Leadership is not about age but about character, discipline, intuition, intellect and vision. The President of the United States, Joe Biden, was 80 years and two months old on Friday, 20 January 2023 and it is being rumoured that he will contest election to serve for second term in 2024. He is said to have been born a stutter but that has not stopped him from leading the acclaimed greatest powerful country in the world. Bertrand Russell was 89 years old in 1961 when he was demonstrating against possession of atomic bomb and at the age of 96, in 1968, he was leading demonstrations against American war in Vietnam while young Brits were queueing to enlist to go and fight on the side of the US in that war. In the impending Presidential Election in Nigeria, age of the contestants should not be an issue but the ideas possessed by each candidate and what he/she will do if elected into office as long as he/she is mentally alert.
According to INEC, 18 candidates have been registered for the 2023 Presidential election in Nigeria. Here follows the names of the Presidential candidates starting with the lowest to the highest age, as well as the name of the political party each contestant belongs.
(1). Christopher Irene Imumolen - Accord Party (AP), age-38 years.
(2). Princess Chichi Ojei - Allied People's Movement (APM), age-44 years. The only female candidate.
(3). Dumebi Kachikwu - African Democratic Congress (ADC) age-48 years.
(4). Sunday Oluwafemi Adenuga - Boot Party (BP), age-48 years.
(5). Charles Osita Nnamdi - Action Peoples Party (APP), age-49 years.
(6). Adewole Ebenezer Adebayo - Social Democratic Party (SDP), age-50 years.
(7). Omoyele Sowore - African Action Congress (AAC), age-51 years.
(8). Felix Johnson Osakwe - National Rescue Movement (NRM), age-57 years.
(9). Abdulmalik Ado-Ibrahim - Young Progressive Party (YPP), age-58 years.
(10). Latifu Kolawole Abiola - Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), age-60 years.
(11). Peter Gregory Obi - Labour Party (LP), age-61 years.
(12). Almustapha Hamza -Action Alliance (AA), age- 62 years.
(13). Deberechukwu Nwanyanwu - Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), age-62 years.
(14). Rabiu Kwankwaso - New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), age-66 years.
(15). Peter Nnanna Chukwudi - All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), age-67 years.
(16). Sani Yabagi Yusuf - Action Democratic Party (ADP), age-68 years.
(17). Bola Ahmed Tinubu - All Progressives Congress (APC), age-70 years.
(18). Atiku Abubakar -Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), age-75 years.
From the above list of Nigeria's Presidential Candidates in the February 2023 election, the youngest contestant is Christopher Irene Imumolen, who is said to be not a honorary but a real professor. Age-wise ten presidential candidates out 18 are younger than Peter Obi, yet Obasanjo is urging Nigerian youths to vote for him as their youth mate. The same Obasanjo who rigged the then 42-year-old young Peter Obi out of the Anambra Governorship election in 2003 is now referring to soon to be 62 years of age Obi as a young man that Nigerian youths should vote for. Those who know Obasanjo say that he is a person who will intentionally greet you, good morning at 8 pm and will insist that you must believe it is morning at 8 pm. For instance, on August 4, 2018, Obasanjo told the whole world "God will never forgive me if I support Atiku for president." That should not be a surprise to anyone who is acquainted with the open brawl between Obasanjo and his Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in 2006 when they publicly accused each other of stealing State's funds which, in Nigeria, is euphemistically called corruption. When Obasanjo accused Atiku of being corrupt in 2006, the Vice President replied that when President Obasanjo was released from Abacha's imprisonment in 1998, he had only N20,000 left in his bank account and that he should explain how he became a billionaire within seven years of his presidency. It was a dirty fight that forced Atiku Abubakar to seek sanctuary in Bola Tinubu's party, Action Congress (AC), to contest for the presidency in 2007. In volume 2 of his memoir titled: MY WATCH, Obasanjo devoted chapter 36 and 37 to detailing Atiku Abubakar's corruption including how his fourth wife, knee Jennifer Ikejiora, later known as Jamila Atiku Abubakar, was used to smuggle funds in dollar value into the US and laundering the same on behalf of Atiku. Obasanjo on p. 180, vol. 2 of his 'My Watch' listed Atiku Abubakar as one of the 31 people the US authority requested the Nigerian authority to locate and provide documents and information about in relation to the US Congressman, William J. Jefferson, who was under investigation for corruption and money laundering concerning US businesses in Nigeria. Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the EFCC carried out investigation on Atiku and Obasanjo commented, "The report was a bit uncomfortable and unsavoury for Atiku and his associates. ...//... As it turned out the investigation in Nigeria and in the US led to Atiku's house (in the US) being searched by the US Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the arrest and detention of his newly married wife, Jennifer. She was also declared wanted at one time. It was so embarrassing for our Administration and Embassy (of Nigeria) in Washington under Ambassador George Obiozor (p. 191-192)." Obasanjo, a self-proclaimed maker of Presidents in Nigeria has has no permanent enemy but permanent interest. Therefore, on January 30, 2019, Obasanjo backstepped like a lizard that had mistakenly walked into a crab's hole to announce his support for Atiku's Presidential ambition in 2019. Obasanjo explained his volte-face on his statement of August 4, 2018 with 'Atiku has learnt his lesson.'
What do we know about Peter Obi, the Obasanjo's anointed 61-year-old youthful president of Nigeria? As I have stated before, tomorrow is the total sum of yesterday and today. Yesterday's Peter Obi reveals that as Governor of Anambra State he set up a company on November 17, 2010, in the British Virgin Islands for the purpose of avoiding tax in Nigeria and named it after his daughter, Gabriella Nwamaka Frances Obi. The name of the tax haven company of Peter Obi was, Gabriella Investments Limited. As a Governor, he was forbidden by the Code of Conduct Bureau &Tribunal (CCBT) to set up foreign bank accounts, but the 41-year-old young Obi of that time never cared about criminally violating CCBT law. Earlier in 2007, Peter Obi failed to declare his assets and continued to be the director of the UK-registered Company, Next International, after becoming Governor contrary to CCBT regulation prohibiting public officers, such as governors, from engaging in private business while in office. It was not until May 16, 2008, a good 14 months after assuming office, that Peter Obi resigned as a director in Next International. Nevertheless, the young Peter Obi invested $20 million of Anambra State's funds in a brewery, in which his family held shares through Next, conflict of interest grade one.
Yet to attain the age of 53, Peter Obi ended his eight years tenure as an APGA Governor of Anambra State in March 2014. Seven months after leaving governorship office in 2014, Peter Obi defected from All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to People's Democratic Party (PDP) on 7 October 2014 and in the 2019 presidential election, he was a running mate to Atiku Abubakar. Fast forward, Peter Obi was one of the 14 presidential aspirants in the PDP primaries scheduled to hold on Saturday, 28 May 2022, but on Wednesday, 25 May 2022, Peter Obi announced his resignation from the PDP and his withdrawal from its scheduled presidential primary. On Friday, 27 May 2022, Peter Obi joined the Labour Party and 72 hours later, 30 May 2022, Peter Obi emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the Labour party at the primaries said to have taken place in Asaba, capital of Delta State. Peter Obi, has never been a labourer or a worker in practical life but a parasitic entrepreneur, as many Nigerian business men are, has now elevated political harlotry to the highest level of politics in Nigeria's history. Obasanjo has the same character in common with Peter Obi which is reaping the fruits from the tree planted and nurtured by others. Their common character of reaping the fruits of the labour of others is captioned in Yoruba incantations that says : OWÓ OLÓWÓ NI EEGÚN NNÁ, ASO ALÁSO NI ÒGÀ NDÀ BÒ'RA, IGBÁ ONIGBÁ ÀWÓ A LÁWÓ NI ÌRÓKÒ FI NJEUN: roughly translated to - Masquerade spends other people's money, it is other person's clothe that chameleon wears, and Iroko eats from the plates and calabashes that belong to others.
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