2023: How Peter Obi is educating Nigerians with issue-based campaign

By Ifeanyi Onyekere Mandela

Show me that politician who does not evade questions thrown to him to talk about Peter Obi and I’ll show you an enlightened mind.

*Take-away

Our people say : afia oma na-ere onwe ya. (A good product markets/sell itself)
They also say that it’s the tree that’s very close to people that receives more cuts.
Most importantly, life, they say is a game of the mind.

You know… someone can go to school still not get educated. Education is the enlightenment of the mind. When the mind is enlightened, one can make informed decision.

Informed decision is not about political affiliations, it’s not claiming to be party loyal, it’s not attacking personalities, it’s not mouthing that politics is about personal interests, and far from misconstruing information to suit same.

The last argument an enlightened mind would want to make is that: this is Nigeria! This is Nigeria where corruption festers, and corrupt persons encouraged, where almost every system fails to work, where human values are trashed, where education is at the last wrung of importance, where justice and equity are unfairly distributed, where freedom is imprisoned, where there’s joblessness, where there’s insecurity, where politicians show how well they lead by impoverishing the people and remembering to give them few cups of rice during election period, where graduates are hired to do praise-singing for politicians, and the negative lists continue.

An enlightened mind is a visionary who sees, creates and works towards the future he wants to see. And this is a leader. He walks with like-minded people.
One of the major challenges in developing countries like Nigeria is that followers don’t know they are leaders too, and this is one of the most important part of getting the mind enlightened.

Out of frustration many people rush to enjoy social media comedy; an escape mechanism with distractions, but in all, it’s very important one keeps his mind enlightened.

If an enlightened mind is known for making informed decisions, what’s then, the mad rush we always witness from other politicians attacking Peter Obi when they could have been selling themselves with the same opportunity? This repetitive occurrence has becomea a red flag.

A little walk down memory lane:
The present APC government accused tr PDP government of former president Goodluck Jonathan of all sorts of poor governance, the man lost the 2015 elections. Less than two years later, he has became a hero; almost a legend.

Many accused him of not knowing how to play politics because he shifted a bit from the normal sit-tight-on-power mentality of most African politicians. But as we keep repatriating monies looted by Gen. Sani Abacha, Goodluck Jonathan is being celebrated as one of the best African presidents.

Hopefully, history would not repeat itself so we’d be celebrating Peter Obi as one of Africa’s best presidents.

Recall that man took over in Zambia in 2021, and American dollars is crashing under Zambian Kwacha. An enlightened mind is one with content.