“While you were waiting for your turn, you behaved like the Chinese who built walls to protect their city against the invasion of their enemies, only to receive bribes to let them in. And be attacked from inside by the same enemies They built walls without building character. You want power without building character”. -Luke Okoro
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An interesting drama played out in the Holy Scriptures in 2nd Samuel chapter 15, during the reign of King David, Israel’s second king. Absalom, David’s son had wanted to be king in the stead of his father. So, he gathered some two hundred young men after himself to herald his ascension to the throne, though David was still alive, in Jerusalem.
“And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called, and they went in their simplicity, and knew not any thing”, 2 Samuel 15:11.
Mr Sunday Adelaja could have fitted into this gang assembled by Absalom if he were to be in Israel. These young men were simple, ignorant, unenlightened and bereft of wisdom, discretion and common sense. They lacked capacity to learn and understand. They were deficient in judgement and good sense. They were subsequently consumed by the blind ambition of a prince whose knowledge was hollow as theirs.
Otherwise what would have led Adelaja to have chosen to denigrate His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra state, in his recent article, denouncing his ambition to be the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And making a comparison between Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress,APC, and Obi. To him Asiwaju is better fitted for the office of the President.
Hmmm! Reading Adelaja, it was clear that he didn’t follow the tutorials his sponsors gave him. Yes. Because if he did, he would not have chosen to make a comparison between Peter Obi and Bola Tinubu. Or did he think he was writing to a readership located in the Mars?
Nigerians and possibly the international community know where both personalities are coming from. They are not from the moon or the Mars. They both live with us. And had been with us, at least, since 1999, when this republic was birthed.
By the way, HE, Peter Obi, is the Presidential Candidate of the Labor Party, LP. Nobody would have thought that Obi would be a subject of intense political discourse before now, when he was still in the fold of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
But suddenly things have changed and hateful men like Adelaja have been sensitized to pull down an honest man wishing to deliver his country men and women, particularly the young people, from the ruination of Asiwaju and his APC gang. But Nigerians are wiser. And nobody will fool them again as in 2015 when liars in APC traded truth away for selfish ends, as we see them go again. Haba, even you Adelaja!
So, when you compare Peter Obi with your paymasters could it be that you were asleep? What were the bases of the comparison? That both were former governors doesn’t put them together in one basket to compare. Certainly not.
Every reasonable Nigerian and the international community know where HE Peter Obi is coming from. He is from Anambra state, which he governed for eight years. He left marks of honor, transparency and unparalleled excellence in diligent governance, project execution and detailed accountability. At the end, he left the state without making a single approval for his pension. No member of Obi dynasty is in any known appointment till date. Can this be true for your own clan? Let the world know when next you write.
He went to both primary and secondary schools in Onitsha with clear records and known classmates and school nates, including the man, Willie Obiano, whom he met at Christ the King’s College, CKC, Onitsha. He proceeded to the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu state, before migrating abroad for a string of trainings and courses in known Ivy League Schools.
He doesn’t flaunt it, but we, the OBIDients need to put these issues straight as they are — in the public space- so that ignorant people and dangerous men like Adelaja will not walk away with their tomfoolery.
Wisdom demands that those who live in glass houses don’t throw stones. But sadly, wisdom failed Mr Adelaja in this regard. Obi is known to have made his money before coming into government. Even as a student, he was making money. Out of government, he has continued to make money legitimately . Today, you can point to all his businesses, most of them he started before his involvement in partisan politics. He is not a deals’ man.
He is not a politician of exchange of office for lucre, or a man of mammonism, or a man whose avarice has neither beginning nor ending. Do you still remember that a recent television interview with one of the marketers of your sponsors came to an end suddenly, when he was asked to explain the sources of their humongous wealth?
That was about the time the dollarized national convention of the APC took place in Abuja. Your marketer, a young northerner, couldn’t answer that question put to him by the anchors of the program.
For your information, Nigerian electorate will vote Obi because they know him and the sources of his wealth. Another conscripted man like you was talking recently, and said the economy was beyond the capacity of those involved in buying and selling. And I ask : what is the capacity, competence, certification and character of those Dele Alake had in mind to reposition the economy laid comatose by the men they choreographed into power in 2015?
This injustice against Nigerians will forever remain an albatross on those responsible for it , and will follow them to their graves . They cannot rewrite this history. And can’t have a second chance in 2023. Not in this country. The young people your misrule has pauperized, dehumanized and families afflicted with your regime of pain and death will never allow it to happen. The electoral heist you have always resorted to, will not happen because Nigerians , as it happened in Osun and Edo states, will protect their votes. They are wiser NOW.
You tried hard to accuse Obi of lying and deceit; usage and exploitation of people. It was clear that your were scratching your skin to fashion out 10 points to retire your budget. That was why you regurgitated internet materials on your subject , which had been sorted out cleanly before the public, and also with the Police where applicable.
For instance, your reference to the issue of 250 million naira meant for the payment of vehicles was a nullity. Even the Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, acquitted him of no wrong doing. The Inspector General of Police, then , Sir Mike Okiro is still alive. His committee on the matter exonerated Obi.
In the same way, your reference to the Pandora Files was also dubious. What crime did he commit against Nigeria? One is sure that if Obi had contravened any state law, your paymasters would have used the EFCC or the Police or any of the anti- corruption agencies which are under their failed government, to deal with him, moreso as an opposition candidate.
Your attempt to falsify his claims of leaving several billions behind after his tenure in Anambra state and the massive investments he made for the state are not things to debate about. These facts are in public domain. Obiano administration’s effort to counter this fact didn’t hold, and his foot soldiers quickly advised themselves and quietly withdrew. Yet, that was what you were selling to the public . Poor you. How ignorant. Or mischief.
One is actually sympathetic with you since your base in Ukraine has been devastated by Russia in the ongoing war there. Therefore, man must survive. You genuinely need to be rehabilitated. For this reason your support for APC , the destroyers of our collective destiny in the last seven and half years, is understandable. It would avail you some succour, no doubt. But should there not be honor, even in an attempt to survive? Do you need to compromise everything, sell character, integrity with lies, just to survive?. Remember Esau.
When you say that Obi mistreated Northerners in Anambra state when he was governor: How? The five Commissioners of Police or so, who worked with him for the eight years he governed the state were non Igbo and mostly northeners. The Upper Iweka that was in contention was cleared with the help of the Police who took their orders from Abuja. So how was the bad treatment effected? By whom? For your education, the work he did on that Upper Iweka road / Bridge Head was monumental till today because everybody who passed through that corridor before and after the work, appreciated the diligence put in it. It wasn’t an ethnic thing as you wanted to falsely introduce the Sultan into the matter. Obi didn’t mistreat him or his representatives throughout all the meetings that took place then.
There was nothing like that as carefully explained elsewhere by Obi himself. The freedom on that corridor is being enjoyed today by everybody, including our brothers from the North. Even Obiano’s years of inept leadership, did not obliterate that legacy. Go and verify. Nigerians will vote Obi because he’s visionary and ethnic blind.
2000/2001 Mile 12 Massacre
But let me ask you: Do you know how many northerners that were killed in Mile 12 in 2000/ 2001 riots in Lagos? It was a supremacy war between Yoruba and Hausa over the leadership of Mile 12 market. For several years after the fight, the Federal Government stationed a military detachment there. The Police have this record. Who was the governor?
When you say that Obi hates infrastructure development. You miss the point, may be, out of some mischief . Because it would be foolhardy to accuse someone who transformed Anambra into a huge construction site to hate infrastructure development. Moreso, someone who wants to rule Nigeria, where roads are death traps, waterways are unsafe and the airports are still substandard, when compared with what obtains elsewhere. Obi loves public infrastructure development. He showed it in Anambra state. You don’t live there. You have not visited the state. So you wouldn’t know or appreciate what happened in Anambra under Obi. You claimed that Anambra people only remember Dr Chris Ngige, current minister of Labor and Productivity, who was governor between May 29 , 2003 and March 6, 2006, when they talk about infrastructure. Even Ngige will distance himself from you for this shameless lies . Under Obi Anambra had the best network of roads in Nigeria. Go and crosscheck. Under Obi, public infrastructure in hospitals and schools received quality enhancements with the 177 or so Town Unions given specific allocations to address immediate infrastructure needs in their communities. These issues are in public space.
The point Obi was making in the interview you failed to comprehend is that human capital development should be prioritized and promoted far ahead of infrastructure development because of the need to maintain these infrastructure when they are put in place. Conventional wisdom says that if you don’t educate the people, they will destroy the infrastructure. Whereas if you educate them they own and maintain it for longevity and beauty. And that was why he made serious effort at rebuilding EDUCATION in Anambra state. Adelaja, under Obi Anambra state consistently came tops in all competitive public examinations throughout his tenure. Even the Obiano administration enjoyed it’s ripple effect. Indeed, Anambra schools became hot cake with parents outside the state bringing their wards home for schooling.
He took Anambra from bottom to the top. Check out these facts before your next briefing so that you can get it right. Nigerians will vote for him to replicate this feat at the federal level. He will eradicate strikes because he is a genuine person. Your brand of leaders are fake and dishonest. They can’t command respect and believability from Nigerians. That is why nothing is working currently, and your sponsors want to continue from this mess if voted into power. Sad.
Since your paymasters are achievers: For their eight years, Lagos never went beyond 50 per cent in any public exams including West African Examinations Council, WAEC, and National Examinations Council, NECO, until the good man Babatunde Fashola came on board. Go and check.
Somebody had already said it elsewhere that taps in Lagos never produced water during that period. They hardly do even now. Yet you were mouthing how Asiwaju loved infrastructure development. Why is water scarce? Or is it not part of public infrastructure? May be by the time they finally relocate you to Lagos, you will know how costly water is here.
You wanted to pin down Obi with the indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and their struggle. That shows how clannish you and your sponsors are. IPOB has always denied Obi. And he will never be with them because he believes in a united Nigeria. He has gone to all the states of the Federation selling himself to the people for President.
Like Absalom’s young men, you must have written those lines before you realized that Sunday Igboho is in the same struggle with IPOB. Yet your sponsors have not apologized to Nigerians. Besides President Buhari, whose Fulani Herdsmen brothers had, and still are afflicting Nigerians with pain, sorrow and death every day in the last seven years was voted into power. To whom has PMB apologized for these atrocities– even when he is their grand patron?
Your problem is that you are an ethnic irredentist, a hater of the Igbo. Because of your small mindedness, let it be known to you that freedom fighting isn’t a crime in modern society. To belong to a country is not by force. So both Igboho and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu have committed no crimes. This is why the UN has directed the Nigerian government to release MNK.He is a prisoner of Conscience. Obi has nothing to apologize for either.
Again, your assertion that Obi wants to use the Labour Party to gain power, even though he is a capitalist doesn’t fit into the Nigerian mix. In this country such categorizations don’t hold water. What Nigerians want from their leaders are the same from all the parties. They want functional system devoid of corruption. They want security of lives and property. They want motorable roads, available health care and functional education system that is determinate and competitive. They want jobs and employment opportunities. They want stable power for production and decent livelihood. Nigerians demand justice, equity , fairness, integrity and leadership by example from their leaders regardless of which party. And these are what the Obi- Datti candidacy stands for.
Therefore, you cannot be right with your accusation that Obi, being a capitalist, is using LP, a socialist / Welfarist party, to gain power. Nigerians want freshness of leadership and food on their table. Period.
But let me join you in your argument. Your sponsors went into alliance with Buhari, who disdains a restructured federation; who hates issues like State Police, Regional and State Autonomy, Fiscal Federalism and all the elements of True Federalism- which principles he had stood for in the past with Afenifere, Ohanaeze, the Middle Belt and the South South Fora.
Today, these principles are alien to him because he wants to grab power. He teamed with PMB who disdains true Federalism. Your principal bragged that he is a progressive in 1999, for which Lagosians voted him into power under the Alliance for Democracy. Does he still believe in them ? Please confirm from him and let us know who is using who to gain power?
Do you also know that nobody holds any position in Lagos without going to Babylon, sorry Bourdillion? The people of Ogun, Ondo and Ekiti and most recently Osun rejected your overlords because they don’t want to be used or exploited.
All those in elective positions your sponsors pay homage. And you are talking of usage and exploitation. Ask Obiano and his gang if Obi took a kobo from them to introduce them into government? Find out why HE Fashola was to be denied a second term, until they sensed that Lagosians would follow the Star Man to any party. Also find out why the immediate former governor Akinwumi Ambode was denied a second term? Was it that he didn’t perform well as sitting governor? Or what? Lagosians are waiting to have a pound of flesh one day. The Osun episode is just unfolding. Loading…
Ask Anambra people if Obi has a hand in the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of their state? Who nominates the market and park ‘ leaderships in Lagos? Go and find out where they make their RETURNS.
Do you know that your sponsors have alienated parts of Lagos State Teaching Hospital for themselves? And the laboratory services provided by them are costlier than they are outside. Or are you not aware, Adelaja? You are indeed a conscripted man, even though you claim to live in Kyiv.
I was amused and taken aback when I read about his visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. That was after you had pilloried Obi of dinning and wining with those like former Military leaders Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdulsalami Abubakar. You tagged them as corrupt past leaders.
Really! You said Obi wants to use them to gain power, hence the visit to them in Minna, the Niger state capital. Now that your Asiwaju has visited OBJ, another alleged corrupt leader according to you, and a man Asiwaju himself tarred with the brush of master election rigger not long ago, what do you call it ? In the months to come he will also go visiting those in Minna. Don’t forget that your masters went round all the prominent traditional rulers in the North before the dollarized presidential primary. They visited all the northern state governors of the APC, begging them for support. What was that? Or it doesn’t qualify as usage?. Next time , please get their instructions right before you retire their budget. You can’t ignore those who had trodden a path before you simply because you are rooting for a change. The Scripture is right when it counsels that you should not ignore the ANCIENT landmarks. That is what Obi did. To give honor to whom honor is due. He is a properly brought up man who neither smokes nor drinks any intoxicant. His hands are firm and strong. His mental alertness is 100 per cent. He is offering himself for leadership , and not for the division of the country or its people on religious and ethnic lines. You can’t beat such a man. You can’t pigeon hole him.
He has come to light at a time like this to give hope to the youth of the country, and to give them back their country in line with existential realities across the globe. He is a pan Nigerian candidate. They are supporting him to reset their economy and politics so that old men like your gang in APC and PDP will go home and enjoy their blessed old age. I will return to this shortly.
If not usage, what would have made your principal to choose a fellow Muslim from the North to be his running mate? They just want to grab power without fairness and equity; national unity and integration. They have gone ahead to enter into agreements with several Muslim groups on how they will expand their faith in the South East and South South counting on their support. Are you aware of that?
They will not let you know because you are a Christian and according to the Greeks, ‘ a useful idiot’. Please don’t forget the anecdote of Absalom and his 200 young men. Don’t also forget Esau since you claim to be a preacher.
You wrote as if politics is all about brigandage, thuggery, fakery, lawlessness and lack of integrity and character. No. If it were, that era had passed because development is a process and evolutionary. We have evolved. The country has moved. And given this reality,
the 2023 elections would be people- driven. Don’t bother about structure for Obi – Datti presidential candidature. We, in the OBIDient family will handle it very well. Before the second quarter, many parroted this structure thing, thinking that it was a rocket science. But the OBIDient movement has proven to be unstoppable.
So Adelaja, calm down. We have got people who own the structures. That is why you are conscripted with other 500 – strong-man gang. You have been duly motivated to pull Obi down as if he is the only presidential candidate. The arrogant Kwankwaso is there. The same for the recurring PDP man Atiku. Why are you insistent on Obi, even when you claim he has no structures?
But to satisfy your curiosity, be sure that the OBIDients are spreading into all the nooks and crannies of the nation, creating structures, mobilizing people and educating them on what they should do in 2023: To vote for Mr Peter Obi. The OBIDients are in all the 774 Local Government Areas nationwide. Also penetrating the wards.
For your attention, nearly a score of states and several towns and cities have hosted the ONE -million- man matches for Obi. Many individuals , tired of this wicked APC misrule, are donating their private houses for the OBIDients. What then is structure that you were talking about? We are also ready to contribute one thousand naira, only, each to support our candidate when the time comes.
Are your aware that your gang members are suppressing the OBIDients from carrying out their One- million- man solidarity matches in Ebonyi and Kaduna states? They are jittery. But they can’t hold the OBIDients for long because’ we own the land together’. And Nigeria is the LORD’S. Nobody can intimidate the OBIDients. Both Governors Dave Umahi (Ebonyi,) and Nasir el Rufai,( Kaduna ) must be properly advised. Just recently a gentleman donated a building for the Obi- Datti Campaign Office in Owerri, Imo state capital. Another building will be received for the same purpose in Ibadan, Oyo state capital soon. Such office donations had in the past come from several states in the North , including the PMB’s home state, Katrina. Adelaja my dear, the truth is that people are tired with your APC ruiners of life and DESTINY.
They know that beyond structures, there should be character, justice, equity and leadership, which are too tall for your gang to produce and provide. Today, Nigerians have found these qualities in Peter Obi, a man without airs, pride or hubristic claim of’ emi lokan.’ When Imo people voted for Rochas Okorocha; When Ondo people abandoned PDP for LP’s Olusegun Mimiko; ask these former governors about their structures,? They had The PEOPLE, who were resolved to suffer no more. That is where Nigerians are at present. We move..
This truth should also be told. That the ambition of your Jagaban is perverse and fraught with injustice and covetousness. There is what is called SOCIAL JUSTICE in politics It has to do with equity, fairness and justice. That is why the framers of our Constitution added the Federal Character Principle in that book. This is to reflect social justice . It doesn’t matter the volume of votes a particular region or State donates. That same region or state should be fair ENOUGH to accommodate other smaller states or regions . That explained why Adams Oshiomhole was voted into power by the Binis.
If you do it on the basis of numbers, Binis will always produce the governors of Edo. But they have always bent over backwards to accommodate their minority brothers for peace, fairness and social harmony and integration. This is the point the Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo was making when they threw their support behind Obi.What is wrong with that in a country striving for peace and harmonious living?
In 1993, the South East voted MKO Abiola , a Yoruba, at the expense Dr Syvester Ugo, an Igbo , who ran with late Alhaji Bashir Tofa from Kano state. It wasn’t Igbo that annulled that election .In 1999, the Igbo also voted another Yoruba man, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as president. And in 2015 and 2019, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, also Yoruba emerged as vice president. In all these years, the South West had been in power for sixteen years. So what is wrong if the same South West supports the Igbo to produce the next President? It’s all about fairness. Being socially JUST. Your Jagaban is averse to this FAIRNESS and understanding.
Thankfully, more considerate and better thinking South westerners, represented by Pa Adebanjo are in support of this social justice. This is the way of national UNITY, social integration, justice and equity. Is your master saying that rotation of the presidency should be between the Fulani North and the Yoruba South? That rankles common sense. And foolish in the extreme. Even a cripple will raise a whimper. And the Igbo are no cripple . They are also not helpless– as not to challenge this wickedness and injustice. Those of you who flatter him and encourage this dangerous enterprise will fully and comprehensively be ashamed in February, when Nigerians will speak with their votes.
This is applicable with Atiku of the PDP.
He and his party want to return to power without social justice. They think that Nigerians do not know that our level of development is not near the western world where Presidents can come from same family for ages. . The South East abandoned the PDP because of this clear injustice. Yet Atiku has been very decent and civil in the pursuit of his ambition, unlike your sponsors, Adelaja. While the registration of voters was going on, your APC foot soldiers went to some places where they felt the Igbo were being massively registered, to disrupt the process. This was similar to what happened in 2019 in some polling units in parts of Lagos. The same anarchists went to Igbo dominated areas to disrupt voting when they realized that Buhari could lose Lagos if nothing illegal didn’t happen. This was the scenario that gave rise to the bullion van incident. But the case of 2023 will be different. I can give you that assurance because nobody suffers fools gladly, twice.
Some of you have been mobilized and dollarized to say all manner of evil against the Igbo, including the civil war in which the Igbo were victims and lost over three million of their kith and kin. Those elements of your hateful write ups against the Igbo do not help the cause of your sponsors. If any, it portrays you guys as anarchists and brigands who are desperate for power. Unfortunately, some of your gang members who are decent gentlemen, have chosen to sacrifice everything at the altar of one individual whose inner workings they neither understand, nor comprehend. Somebody said, people can forget their surnames when they are dollarized. Strange.
While you were waiting for your turn, you behaved like the Chinese who built walls to protect their city against the invasion of their enemies, only to receive bribes to let them in. And be attacked from inside by the same enemies They built walls without building character. You want power without building character. Nigerians are no long for such nonsense. They want to follow a leader who knows where he is going. Your gang wants to run another Collective leadership experiment, where a man will gather people like you, and pick their brains, as if leadership is a collective bargaining. As a leader, he has no ideas of his own. No capacity for critical thinking? No rigor for long studies, going forward? He brings nothing to the table. While Obi and Datti may not know it all. While they may require people’s impute, they nonetheless, have their own critical thinking -with rigor – of where Nigeria should be. Your leader doesn’t have it. We see this each time he speaks in public, extempore. Leadership demands critical thinking and rigorous exercise of the gray matter. It’s more than a Collective exercise of power. Such is the confusion we have in the Buhari presidency . And that is what has brought Nigeria where we are currently. Consider the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. Do you think that if PMB had got a formula for higher education in Nigeria, he would allow five ASUU strikes in seven years?
He relied on collective leadership, which has failed him. Nigerians are resolved to escape another disaster represented by your sponsors. They should give us a break (We thank God for their age ). They are not contemporary. Leadership has gone beyond common sense to real critical and rigorous thinking. An era of imperical leadership. This is where Obi and Datti are. They are an unbeatable pair. And we are the structures. And will prove it come February 2023 by the grace of God.
Meanwhile kindly brief us on the possible recruitment of 50 million soldiers? Their agbado feeding formula? Tell us more on the expiration of PVCs,? Can you confirm when he will take up the Atiku challenge for 60- minute one- on -one television debate?
Many also want to know why he was absent from the Conference of Nigerian lawyers, NBA.held beside his residence? Please confirm in your next outing. I rest my case.
