status, and ideologically, a rightist neo-liberal finance-capitalist, however, as a social crusader, Peter Obi is a vocal advocate for reduction of poverty, and the improvement in the welfare of the country’s people, and he calls for the expansion of employment and job creation opportunities, especially for the youths of the country. As a leader who places a high value on integrity and ethical conduct, Obi has consistently advocated for transparency and accountability in government, and regularly speaks out against corruption and abuses of office by political leaders.
Additional to his advocacy for good governance, Obi is a committed contributor to community self-help initiatives that are directed at the improvements of the welfare of the people. This he demonstrates through his numerous philanthropic activities, such as financial donations to victims of natural disasters and civil strives, and donations for the construction of community schools, health centers, and similar self-help initiatives embarked upon around the country.
Business & Economic Interests
Before staking out into banking and finance, Obi’s flagship business concern was Next International Nigeria Ltd, a family own business, whose original thrust was trade in leather products. With Obi as CEO, the company venture into import trade, specializing in the importation of international consumer brands such as the popular Heinz Salad Cream and the ubiquitous cocoa confectionary, Ovaltine. And, in being the authorized sole distributors, accumulated massive profits. Thereafter, Obi founded the Next ‘Cash and Carry’, which grew into one of the largest retail mall chains in Nigeria. Subsequently, he diversified his portfolio, invested in diverse companies and financial institutions, such that at some time, he was the chairman of 11 major companies in Nigeria and abroad.
Personal & Social Life
Peter Obi is a devoted Christian of the catholic faith who is married to Margaret Usen with whom they have two children together.
A billionaire politician, Obi is a hyperactive workaholic whose daily itinerary revolves around high level business meetings and political events. Socially, he is a regular quest at society weddings, anniversary commemorations, book launches, community events, and similar public functions, of which he is much coveted guest speaker.
Strategic Goals & Future Directions
Indubitably, Peter Obi’s strategic goal is to be the leader who would bring about the transformation of Nigeria into a prosperous, just, and equitable society, a transformation akin to that which the Asian tiger nations; Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore went through in the 1980’s. He believes that Nigeria has similar potentials for greatness, and that his kind of visionary leadership, and commitments to good governance and the rule of law, are the key to unlocking these potentials.
To attain his strategic objective, Obi’s visage is directed at addressing the deep-seated challenges facing Nigeria, including poverty, inequality, corruption, and insecurity. He believes that these challenges can only be overcome through the application of the principles of liberal finance-capitalism, and sincere political, economic, and social reforms.
Though officially still a member of the Labour Party, his commitment to the ideals of the National Opposition Coalition Group (NOCG), the energy he is putting around the country towards building the coalition’s ADC party into a potent political force, and with the ‘obidiant’ army, ubiquitous across social media spaces, still enthusiastically supportive of his political aspirations, everything suggests that Peter Obi’s political journey, in the directions of the strategic reformation of Nigeria’s stagnantly degraded socio-economic and political landscape, is on-going – irrespective of the political platform, Labour Party or ADC, he finally settles for.
Hence, Peter Obi is a leader whose activities, one way or the other, will not only impact on the 2027 electoral fortunes of the Labour party, and the opposition coalition party, the ADC, but will also seriously impact on the outlook of Nigeria’s 2027 presidential elections.
Prognosis and Final Words
A populist politician who is immensely popular and beloved among the youths, Peter Obi is a political leader much gifted with the skills of rhetorical imagery, and who voices his commitment to engineering Nigeria’s ethical, political, and economic transformation. His approach leverages on his extensive social media support base built around the obedient movement whose members idolize his frugal persona and his prudence driven development ideas. For the ‘obidients’ it is Peter Obi for the presidency of the country and/or – nothing else. This in essence makes the 2027 presidential race a zero-sum game to this army of vociferous partisan youths
In conclusion, Peter Obi’s profile is one of conscientious leadership, prudence, and populist idealism. As a social crusader, he challenges Nigeria’s ingrained culture of unbridled corruption, wanton thievery-driven ostentations, and wasteful, imprudent management of public resources by the country’s ruling elite. A stance which portrays him, in the eyes of his idolizing supporters, as the savior-leader Nigeria earnestly yearns for. This portrayal surely qualifies him for the hands-on role he is playing in shaping of the build up to the 2027 elections.
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