By Christian Anosike
Long before the 2003 elections, his opponents had branded him ‘Adaobi’, a name that said much about how they saw him. In Igboland, Adaobi is a woman’s name and it was their way of describing him as weak, ineffective and lacking any political threat. But many years later, and after a long trail of historic achievements, the man called Adaobi has transformed into ‘Okwute’, the Solid Rock of Anambra State and Nigeria; the man without who the history of Nigeria’s modern democracy cannot be written without copiously mentioning his exploits.
While his opponents were flexing their ‘macho’ muscles at every turn, Obi had been quietly and effectively using his God-given intellect as a manager of men and resources to impress and convince the people that matter. At this time too, politicians like Chris Ngige were busy bragging about their toughness and how they were confronting Obasanjo. Yet, with all his toughness, Ngige could not drive out NARTO from the parks which they had been using to divert revenue meant for the state to private pockets. For all his ‘machoness’ he failed to stop Obi from toppling him from the stolen seat he occupied for three years. Ngige boasted after his defeat by Obi at the court that Obi could never beat him one on one in an election but Obi did it in grand style on Feb 6 to further infuriate Ngige. Obi, the woman, simply demystified Ngige, the man and that’s why Ngige is fuming like an angry bee today. It is clear he has not forgiven Obi and probably never will.
What of PDP? They made a hell of noise about owning Anambra State and of having all the political heavy weights in the state. They told everyone who cared to listen that their taking over the government house was only a matter of time. But come Feb 6, the masses spoke and they crumbled like a pack of cards. Again, while they made noise, Obi was busy consolidating on his ANIDS project, touching and changing lives like no one had ever done in the state. When his opponents said he had done nothing, he took the people of the state round his projects to see how he was spending their money. Seeing the danger in this, his opponents, led by Ngige and Emeka Etiaba, cried foul and tried to discredit the project tours but it made no impact. Rather, all those who saw what Obi had achieved, held Obi in awe and collectively endorsed him for second term. These people had included the organised labour, teachers, traders, students, journalists, town unions, royal fathers, the clergy, knights of the church and virtually all Anambrarians.
When we wrote this, the enemies of progress accused us of cooking up the stories. They were in mortal dread of the tours because they exposed their lies that Obi was not working. When this failed, they resorted to blackmailing Obi organising kidnaps and heaping the blame on the government. This continued until they kidnapped Soludo’s father and the bubble burst. This was when the truth came out as the kidnappers confessed they did it in order to recoup their campaign funds in PDP. One of the lynch pins arrested even happened to be one of those hired by Ngige in his time and equipped with arms in the name of security. It turned out they were using those arms to terrorize the state. After this the tempo died down as real kidnappers carried out pockets of operations that the police easily contained.
When it was time to vote, the masses went for the man with discernible track records, a man with proven good character, a man with the fear of God and a man whose yes was yes, and his no was no. The result was the freest election in the country from which Obi made yet another history as the man that broke the second term jinx.
In returning to serve a second time, Obi has indeed proved that action is better than noise making and that ideas rule the world, not naked power. It now behoves us to support this God-sent man in his sincere, committed effort to build a better tomorrow for our children.
No comments:
Post a Comment