Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe’s polemic against Peter Obi, which I read a while back, is less a critique than a primal scream from a faction of Nigeria’s Igbo elite threatened by Obi’s unscripted rise—a man who refuses to genuflect to their antiquated playbook of ethnic patronage and backroom deals. Let us dissect this “requiem” layer by layer, exposing its fallacies while reaffirming Obi’s disruptive essence in Nigeria’s political ecosystem.
1. The Okonkwo Analogy: A Misguided Literary Cudgel
Nwaezeigwe weaponizes Chinua Achebe’s Okonkwo to paint Obi as an arrogant upstart blinded by ambition. But the analogy collapses under scrutiny. Unlike Okonkwo, whose hubris destroyed him, Obi’s “arrogance” is, in reality, a rejection of Nigeria’s stomach infrastructure politics. Where Okonkwo clung to violent tradition, Obi champions transparency—auditing budgets live on Social media Spaces, funding schools in Sokoto, and refusing to weaponize ethnicity . The Igbo elite, accustomed to transactional leadership, mistake Obi’s resolve for insolence.
Nwaezeigwe’s outrage over Obi’s Vatican encounter with Tinubu—framed as “kneeling before a Philistine Baal”—ignores context. Obi clarified it as a diplomatic courtesy, not submission, in a setting where global leaders exchange pleasantries. Contrast this with Nwaezeigwe’s silence on Northern elites who openly kowtow to Tinubu’s regime. The selective moralizing reeks of hypocrisy, not principle.
2. The Atiku/El-Rufai Alliance: A Strawman of Convenience
The essay hinges on Obi’s alleged “quisling” pact with Atiku and Nasir El-Rufai, two figures linked to Fulani hegemony. Yet, this claim is unsubstantiated theater. Obi has repeatedly rejected VP offers, dismissing such alliances as “politics of positions” . His post-2023 strategy—building cross-regional coalitions against poverty, not power—directly contradicts Nwaezeigwe’s narrative.
El-Rufai’s Southern Kaduna atrocities are indefensible, but Obi’s critics omit his public condemnations of systemic violence. When Obi funds scholarships for Almajiri children or critiques Tinubu’s N7 trillion padded budget, he targets root causes—economic despair and corruption—not sectarian scapegoats. Nwaezeigwe’s reduction of Obi’s platform to “Fulani appeasement” is intellectually lazy, conflating pragmatism with betrayal.
3. The Christian Genocide Card: Exploitation Over Analysis
Nwaezeigwe weaponizes Christian persecution to paint Obi as a Judas, yet this moral grandstanding ignores Obi’s record. As governor, Obi rebuilt churches bombed by Boko Haram and donated to dioceses without fanfare . His “coalition against hunger” framework addresses the economic inequities fueling violence, not hollow religious posturing.
The essay’s fixation on Obi’s Vatican “submission” distracts from Northern elites’ complicity. Where are Nwaezeigwe’s diatribes against Southeast governors who host Fulani warlords for votes? Obi’s sin, it seems, is refusing to reduce Igbo politics to tribal brinkmanship—a stance threatening to gatekeepers like Nwaezeigwe, whose relevance hinges on ethnic grievance.
4. The Igbo Elite’s Existential Crisis: Obi as Mirror
Nwaezeigwe’s vitriol exposes a deeper panic: Obi’s movement bypasses the Igbo elite’s crumbling hegemony. The Obidient wave—youth-driven, pan-Nigerian, digitally native—renders middlemen like Nwaezeigwe obsolete. His lament over Obi’s “chameleonic piety” masks fury at a leader who answers to the streets, not titled chiefs.
Consider the irony: Nwaezeigwe, as Odogwu of Ibusa, seems in this quixotic diatribe, to be reflecting a generation of Igbo Professionals and intelligentias that historically traded communal interests for Abuja crumbs. Obi’s crime? Proving that legitimacy flows from accountability, not stolen mandates. When Nwaezeigwe sneers at Obi’s “trader-sense smartness,” he betrays contempt for meritocracy—a value the Obidient movement holds sacred.
5. The Deflection Playbook: Igbo “Short Memory” Myth
The essay recycles the tired trope of Igbo political amnesia, blaming Obi for “ideological bankruptcy.” Yet Obi’s consistency—from Anambra’s fiscal prudence to rejecting Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” farce—debunks this. The real amnesia lies with elites like Nwaezeigwe, who whitewash their own complicity in Nigeria’s rot while scapegoating reformers.
Nwaezeigwe’s invocation of Mandela is particularly galling. Mandela forged alliances with former oppressors to heal a nation—precisely Obi’s cross-regional outreach. But for Nwaezeigwe, reconciliation is treason unless it centers Igbo hegemony. This zero-sum mindset is why the Southeast remains politically orphaned.
Conclusion: Obi’s “Sin”—Transcending the Elite’s Dying Order
Nwaezeigwe’s requiem isn’t about Obi—it’s a eulogy for a decaying elite terrified of irrelevance. Obi represents everything they cannot fathom: a leader who thrives without their blessings, who swaps ethnic jingoism for policy rigor, and whose “arrogance” is merely the courage to say enough.
The Igbo elite’s failure to “understand” Obi stems from a refusal to confront their obsolescence. While they cling to myths of Eri and fabricated historical prides, Obi’s movement—rooted in data, not dogma—charts a new course. Let Nwaezeigwe’s lamentations echo as proof: Peter Obi is not the problem. He’s the reckoning.
©️ Agbeze Ireke Kalu Onuma, AI-KO
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