He came not with horses or chariots, but with files and figures. A pilgrim in politics, walking barefoot into a field of broken thrones. Where others carried daggers behind their smiles, He bore only ledgers and the trust that decency could win. They called him “Mr. Integrity,” and some said it with reverence, while others with sarcasm; as if honesty were an affliction. But in a nation drunk on impunity, even a clean man starts to smell suspicious.
The youth carried him like prophecy, not because they understood the system, but because they were tired of being statistics in someone else’s failure. He became their candle. But the storm was fierce. “Go and verify,” he said, and we did. We found the man was real, but the machinery was not. It's like a movement without trenches, a revolution without routers, and a battle cry without bullets. He ran with a righteous heart but a rented vehicle.
A party that knew not its voters, nor the wards that birthed them. Where were all his captains and foot soldiers? The courts became his altar, but politics is not a prayer request. Just as faith alone cannot fill the ballot box. The ballot does not bend to purity, but rather, it plunges towards serious preparation. Perhaps, that is where hope fell short. What good is a choir if it cannot sing in the language of power? What good is honesty if it doesn't beguile strategy?
They say democracy thrives when the people vote, but what if the ballot offers only a sinking boat? Though he spoke of stolen mandates, we asked: Did he ever truly possess the crown, or was it just the chorus? Let it be said that he made the unscrupulous tremble and rattled their tables. He also made the word “competence” fashionable again, thereby inspiring generations that decency is not weakness. For that reason, he deserves our applause, not our blindness.
Now the road to 2027 begins, rougher, bloodier, and more cynical. Will Peter Obi come with a sword this time? Will he build a fortress, and not just a following? Because a saint without a real strategy is just like a tragic footnote, and Nigeria cannot survive another beautiful failure. So let him rise again, but this time, armoured. Let him campaign and also conquer, understanding that in Nigeria, you do not enter Pharaoh’s palace without first surviving the wilderness.
“The ballot should be a choir, not a jail cell. If there is no voice for dissent, then we are only singing a song of slavery in the key of shame.”
✍🏽 William Z. Bozimo
Veteran Journalist | Columnist | National Memory Keeper
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