The battle began innocuously days ago, and it provided a window into the mind of former Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi. A certain Katch Ononuju, director general of the Abuja-based Heritage Centre, had declared in an interview that Kenneth Okonkwo, lawyer, actor and former LP presidential campaign spokesman, had lobbied to be the publicity secretary of the party. Mr Okonkwo was not just incensed but also shocked. He said that he expected Mr Obi to halt the antics of someone lying in his name. It seemed a simple enough fight; but it soon snowballed into a fiery exchange between the actor and the former candidate, with Mr Ononuju, the agent provocateur, becoming a bystander.
Convinced that he had never lobbied anyone for a position, let alone for a lower position, Mr Okonkwo painted his disappointment colourfully. Said he: “How is it that people are lying with Peter Obi’s name, and Peter Obi would hear such a thing publicly and would not react to it and would not call them to order publicly? You can never use me, Kenneth Okonkwo, to lie against Peter Obi, no matter the situation, because I detest lies. It shows a leader who cannot even defend the truth or defend people who have worked for him. These are the kind of problems Peter Obi has, attracting even street urchins, classless street urchins who are ill-bred. Those are the kind of followers he’s attracting now.”
Here is where the story got incandescent. Instead of simply refuting Mr Okonkwo’s allegations, Mr Obi sidestepped the part that involved Mr Ononuju, and launched into a discourse on egalitarianism. Or, to be more historical, and in perhaps an unconscious imitation of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Diderot, the French philosophes, Mr Obi wrote a disproportionate thesis on the concepts of egalite, equalite, fraternite – all to answer why he failed to set the records straight in the matter of Okonkwo vs. Ononuju. It may seem sophomoric philosophy, especially seeing that he was a student of philosophy himself, but Mr Obi is capable of throwing red herring and using colourful yet uncharismatic language. For the former governor, the acerbic exchange between Mr Okonkwo and Mr Ononuju was not about truth or falsehood; it was instead about how to view the poor and the dispossessed, his eternal and jejune fancy. To him, it was, indeed, about street urchins.
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Here is how Mr Obi framed the answer to a question not posed by Mr Okonkwo: “Humanity is paramount in my politics, no street urchins. Lately, I have heard a few people say that those who follow Peter Obi are low-class Nigerians, and some have even gone as far as calling them ‘street urchins’ and people of no value. It is deeply unfortunate that in today’s Nigeria, citizens now look down on fellow citizens in such a degrading manner. I have never and will never look down on anyone, except to lift them up…My involvement in politics has never been about associating with the so-called high and mighty, but about standing with the ordinary Nigerians whose voices have been silenced and whose resources have been stolen by the same ‘big names’ who now parade themselves with all sorts of titles and names…No Nigerian is a street urchin. It speaks volumes about the state of our nation that everyday Nigerians are now battered by poverty and hardship, to the point their leaders refer to them as of no value, and urchins.”
Mr Obi said he ‘heard a few people say’. For inexplicable reasons he was unprepared to mention Mr Okonkwo, the secondary object of his thesis, by name. Yet, his explanation about street urchins and how they are treated smacks of excessive condescension. It is clear that Mr Okonkwo made reference to street urchins in the context of a class of people unable to engage in the smallest exercise of logical deductions. Well, one is a lawyer, and the other a third-rate philosopher. Worse, rather than set the records straight, Mr Obi actually preferred to politique. Thereafter, he engaged in extrapolations and then deplored Nigerian leaders’ view of the poor, putting words in their mouths, and all but concluding that Mr Okonkwo belonged to that category of snobbish leadership. Mr Obi obviously and alarmingly views all this as politics. But he was not done, for, as he is wont, he must end every public statement with jaded sermons. Hear him: “Every Nigerian deserves dignity, opportunity, and care. That is why I will continue to do my part to ensure that the ordinary Nigerians enjoy a better life, one built on access to education, quality healthcare, and genuine efforts to lift them out of poverty. True leadership is not about mocking the weak; it is about lifting them up.” Nigerians do not have a global reputation for mediocre reasoning or tolerating mendacity. It is, therefore, mystifying why a loud and impertinent section of the populace finds Mr Obi’s drivelling fascinating.
