Some months back, I met a journalist, who is a staffer at one of the leading digital platforms in the country. She is from the Igbo extraction and we discussed several issues. We talked about stories in the North West and the conflict ravaging the subregion. Later on, we switched to the economy and the hydra of inflation. I complained bitterly about the rise of staple food products that are even produced locally.
It was as if she was waiting for me to take a breath, then her question dropped on my view on Peter Obi’s candidacy or even presidency. I have a flair for politics and try as much to speculate and in some places analyse with an iota of fairness. So, I told her my candid opinion of Obi.
Obi is brilliant. He is good at proffering solutions to the economic problems we have been enmeshed in, and Buhari is struggling to bury us in it. And, I continued talking about what I see in an Igbo presidency, should it happen. An Igbo man is naturally an enterprising person, who tries to make a turnaround in the business community of wherever he finds himself. As a result of the economic situation we are in now, monetary wise an Igbo president can bring us out of the trenches.
On what would like a sad note to her, I said that he lacks the political structure. I am not sure if his party has a presence in 100 among the 774 LGs of the country. My final comments did not go well with my colleague who is sympathetic to Obi’s candidacy, but he had to swallow the bitter pills.
On the other hand, the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party candidate, Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is one you can’t turn a blind eye to his investments in areas of education and human capital development, two factors that are instrumental in the growth of any nation.
Kwankwaso has dominated Facebook while Obi has dominated Twitter. Their intolerant supporters are always ready to crucify any person who comes with a contrary opinion.
But either the supporters of the Obi and Kwankwaso are living on a social media illusion which has made them oblivious of the intricacies surrounding the electioneering process in the country or they pretend not to know. None of the candidates is willing to play the second fiddle that was why they couldn’t make a Third Force that will boot out the behemoth of the two popular political parties.
Well, now that Big Brother Naija season 7 has started, maybe tweeps will have some fresh air to breathe.
