By Dave Agwazim
“The difference between equity and equality is that equality is when everyone gets the same thing, and equity is when everyone gets the things they deserve” – DeRay Mckesson (Activist)
It was on the light of the above quote that aroused a nationwide sentiment anchored on justice, equity, fairness, competence, capacity and character championed by progressive minded individuals across Nigeria and elsewhere around the globelike Comrade Kennedy Iyere clamoured for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in the last general election, a call that Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party benefitted immensely by taking the nations political landscape by storm, a feat was made possible through the emergence of an organic movement called The Obidient Movement.
It was the Obidients that took the Labour Party, a relatively unknown political party, to the height of emerging 3rd in 2023, and even so, many of them have refused to accept the verdict as pronounced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the courts in the land.
Indeed that outing of Peter Obi and the Obidient Movement reverberated so much that political scholars are of the opinion that it is only a matter of time and the political wish of the Nigerian people will start to speak and decide who presides over the affairs of the country and other political offices.
Sadly, as September 21 Edo State governorship election beckons, the Esan Agenda in Edo State is likened to the fate of the Igbos in the Nigerian project, hence, the Esan people who have not produced the governor of Edo State in the last 24 years calls for support from other units of the state to allow them have a shot at the Osadebe House this time around for equity and fairness, and ease off the cry of marginalization from the Esan extraction of the state.
However, Obi who is seen to have enjoyed the sentiment of equity and fairness in the last general election is seen to be supporting the injustice in Edo State as he was in the state today, June 15, 2024 to lend his support to Olumide Akpata, the candidate of Labour Party who incidentally is not just from the same senatorial district with Governor Godwin Obaseki but said to be a cousin to the incumbent governor of the state? Has Obi forgotten so soon the sentiments upon which he was voted for in February 2023? Well, let Peter Obi be reminded that many Obidients in the state have vowed not to have anything to do with LP in the coming September 21 election.
Viciously disappointed Comrade Kennedy Iyere, the governorship candidate of Accord Party and one of the principal actors and financiers of the Obidient Movement in the last general election took Peter Obi to the cleaners, calling him a hypocrite who lacked the
“It was a show of shane, Peter Obi has at last proven to the world that he is a man who stands against the equity struggle which was the platform upon which we rode to drive a sentimental narrative in his favour. He came to Edo State to raise up the hands of a man (Olumide Akpata) who is from the same zone that is presently doing eights years. Not only that Akpata is from Obaseki’s zone but a direct Cousin of Obaseki.”
“Peter Obi should forget about 2027 because he is not a sincere person. Peter Obi is saying he wants to fight corruption, but he has shielded and support Julius Abure and his fraudulent and criminal actions. In Benin City today, Peter Obi was seen working in solidarity with Julius Abure. Those of us close to Government House are aware that Peter Obi is working for Governor Obaseki and the candidate of the PDP, Asue Ighodalo, Akpata is just a game player, Peter Obi is the mastermind, the champion of the grand conspiracy. Therefore, a man of his character should not be allowed to deceive and defraud innocent Nigerians again in 2027.”
“He wants to make more people poorer while he enriches himself with the wealth and financial donations of Nigerians across the Diaspora. Did you not see that Peter Obi could not attract a mammoth crowd like it was in 2023? Did you not see how scanty the place was? He came to make a public disgrace of himself, Edo is Edo, and not Lagos,” He submitted.