By Uduak Edward
The day in focus here was when ordinary Nigerians drew the tears from the eyes of Peter Obi showing him up as one of the most loved politicians in Nigeria’s history. Perhaps, Obi himself may have underrated his estimation before Nigerians across religious, ethnic and political barriers. But on that day, Nigerians imposed on Obi a fresh impetus and energy to labour in solidarity with the suffering masses of Nigeria.
On December 26, 2021 was the day fire razed to ashes Obi’s family’s Next Cash and Carry Store in Kado in Abuja, and it was the day the awesome goodness of Nigerians came to the fore.
As the front-runner in the 2023 presidential election, people are awed by Obi’s boundless energy and mobility, which seems like a surge of wind. He seamlessly crisscrosses around the country and the globe, consulting and untangling the knotty issues on the path forward for national rebirth and renewal.
Like a powerful wind, Obi of the Labour Party (LP) moves. In one moment, he travels to Maiduguri, on the next he is in Kaduna, and on another, he is in Lagos, and then Owerri, and in another, he is in Port Harcourt. And when he is not in the country, he is moving from London to Berlin, from Rome to Ontario, Atlanta, New York, and several others all in a matter of days.
The current ‘Obidient movement’ in support of Obi’s 2023 mandate is an effusion of the seeds of love sown on that fateful December 26, 2021 when blazing torrents of fire flared down the Abuja branch of the Next Cash and Carry, one of Nigeria’s biggest retail outlets.
The fire flakes exploded in the massive complex at Kado Kuchi, FCT as it spread through the bakery, to the child care, the food courts, the counters, the bookshelves, the bicycle stands, the clothing lines and all the sections of the giant complex were turned to rubbles.
As the news went around on that fateful day, Nigerians trooped to the complex. Youths, men, and women dashed into the ruins to grab valuables out of the ruins. Mattresses, smart TVs, cases of handsets, clothes, jewelries, were fetched by brave voluntary responders. They were not looting the goods! They were preserving them in safer corners outside.
Abuja was ecstatic, the sad news spread like wildfire. The major question was whether the firefighters were fiends or friends, sympathizers or hypnotisers. “Oh my God, billions of naira are gone, people’s lives!” One volunteer shouted as he dodged a caving conduit pipe from the rafters and the shafts of the circuit connections.
“Wa yo!” A youthful Nigerian commercial motorcyclist yelled as he dashed to assist in arranging some rugs out of the debris.
By the time members of the Nigerian Fire Service, the Nigeria Police, staff of the mall and family members assembled, it was found that the emergency responders did not attempt to loot the shop as it always happens in many such incidents due to the rampaging poverty in the land.
Stacks of goods and items worth millions of naira had been properly arranged away in front of the mall, outside the raging inferno. Not all was lost to the blaze, after all. Not a pin was taken away either.
The police and fire minders were shocked. It was a Nigerian spirit, often latent, but which spurs forward on occasion. It is the spirit of Naija as many have come to know it. It is a national solidarity sowed in years of abuses by the leadership elite, it is a unity being forged by the glue of appreciation of the diversity of the over 200 million strong people.
When calls and sympathy messages began to pour in for Mr Obi, he couldn’t explain the love from Nigerians. Yes, the unworking institutional failures and poor safety and response mechanisms might have accentuated the destruction, but the Nigerian communal spirit shone forth as usual as the redeeming feature of the tragedy. It brought the tears out of Obi.
Although, Mr Obi took time to explain to those whom he could that he was no longer a director in any of the businesses linked to him, including Next Cash and Carry, since assuming public life in 2006, first as governor of Anambra State, and other public positions, the empathetic messages wouldn’t go away. It brought the tears out of Obi.
Try as he could, that business is forever associated with him. And did Nigerians respond because he is the only good man in Nigeria? Not at all. Mr Obi as a human has his imperfections. But many had followed his messages and come to love him genuinely as one of the most selfless visioners of a new Nigeria.
Nigerians came to the rescue not only because the mall is a source of livelihood for thousands of Nigerian youths, who maintain stands there. Not because local products from confetionaries, clothing, footwears, agro-products, juice, etc are allowed to compete side by side with others in the shelves and stands of the mall. It is pure love. That is what made Obi cry.
Peter Obi is today attending rallies, holding town halls, and engaging Nigerians of every hue and tone, persuasion and opinion. His carriage has been graceful, his engagement cerebral. He has changed the dynamic of Nigerian politics from the pursuit of inanities to issues-based engagement.
He loves Nigerians because they love him even more. The dispute may be whose love trumps the other, but it is a love made of organic stuff. When the Nigerians in every nook and cranny are rallying in the rain and sun, spending their resources and investing their hopes in his candidacy even before he threw his hat in the ring, shows how far the people are prepared to take Peter Obi to. No doubt, he is more than willing to risk himself serving the people. That image of him taking a nap at the transit lounge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, shows his comfort would be secondary in the Villa when Nigerians whom he calls “my employers” put him there.