By Mercy IyeneAbasi Etim
Some days, the only thing I have against Peter Obi is the type of people supporting him.
It is a peculiar dilemma: how do you judge a candidate when his loudest advocates behave in a way that feels fundamentally anti-democratic?
There is a growing sense that something is deeply wrong with a movement when a bunch of uncouth, deranged, and truly unhinged people behaving more like a cult or a digital terrorist group are its primary foot soldiers.
In case you missed it, the latest victim of the “Obidient Mob” is former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
For years, GEJ was the poster child for democratic tolerance in Nigeria. The man who famously declared that his ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Yet, in the eyes of the digital mob, that legacy was erased in a single afternoon.
What was GEJ’s “heinous” crime? He had the audacity to visit the Presidential Villa to meet with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He committed the “sin” of using his own God-given cheeks to smile and laugh with the sitting President of his country.
In the twisted logic of the extreme “Obidient,” any bridge-building is a betrayal.
To them, politics is not a contest of ideas; it is a holy war where anyone not actively hurling insults at the current administration is a collaborator. By attacking Jonathan for a routine diplomatic visit, the mob has shown they don’t want a leader, they want a deity who demands total isolation from anyone outside the “fold.”
This brings us to the man at the center of it all: Peter Obi.
While he often speaks of “moving from consumption to production” and maintains a veneer of personal decorum, he can no longer afford to be a silent passenger in a vehicle driven by rage.
Peter Obi and his mob must realize that you cannot build a “New Nigeria” on a foundation of digital thuggery and the systematic harassment of anyone who dares to show national courtesy.
By allowing the mob to operate without a leash, he is signaling the brand of governance he would bring to the Villa; one where dissent is met with a swarm and elder statesmen are discarded the moment they stop acting as foot soldiers for a specific agenda.
Sadly, this pattern has already surfaced elsewhere. It is no wonder that Alex Otti recently earned the ignoble reputation for being one of the least transparent governors in Nigeria.
The Obidient Mob is always ready to “cut to size” anyone who dares to ask for a shred of accountability from the Abia State Governor; because he is one of their own, he is shielded from the very “transparency” they claim to demand from others.
This proves that their loyalty is to the tribe, not to the truth.
If Obi truly wants to lead a nation of 200 million diverse people, he must start by leading his own base. He must tell them that GEJ’s smile isn’t a betrayal; it’s democracy.
Until he finds the courage to publicly and specifically rebuke the cult-like behavior of his supporters, he remains a captive of his own movement. A leader who cannot control his followers today will be a President who is controlled by them tomorrow.
But we know he can’t. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Peter Obi can never be the president of Nigeria.