Peter Obi’s naked dance at Enugu market square
PRESS STATEMENT.
In what can now be seen as a manifestly confused state of mind, last week, former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in a ceremony that was attended by his increasingly diminishing political allies and ADC promoters. Almost all the politicians in attendance were individuals who had either held one public office or another, who, as Peter Obi himself, were colossal disasters in their various public offices that their constituents would rather forget than advertise. It is therefore easy to predict the endgame for such an assemblage of politicians.
The Alternative Platform (TAP) believes that the wild goose chase Obi intended to achieve with the event fell flat on its back even before take off. And here’s why.
Firstly, it beggars belief why Obi chose Enugu in Enugu State instead of Awka in Anambra State, where he comes from for joining the ADC. It has always been the wont of serious and authentically popular politicians when making transitions of this magnitude to do so in their traditional political strongholds and not anywhere else. This move was another manifestation of Obi’s lack of depth in anything which he never has. And never will.
Secondly, a man who scrupulously widened the gap among Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities in his 2023 presidential bid cannot turn around now to talk about “national reunification” to which he alluded in his defection speech. His posturing and talks about the unity of Nigeria amount to grandstanding and lip service, because his choice of Enugu spoke louder than his incoherent appeal for unity.
Anybody with a discerning mind who has followed Peter Obi’s political trajectory will not only find his trademark “Me First” strewn all over his declaration speech but a clear pattern of the inability of his leopard to change its spot, having abandoned the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on whose platform he governed Anambra State for eight years, to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In 2019, Obi was the Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP and the running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who, in all likelihood, he will once again be a running mate in their special-purpose ADC vehicle, as there’s clearly no pathway for clinching the presidential ticket of the party. In the run-up to the 2023 Presidential Election, Obi joined the Labour Party (LP) and became its Presidential Candidate. With the Obidient Movement, he tried to exploit youth anger to ride to the Presidency, a ploy that failed tragically. Obi resorted to religion and ethnicity, the two most potent factors that have plagued our country since independence as his campaign strategy. Yet, he came a distant third at the polls.
In all of this, you see a man who is driven by desperation but lacking in character. But for collective amnesia, nobody will take Obi seriously in a Presidential contest. He is not different from the proverbial rolling stone that gathers no moss but also lacks the presence of mind to know that he had used his proverbial “15 minutes of fame” that comes only once in one’s lifetime in 2023. After the ADC presidential ticket is settled, we expect another verdict or another assemblage.
TAP therefore condemns in very strong terms Peter Obi’s speech at his defection, which exposed him as a man with little or no understanding of where Nigeria was in 2023 and where we are, about two and a half years after. Visiting authors in Rwanda and Indonesia with the hope of drawing inspiration and enlightenment to address Nigeria’s situation is not only laughable but a show of incompetence. That probably explains his lacklustre performance in Anambra State, where all he achieved was to put the people’s money into his private account and the establishment of a brewery. His speech was full of rhetoric about a failed state but failed to provide a single insight as to how things can be improved.
Obi’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s tax reforms, which have been applauded by economists and financial experts, is proof of his inability to understand the dynamics of statecraft. His political jamboree at the Nike Lake Resort Hotel, Enugu can indeed be likened to a naked dance in a market square.
Femi ODERE
Convener, The Alternative Platform (TAP)
Email: theealternativeplatform@gmail.com
January 8, 2026
