Everyone but Peter Obi. Yes, Fulani herdsmen are welcome to Benue, and their cattle too. All but Obi.
Nigeria’s eccentric democratic experiment and farcical federalism are finding expression at just the right time. The beginnings are in Benue.
Campaigns for 2027 have started, and an early warning sign is flashing.
Some politicians will get a frosty reception in Benue State. Others will not even be allowed to make an entrance at all. Paranoia is now a policy.
The struggle to check the state borders has suddenly disappeared. On 8th September, Peter Obi, the NDC candidate for the 2027 election, was stopped by thugs from visiting an IDP camp.
It was always coming. The government will blame the man who disregarded its stark warning.
After all, it was he who gave the drug-addled, state-sponsored attack dogs a reason to chase and almost bite. Others have been warned.
Benue State and the APC won’t be bound by any outdated rulebook. The state is an APC playground that is not a level playing field. Only players of APC allegiance can play freely. All is fair in war.
Governor Alia is only acting out what President Tinubu advocates. It is an incredible irony that a party that benefited from the most level playing field ever is heaping stones.
Power is at stake. Powerlessness is on the cards. There is a conspiracy to enfeeble.
A decision has been taken at the highest level that Nigerians can no longer be allowed to decide their fate and future.
A party failed. This once, failure will not be punished but prettified until it putrefies.
Dangerous precedents are wildly unpredictable in that no one knows who will be caught in their webs tomorrow.
Nigeria has a constitution.
The constitution is a law that dictates the extent of all other laws.
Freedom of movement is constitutional. So is political participation and the ancillary rights to associate and identify. Every leash must be legal.
By the electoral timetable drawn up by law, campaigns have started. Consequently, even if Peter Obi were on his way to Yelewata to campaign, he was well within his rights to do so. The denial rings hollow.
A witch cried in the night, and the child died in the morning.
For all its denial, the Benue State government has its fingerprints all over this. It was not the first time either. There is some vindication
Peter Obi has been saying Nigerian politicians are too idle for their own good. The Benue State Government is proving him true. A state with a host of problems should have no time for frivolities.
But in Benue, they do.
Frivolities are a staple there. Just that Peter Obi won’t stand for it.
It is like wildfire. He has become a symbol of a new Nigeria and is quickly becoming a way of thinking.
Democracy is opposition.
While it leans on the majority, it rides on opposition for fortification. As the race for 2027 heats up, political leaders at all levels must embrace opposition, without which democracy will die.
Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer