By Dan Onwukwe
The emergence of Mr. Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential race and the profound impact he made in that election has been driving Nigerian politics in astonishing manner. He’s defining public agenda, and speaking up – articulately and emphatically – on the urgent need to fix a broken Nigeria, clean up the mess, cut the cost and size of governance.
Like no other politician in the present dispensation, Obi is also marshaling out the challenges of immediate sort confronting the country and the citizens and proffering solutions to them. These are leadership lessons.
Mr. Obi never fails to remind anyone who cares to listen that part of his vision for a better Nigeria is not for personal gains but to dismantle the present structure of criminality in the country, not by violent means, but through active participation of the citizenry in the democratic process.
The picture that emerges from the above is that of a man who is focused, undistracted by the volley of attacks against him. That’s why he has become the ‘toast’ of many political parties, wooing him to join them. It’s not for nothing. Integrity matters. Focus is ingrained in Obi’s personality.One key element in his untiring effort is his utter realism, his ability to look facts – even very unpleasant facts – in the face and not let himself be deluded by wishful thinking. It’s a political version of a businessman’s interest in balance sheet. The interest here is not about profits but the collective interest of Nigerians who are currently going through unprecedented hardship. Obi draws inspiration from the time-tested cliché that says: sit at the feet of an older man to absorb his knowledge. This is because, politics is a human enterprise. Sadly, many Nigerian politicians fail to realise that.
Let’s take this example: Before his death in October 2011, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple(one of the world’s most valuable companies), was visited at home by Larry Page, who was then about to resume control of Google, the company he co-founded with Sergey Brin. Even though Apple and Google were feuding at the time, Jobs was willing to give Page some advice. “The main thing I stressed was focus”, Jobs recalled. He told Page to narrow down Google’s product portfolio and focus on a few products. His words, “figure out what Google would be when it grows up. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they are dragging you down, they are causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great”.
According to Walter Isaacson, Jobs biographer, Larry Page diligently followed Jobs’s advice. And in January 2012, Page told Google’s employees during a retreat to focus on just a few priorities, such as Android and Google+, and make them “beautiful”, the way Jobs would have done”. That’s why Jobs will forever remain in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Walt Disney. What are the takeaways of Jobs’s advice, and where does Peter Obi fit in here? The people who are ‘crazy’, focused to think different are the ones who win. That was Apple’s winning commercial in 1997.
Now, here are the issues and where Obi stands. Recently, promised to serve one-term of four years in office if elected President of Nigeria, in 2027. He also advocates 5-year single tenure for President in the country. Since he pledged to serve one-term if elected president, his proposition has set off a sort of lightning rod in the air. That’s what Jobs called a “bozo explosion”. It has unleashed a great wave of divergent opinions. While Obi’s promise of a single-term has resonated with a lot of people across the country, many critics, including the presidency(Obi’s habitual critic) have described his idea as ‘impracticable, undemocratic, a desperation disguised as altruism”.
However, Obi insists that transformative leadership doesn’t require prolong occupation of office, but integrity and the political will are essential to deliver change. You should forgive such naysayers, who see his proposition as an overt subterfuge to become President. One constant critics is Gov Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state who says that anyone who believes Obi’s idea deserves a psychiatric test. I am inclined to believe that Gov Soludo, for want of a better word, suffers from the “Smartest kid in the Class” syndrome(‘I too sabi’).
For the other doubters that Obi won’t keep his word, you don’t blame them. Reason: perhaps they haven’t seen a politician who thinks differently and is uniquely different from the rest. For them, trust deficit is in the DNA of every politician. That’s one of the things that make Nigerian politics a fun to follow. Again, that’s why Obi is not your typical politician. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man said that much about Obi in March 2024 when Obi was signing off as Governor of Anambra state. “I am very proud of Obi. He has proved that people from the private can also do very well in politics”, Dangote said. Obi’s proposition of a single-term presidency is the practical solution to our leaders’ desperation for power.
Only few seek power to achieve great purposes or accomplish real goals. For many, the accumulation of power is to dominate the rest of us, and bend people to their own will. That’s why our past presidents and even the incumbent , have stumbled on the last rung of leadership ladder. Presidential historian and Lyndon Johnson’s biographer, Robert A. Caro, captures the conundrum this way: without a vision beyond their own advancement, many leaders are “almost paralyzed once the goal of the power they have expertly accumulated had been achieved”. Again, this is where Steve Jobs’s advice becomes instructive, and that’s the point Mr. Obi has been making: two-term presidency of 8 years is ‘dragging’ Nigeria down the leadership scale. It’s causing Nigeria to turn out despots, tyrants who project an image bigger and stronger than the country and the citizens put together.
The way things are going, Nigeria risks having Presidents like King Louis XIV who once declared, “L’Etat C’est moi”(I am the state). These are leaders who don’t believe the normal rules apply to them. The risk is that, there’s no where to hide from ill-chosen, or ill-advised policies. That’s why Obi’s one-term, four years proposal sounds strange to the critics. Nobody is asking about politics of integrity, values, morals and conviction any longer, or why our democracy is not yielding the expected dividends. It’s all because our politicians, governors and the president are fixated on 2-term in office. If our democracy will succeed, and our elected officials accountable to the people, Nigerian politics must undergo a sea change, with less emphasis on tenure elongation.
Mr. Obi’s single-term proposal should also be looked at from the experience of our history. It approximates to the saying of Lord Acton that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Our political leaders build monuments to their ego after amassing power. In Nigeria’s context, the trouble is that the combination of acquiring power and using it for great purposes that will benefit the people is rare. Given the intractable conundrum of Nigeria’s leadership, Obi has offered a nuanced insight into how this ‘do-or- die’ struggle for power can be minimised.
The difference between Nigeria’s democracy and elsewhere is that, in Nigeria, the ordinary people are not responsible for the type of governments we have had in the last 26 years. It’s getting progressively worse today. For instance, in 27 months of his presidency, Tinubu is yet to show a concrete demonstration of a presidential-level talent. Today, the eyes and minds of the president and his appointees are on his re-election for in 2027. Governance has taken the back seat. If Obi’s proposal had been in place, the present high temperature ahead of 2027 would perhaps have been avoided. The gale of defections would have been minimal. Tinubu’s policies in the last two years, and counting, to borrow the words of legal icon, Chief Afe Babalola, “have turned Nigerians into beggars with crumbs of palliatives”.
Obi wants to change all that. It will upend the dominance of money politics. But, if Obi’s single-term is not supported, the problem of ‘strongmen’ in democracy will intensify with unpleasant consequences. We will all regret it. It reminds me of when Steve Jobs approached Stan Veit, a computer shop owner in New York to invest just 10 percent stake in Apple for $10,000. Veit took one hard look at Jobs and his casual, scruffy appearance and decided he couldn’t trust him. In his mind, Jobs didn’t look like the kind of person he could bank on. Years later, Veit confessed ruefully, that it was the “biggest missed opportunity” of his life.
In a similar vein, celebrated author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said that much last week. She told a television interviewer why Obi’s proposal be considered in the best interest of Nigeria’s democracy. “Obi cares about Nigeria”, she says, stressing, “there are people who are desperate to become President, not because they have good intentions for the country, but because of their own personal egos. Obi is one of the simplest men I have ever known. He’s genuine and consistent. The person I knew 15 years ago is still the same in terms of his values. He’s not a person who expects you to thank him for doing his job as a leader, because to him, it’s his job”.
Chimamanda is not someone who praises anyone if that person doesn’t merit it. The message is: leaders who have made their countries great don’t seek for 8 years to accomplish great things. They see a direct link between politics and service. They are passionately motivated by no special privileges for themselves. They see politics the ultimate sacrifice, a lifetime opportunity to leave lasting impact on the country and its people.
*Onwukwe is a commentator on
public issues
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