He owns a bank, controls many
international franchises in Nigeria and has shares worth billions of naira in
blue chip companies — but you are more likely to run into Peter Gregory Obi on
a commercial flight than a private jet. You could even meet him sitting
comfortably in economy class when he cannot get seats in business. Obi is
probably the only Nigerian governor who regularly flew commercial while in
office.
The news is that he has been
picked as the running mate to former vice-president Atiku Abubakar — the main
challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election. The
Atiku-Obi ticket will be on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
the party that lost power in 2015.
Atiku
picked Obi because of his business background as he would not want a deputy who
would be preoccupied with politics.
Born on July 19, 1961 in Onitsha,
Anambra state, the former governor is arguably one of Nigeria’s most successful
politicians and businessmen.
GOVERNORSHIP TUSSLE
To don his successful business
career, Obi embraced politics in 2003 when he contested the gubernatorial
election in Anambra as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance
(APGA). However, Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared
winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Obi refused to accept the outcome
of the election and would not go down without a fight. He challenged the result
of the election in court, unwavering, until three years later when Ngige’s
victory was overturned by the court of appeal on March 15, 2006. Obi assumed
office the following day.
ILLEGAL IMPEACHMENT
On November 2, 2006, seven month
in office, Obi was impeached by lawmakers of the state house of assembly over
allegations of impropriety and gross misconduct. Obi was replaced the next day
by Virginia Etiaba, his deputy, making her the first ever female governor in
Nigeria’s history.
Like before, Obi proved again
that he is an unrelenting fighter. He challenged his impeachment and was
re-instated as the governor on February 9, 2007 by the court of appeal sitting
in Enugu.
Obi would reveal later that he
was kicked out of office for refusing to inflate the state’s budget.
“I was impeached in Anambra
State, removed from office twice, the first one is because of this budget
issue,” he said.
“They want to repair Office of
the Governor, which is my office, the approved budget for 2006 was N298
million, I repaired everything with N43.2 million. They said I didn’t do it
through due process, because they had awarded the contract.”
His political journey again hit
the rocks on May 29, 2007, following the general election which saw Andy Uba
declared winner. Obi returned to the court once more, this time contending that
the four-year tenure he had won in the 2003 elections only started to run when
he took office in March 2006.
In June 2007, the supreme court
upheld Obi’s contention and returned him to office. This brought to an abrupt
end to Uba’s tenure whose April 14, 2007 election the apex court nullified on
the grounds that Obi’s four-year tenure should have remained undisturbed until
March 2010.
Obi contested and won his
re-election bid in 2010 and went ahead to rule the south-east state for another
four years. He defeated Chukwuma Soludo, a professor and ex-governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
On March 17, 2014, Obi served out
his second term and was succeeded by Willie Obiano.
‘POLITICS MADE ME POORER’
Politics is often conceived and
believed to be a money making venture, where people go to “eat their share of
the national cake”.
But Obi said contrary to this
belief, he became poorer when he ventured into politics.
He said this in an interview with
Vanguard in October 2017, when responding to the allegation levelled against
him by Ubah that he demanded N7 billion from Obiano to support his governorship
ambition.
Obi denied the allegations,
describing it as “sheer blackmail”.
“At this stage of my life, I
cannot support anybody for political and personal benefits. I have passed that
stage and to do so is to abuse the Grace of God in my life,” he said.
“I did not go into politics wretched;
I was already a director in three financial institutions, a director in four
other major companies; all by the virtue of my investments. I was also running
a successful family business.
“Going into politics even made me
poorer but I won’t question anything because that is where God wants me to be.”
ROBUST CV
One or two pages, and the
curriculum vitae (CV) of an average person is comprehensively captured but same
cannot be said for Obi.
Obi attended Christ the King
College, Onitsha where he completed his secondary school education. He was
admitted to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1980, graduating with a B.A
(Hons) in philosophy in 1984. He also attended Lagos Business School, Nigeria
(chief executive program), Harvard Business School, Boston, US (mid to mid
marketing), London School of Economics (financial management/business policy),
Columbia Business School, New York, US (marketing management).
He was appointed by ex-President
Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 as the chairman of Nigeria Security and Exchange
Commission (SEC), and named honorary special adviser to the president on
finance. In 2011, he was awarded the national honours of the commander of the
order of Niger (CON).
The list goes on and on…
THE ‘ONE WRIST WATCH’ SAGA
Obi has often claimed that he
sacrificed a life of luxury for an “ordinary” one. Speaking at The Platform, a
forum organised by the Covenant Christian Centre, in 2017, the ex-governor said
he has only one wrist watch which he said he had been using for 17 years.
“I have said it to Nigerians,
Peter Obi wears only black shoes, and I have two pairs, and I travel with them.
The purpose of shoe is to protect the leg from being hurt. Nothing else. I
bought this from Marks and Spencer, $49.99, finish,” he said.
“They said ‘we didn’t even see
watch’, and I have said it to everyone, this is the only watch I have, I have
worn it for 17 years. The purpose of watch is to keep time. Why would I keep a
watch at home? Whose time is it keeping?”
But Nigerians voluntarily fact
checked Obi’s claim and in little or no time, came up with pictures of Obi with
different wristwatches adorning his hands. He had no answer to that. Many
Nigerians accused him of stretching the facts just to advertise his modesty.
He is known as “aka gum” — one
who is extremely frugal such that money is glued to his hands. He does not seem
to dispute this as evident in some of his public speeches.
“As a governor, rather than stay
in hotels where people pay over N500,000 per night, I stayed in a Hotel I paid
less than 50,000. Rather than have a convoy of 20, I had that of five. Rather
than maintain over 10 guest houses, I closed them down and restricted myself to
the Lodge. Rather than travel on chartered planes, I flew even economy class
most times. These are cost-saving measures that we deliberately introduced to
keep government going,” he said.
A MAN WITH NO REGRETS
Asked if he has any regrets on
his time as governor of Anambra, Obi said he has no regrets about anything in
his life.
“I have never regretted anything
in my life. I came here with nothing. I’m going away with nothing. Whatever I
have in my life is by the grace of God. So, I have never had any regret,” he
said.
“I can tell you, at 55, I’ve
never been to hospital, except when the doctor said they saw a small growth in
my system, they wanted to remove it and I was in hospital for two hours for
that. I am married, have a wonderful family with two children, a wife, the best
that anybody could wish to have. The things that give some people headache, I
don’t have. So, why will I regret in life?”
Obi defected to the PDP in 2014
after serving as governor for two terms under APGA,
If you say Obi does not lose
battles, you won’t be far from the truth. But as he assumes a major
responsibility of bringing the Igbo closer to the seat of power, all eyes are
on him.
Will the 2019 presidential
election, perhaps his toughest political battle, be any different?
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com