‘If Peter Obi Wins…’ – Rev Fr. George Ehusani

Rev Fr. George Ehusani, Executive Director of the Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, has shared with THE WHISTLER what he thinks a Peter Obi presidency or its non-emergence at this Saturday presidential election would mean for the ordinary Nigerian citizens and their leaders.

Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and a well-known businessman, is the presidential flagbearer of the Labour Party — an unpopular political party that shot to prominence after Obi defected from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the party to pursue his presidential ambition.

Ehusani told THE WHISTLER in his office in Abuja that Obi’s emergence as president in the February 25, 2023 presidential election will not only jolt the country’s two established political parties but will mean that the youths, who are the majority of Obi’s supporters, have truly had enough of the bad leadership that has plagued the country since it gained independence 63 years ago.

The cleric said there’s currently “a new awakening” among Nigeria’s younger generation who are determined to tell the leaders that it’s “no longer business as usual” and are determined to ensure that the leaders prioritize their needs.

THE WHISTLER reports that a major expectation Nigerian youths hope the country’s next president will address is the high level of unemployment, particularly among young people.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the unemployment rate among youths aged 15-34 was 42.5% as of the fourth quarter of 2020.

The youths want a president who will prioritize job creation and promote policies that support entrepreneurship and small business development, and according to Ehusani, the younger generation doesn’t trust candidates of the two established political parties – Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar – to the job.

He said in searching for solution to the years of bad leadership, the young people found a figurehead in Obi who through his financial prudence during his time as governor has been able to differentiate himself from prodigal politicians that are now disliked by the youths.

Speaking on the situation he described as a quiet revolution, Ehusani said: “There is a new awakening in Nigeria, especially among the younger generation who have borne the brunt of bad, corrupt leadership over the years. Many people were born into a country that has just not been working and many people are beginning to realize, especially among the younger generation and the younger crop of elites, that Nigeria does not need to be here, and that we could be much better, we could be a Dubai, Singapore or China and that the obstacle has been leadership.

“Especially since the EndSARS, October 20, 2020, and the tragedies that occurred, there has been a renewed interest in governance because the young people thought at that time that by demonstrating on the streets, they would have a leadership that listens and they would list to their cries that “we have been dying at the hands of this brutal police (officers). Instead, they were crushed violently with what happened on 20th October 2022 and they were reminded that “look, if you want to lead, go into governance or leadership. So, when politics now came, of course we still had this skepticism that the same names are coming up — Tinubu and Atiku and so on and so forth — and a lot of young people didn’t take it seriously because it was business as usual. It is the same people that we have been recycling. What’s the difference between APC and PDP? From 1999 till today, they move to one party the next day they move (back). And there is really nothing that holds them with any sense of principles, ideology and least of all, the common good.”

The cleric said to correct this, the youths are taking their destinies into their own hands by using their power as voters to demand good governance.

“People have spent their own money, sacrificed their time (and) in Lagos people got brutalized but they didn’t mind. They kind of people who never used to bother about politics. Look at the personality of Aisha Yusuf, the Hijab wearing young woman, is that the kind of person that used to be at the forefront in politics in Nigeria? This is the first time when that profile of young educated woman would be in the forefront on the podium, campaigning.

“What crop of people did we used to see on the podium campaigning? Male, older with Agbada. Now you have jeans wearing young people who are on the stage campaigning, with celebrities singing. So, something has suddenly happened in the last nine months. Because this whole movement is matter of the last nine months, that every town that this man called Peter Obi and Datti have gone, people have trooped out. Even in the most unlikely places. So, I believe that there is a new awakening.

“The older politicians have continued that ethnic and religious bigotry, they have continued to get people through “it’s our turn” or “no, North must rule” or all these kinds of nonsense. But I think the young people are more enlightened now and they are getting involved.”

Obi’s supporters believe that if elected president, he would promote economic growth, reduce corruption, and improve infrastructure and public services across the country. The LP candidate has expressed support for policies such as diversifying the economy beyond oil, promoting local production and entrepreneurship, and investing in education and healthcare.

As a leader, Obi would also be expected by his supporters to navigate the challenges of promoting unity and stability in the country’s diverse and complex political landscape housing over 250 ethnic groups.

Another issue that is important to Nigerian youths is access to quality education. Many youths struggle to access education due to a lack of resources, and even those who do attend school often face inadequate facilities and low-quality education. Whoever emerges the country’s next president would be tasked with investing in education and making efforts to improve the quality and availability of schools and educational resources.

Nigerian youths also face a range of other challenges, including poor infrastructure, inadequate healthcare, and the lack of access to basic services like clean water and sanitation. The country’s next leader must prioritize investments in infrastructure and public services, and to work to improve access to basic necessities for citizens.

Overall, the expectations of the youths would center around issues related to job creation, education, and access to basic services, and they would expect President Buhari’s successor to prioritize policies that improve their economic and social wellbeing.

Rev. Father Ehusani said if Obi does not win the forthcoming president election, it’s not going to be business as usual for whoever wins the election between Tinubu and Atiku of the ruling APC and PDP, respectively.

“Well, as of today, we do not know what will happen in the next few days in terms of who will win the election but whoever wins the election, it’s not going to be business as usual. Because if Atiku wins, the government will not be the way government was run before because you now have eagles eyes of young people who are politically savvy and aware, who know what chapter 2 of the Constitution says about their fundamental rights and what the responsibility of government toward the citizens should be, young people who were not born in the era of traditional feudalism. You, see the older generation, we were born during the traditional feudalism that was just giving way to the British. But these young people are born in a modern democratic era, who know that the leaders are our employees and that the employers are the people.

“You can’t enslave these young people anymore; no they won’t take it. Because they’re in Lagos today, tomorrow they are in Los Angeles and next tomorrow they’re in Taiwan. They see how other places are governed. A video went around recently about somewhere in Canada (showing) the snow and ice. Somebody leaves Nigeria that is 35 degrees centigrade and ends up somewhere that is 25 degrees centigrade, below zero, and they are beginning to say “why do I have to runaway to this kind of place, why do I have to run away from my warm place that has a lot of resources?” They know that every square meter of this country is full of resources and then they are going to be washing plates in restaurants in the U.S? So they are saying no more! And they have my support to say no more.”

Asked if he thinks Obi is different from the other contenders, the cleric said: “It is not about Obi, this is now a people’s movement, Obi is just a figure head precisely because Labour Party had no structures and Obi had no structures. That’s an advantage for the young people, because if he wins the election, Obi cannot say I won the election because I had money, I mobilized people, No! People spent their own money, people donated buildings in different parts of this country as offices for Labour Party. Who knew about Labour Party before? LP only won election in two states before — Edo and Ondo — and those people decamped. So, the Labour Party hardly had anybody anywhere.

“In fact, that has become an advantage for young people. So, this is not about the people. He (Obi) cannot afford, if he wins, not to be a listening president because he was put there by the people, not with his money, not with any structures and not by any party bigwigs. The traditional parties — PDP and APC — have powerful stakeholders in all the states of the federation, down to the wards, whom they give money to mobilize votes for them. Those are the structures we have put aside now. For those who are working for Peter Obi, those structures are not important.

“Isn’t it instructive that not a single one of the five governors in the South East is openly for Obi? Is that not important? What it means is that if Obi wins in the South East, it is not the political structures that have been existing in the region. That will now show that this is the peoples movement. What we’re having is some form of revolution, a quiet one, where those who have held the people down for the last 63 years are being ignored by the people now and the people are beginning to evolve a new system. So that the people called Peter Obi and Datti are just a figurehead to say, you lead. Because every revolution needs a leader, you need to be able to rally round one person, So when you hear them say Obi! Obi!! Obi!!!, it’s not about the person, it’s about “it’s time for us to wake up, you go for us”.

“If Obi wins, it would shake things up. If Peter Obi wins, he’s not going to find it easy but they will shake things sufficiently that it is not going to be business as usual anymore. I even said if Peter Obi does not win, it is still not going to be business as usual. Do you think with the awareness that has been created now, we can have any emperor that comes as a dictator or anybody that comes like a money bag that he wants to ride roughshod? It is not going to be possible because the awareness that has been raised in Nigeria in the last 9 months, we never had it in the last 60 years, down to the level of security guards and cooks.

“For me, if Peter Obi and Datti do not win, if Atiku or Tinubu or Kwankwaso wins, it cannot be business as usual (because) these same people are going to drag their feet to the fire of democracy, they are going to insist that there are certain kind of governance they can’t take.”