BY REV. FR GERALD NWAFOR
Out of all the politicians in Nigeria, only one person has challenged the EFCC to come and investigate him, and should they find any crime or fraud as a public official or private citizen, he would stop his campaign. I am not a politician, and I am not planning to be, but I cannot make that bold claim by sign or by fact. We have called on other politicians to make the same claim publicly, but none of them has thrown that challenge to EFCC. The only thing they have done is to go into an unending witch hunt to look for dirt on the person who has made that bold claim. Some even start asking what the politician has brought for the Igbo people.
Should we dodge the question and dwell on frivolity? The challenge is very simple: call the EFCC to investigate your management of public funds entrusted to you as a governor, president, or a member of parliament, both state and federal. Nobody has taken up the challenge; rather, they started telling us the price of the handbag being carried by the wife of the simple guy. If the handbag costs a million dollars and the purchaser bought it with her hard-earned dollars, please, what stops her from enjoying it? I would have a problem if the source of income of the purchaser was not known, and the only thing she has done in her life is being a governor’s wife or a member of parliament. I remember being in a village where I drank bottled water because the stream was not well maintained by the villagers. One of the elders who visited me and saw where I packed the bottled water asked what I was doing with all those water cans.
I told him that I would drink them. He was shocked that I drink 4 to 5 bottles daily. He walked away sad because that was too costly for him and a waste for him. For me, it was a necessity and not very expensive compared to the consequences of not drinking clean water.
If Mrs. Obi got a very expensive bag, why not invite EFCC to investigate the source of her income, and from there we can investigate all the first ladies and see how they manage their affairs in the office of the first lady. Our people said that it was in the coward’s house that you point out the warrior’s house (Ano na ulo onye ujo atu ulo dike aka). Every politician who wants to be heard now will speak about Mr. Peter Obi.Mr. Peter Obi said that INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) should give a level playing field for all the candidates contesting for election, and anyone found wanting on the rules and regulations of the electoral guidelines should go to jail. The Senate of Nigeria responded to this challenge by saying that you cannot sue anyone who forged his certificate to get into a political position. So you can forge your birth certificate, exam certificate, and even the electoral results, and according to one of the serving ministers, he said, “Nothing will happen, and heaven will not fall.” What do you expect of the common citizens when the standard has been eroded? If fire can kill the tortoise with hard skin, what will the same fire do to animals with feathers? If fraud is legalized in our political process, what do you think the finished product will be? Mr. Peter Obi said that I am not a saint, but on the other hand, he said I am not a thief. Can any governor in Nigeria say the same thing? All the governors, past and present, have a case with EFCC except one, and that is the one they all wanted to kill. He said he has not received a pension from Anambra State since 2014, when he stepped down as a governor. Is there any other governor who is not receiving a pension from his state? He said that he has no land allocated to himself as a governor while in office; can any other governor say that today?
Mr. Obi has challenged the political class of Nigeria to come clean if they want to serve the public. His simple advice always was that if you want to be called honorable, the process by which you emerge to the final goal should be honorable. This has annoyed the political class because they all see him as a threat to their political ambition. I have always imagined the scenario where the INEC would announce Mr. Peter Obi as the president of Nigeria. I have never won a lottery, but I have seen people who won a lottery; I think the climate of the Nigerian people would be that of a lottery winner. Finally, we are still waiting for all the southeastern political figures whose stock in trade now is to call Mr. Peter Obi to take up the challenge by simply saying that they would resign if EFCC, ICPC, DSS and Police should point out any corrupt practice in their tenure as public servants. Nobody has accepted it, but all have called Mr. Peter Obi names and tried to stop him from coming into their state to campaign. The monster they are creating today will consume them all one after the other. That 200 million Naira they are requesting from Mr. Peter Obi before he can campaign in their states will not be removed anytime soon, and Mr. Peter will not be the presidential candidate of the opposition forever and ever, so we shall see where that will lead the Nigerian people in the next four years. The current government tried all they could to stop Mr. Obi from being on the ballot, but as you can see, the handiwork of God is smarter than the handiwork of men.
Mr. Obi is on the ballot, and the Nigerian people will choose on January 16, 2027. I was happy when a vice-presidential candidate of another party on national television said that if Mr. Peter Obi becomes the president and puts the NNPC thieves in prison, oil theft will stop, and he went further to say that when Mr. Peter Obi becomes the president and punishes the electoral offenders and puts them in jail, that rigging would stop. He was sincere enough to mention who can do the dirty job of fixing Nigeria. It was at that moment that I knew that the political class knows the truth about the problem of Nigeria, but it goes back to the old adage, “Who will bell the cat?” Who will take up the EFCC challenge?
