By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
The barren tree is a bastard because no brother, no sister, no father no mother. Why should anyone want to associate with you if you are not successful? What do you think of the tree that has all the fruits? It will receive stones and sticks from both old and young.
Many trees are contesting to be the president of Nigeria but only one tree receives all the stones and sticks. That tree must be very fruitful and special. When I look at what APC and Co. are doing to Mr. Peter Obi I remember the words of our elders in Igbo land. The tree with fruits receives stones and sticks (Osisi nwere mkpulu ka ana ama okwute). The tree along the road receives the marks of a machete (Osisi dichili uzo na analu ube mma).
All the people in government now have one job, you would think that the job would be to govern but no, far from it. The job is to de-market Mr. Peter Obi and make him look incompetent to govern Nigeria. They have tried to frame him up as a fraudulent man but that needed at least one piece of evidence as proof. When the government and co did not find anything to attach to the claim of fraud, they dropped fraud and moved over to the destruction of the Labor Party. Now the LP (Labor Party) has been tampered with by the Supreme Court judgment which was filled with so much ambiguity and confusion.
Mr. Peter is still standing tall with all the stones and sticks coming his way. With all the machete marks on his body, he is still standing along the road ready to receive more. The reason why the passer-by strikes the tree along the road is just to test the sharpness of their machete, but the tree will always prove the bluntness of your machete. Mr. Peter, which means Mr. Rock, has proven that he welcomes the stones, the sticks, and the machete as they come his way. I hope that the government in power should be humble enough to know that Mr. Peter is not afraid of the weapons and missiles they are firing at him. Some are not in government but paid by the government to castigate Mr. Obi, a good example being Mr. Sowore and Sowabole. I do not worry so much about them because our elders said that your eyes will see first those standing before they get to see those sitting (Ana afusi ndi kwuoto bia fuba ndi noani).
There is talk about coalition going on. I am not a politician, but I have common sense and so do many people in Nigeria. Alhaji Atiku and Kwankwaso should not allow inordinate ambition to destroy the coalition. If there will be any coalition, they should coalesce around Peter: if not they will fail like in 2023. In 2023 we all knew that Peter won the election and the INEC and APC government played their magic and allotted votes to the rest of the political parties. I thank the North for inviting Mr. Obi to the coalition talk but if it is for Obi to become VP (Vice Presidential candidate) to Atiku, I take exception to that. Kama Dike ga eli alili ka osobe chie (The hero should die nobly than live in mockery). It is better to kill the king’s son compared to destroy the royalty attached to him. Mr. Obi is the start of Nigerian statesman.
Mr. Obi is that political messiah we are all waiting for. Mr. Obi is the gift of Eastern Nigeria to the political arena of Nigeria. If the coalition talk fails, it is simply because a wrong greedy choice has been made. I would prefer that Mr. Obi contest as president and lose or be rigged out by the political machine of the APC government than to compete as VP to any coalition. I would not overstretch the issue because we saw how the South and Middlebelt voted in the last election circle.
The amount of attack coming towards Mr. Obi is the type never seen before on the landscape of the Nigerian political stratosphere. An attack that cut across all boundaries (North, East, South, and West) and the counterattack from ordinary people from the same four blocks in support of Mr. Obi. Like the biblical Job, nothing should happen to the body of Mr. Obi, so that in due time the wasted riches of Nigeria should be restored to Nigerians, when Mr. Obi ascends to receive the mantle of leadership in Nigeria. The people of Nigeria cannot wait any longer for the coming of Mr. Obi who prophesied during the 2023 campaign that if care is not taken on government spending the economy would snowball into fire, and hunger would ravage the land.
Today not only is Mr. Obi correct, but he also had the solution which he offered to the government.We are ready for the game to come in 2027. The attacks will come, the wind will blow, storms and tornadoes will strike but we are equal to the task come 2027. The more stones the more fruits, the more the machete strikes, the more the flourishing of the tree. Nothing can deter Mr. Obi. The chameleon said that he should not drop the majestic movement he got from his creator because there is a fire outbreak (Ogwumagala si na omaeji maka na oku na agba hapu ije ngala chie nyeluya). The political noise from the government quarters is deafening but it will not distract Mr. Obi. In the sports arena, the coach would always be shouting “Eyes on the ball, do not lose focus.” The same thing goes to Mr. Obi at this point, please Mr. Obi eyes on the ball. Do not be distracted by the noise; focus on the game. Do not disappoint the millions who put their trust and hope in you, especially the Obidient family.
No political figure in Nigeria has galvanized the country and the youths of Nigeria the way you did. Awolowo tried but ended up only in the west, Aminu Kanu tried but ended up only in the North, likewise, Azikiwe, Amadu Bello, Okotiebo, and M.I. Okpara, were all great politicians in their rank but none of them succeeded in galvanizing the whole country the way you did. Even the current government that has a huge Western base, you won in the heart of the West by a landslide. Please do not allow the featherweight punches and fairy night tales from these politicians to distract the focus on 2027.
