By Banji Alabi

The ongoing Middle-East war involving the United States of America, Israel and Iran has undoubtedly destabilised the global economy which both the IMF and World Bank have confirmed and warned every country in the world to device strategic measures and policies capable of adjusting their economies and trade in such a way that the adverse effects, especially on the well being of the citizenry would be minimised while pleading with the combatants to seek peaceful resolution of the war. The two foremost transnational financial agencies have said it that no country, including Nigeria, is immune against the increasingly worsening adverse effects of the war because we live in a global village driven by inter-dependence and inter-relationship generally referred to as international relations. No wonder in Europe, Asia, America and other parts of the world, industries are closing down, workers are being laid off, leading to inflation and reduction in the standard of living. Nigeria too is not left out as the country is also experiencing the ripple effects like others. What is however different between Nigeria and other countries adversely affected by the war is that in some of those climes, the adversity has united them irrespective of political, religious, ethnic or class differences to collaborate with government in seeking solutions and creating an atmosphere of peace, not unnecessary agitations or heating up the politics and the polity.

In America in particular, criticism has been modest and constructive even among opponents of the war.

However, in Nigeria, it is ironical and saddening to observe that the reverse is the case especially by some opposition political elites and political leaders, who politicised Nigeria’s share of the global economic disorder, weaponising it and relentlessly using to destructively cricitising and undermining the government at the centre, including inciting Labour and the citizenry against government rather than collaborating with government on ways to adjust the local economy against the global economic disorder as done in some other countries.

Most guilty of the above is the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his PDP counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The most vociferous who wants the roof of governance brought down is Obi. Political party nomadic Obi, who for long has been informally “leading veiled shadow government” when he has sworn not to partner government in this hour of emergency, has however shot himself on the leg by failing to seize the occasion to unveil for Nigerians a robust economic blueprint capable of taking the wind from the ruling government’s sail. In all his utterances, public and private, while traversing the length and breadth of the country, including IDP camps, nowhere or time did Obi outline any economic plan either during this tempestuous moment occasioned by the Middle East war or before it, on economic recovery and transformation, other that whipping up sentiments. The opportunity, which no doubt has eluded him, became necessary in the light of the fact that when he was governor of Anambra State, he had no substantial and enduring performance record and blueprint he can now revive and build on like President Bola Tinubu then as Lagos State governor. The new sojourner at the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) also failed to follow the footstep of Tinubu, who as presidential aspirant articulated his economic blueprint, including fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification.

The truth is simple and it is the same all over the world—the world is in recession. From London to Lagos, New York to Nairobi, working families are squeezed by inflation, job losses, and shrinking purchasing power. Nigeria is not an island. What we are experiencing is part of a global economic downturn, not a uniquely Nigerian curse created by one man or one party.

Also Obi’s loudest advocates are not making economic statements regarding a blueprint or roadmap. They are rather prosecuting an ethnic agenda. Strip away the slogans and what remains is ethnic bigotry dressed up as patriotism. They do not defend a record; they defend a kinsman.

From the foregoing, it is incontestable that Obi does not have the capacity to lead Nigeria, especially in a time like this. Judge him by his actual record as governor of Anambra, not by social media graphics. Eight years, yet no signature transformation that placed Anambra ahead of its peers. No industrial revolution. No radical overhaul of education or health policy that became a national model. He governed, but he did not govern exceptionally. If Anambra was the test case, he failed to prove presidential capacity there.

Obi’s political career ended in 2023 after the last election. The ballot rendered the final verdict. He lost. And the decline continues. At the last gubernatorial election in Anambra State—his own backyard—Obi’s candidate came third. A man who cannot deliver his home state for his party has no claim to deliver a federation of 36 states. Obi is a paper tiger – loud online, weak on the ground. Those who feel the pain and suffering know the economy better than those quoting revenue data. Hunger is not abstract. Poverty is not a spreadsheet. Unemployment is not a press release. When a mother cannot feed her children, she does not care about GDP rebasing. When a graduate treks miles because there’s no transport fare, he does not clap for foreign reserve statistics. The real economy is what people live, not what technocrats tweet.

So, let’s be clear: The world is in recession and Nigeria is part of the world. Ethnic bigotry is not a policy platform. Obi had his chance to show executive capacity as governor and did not demonstrate presidential scale. He lost in 2023, lost Anambra again, and remains a paper tiger. And no amount of data will feed a hungry man.

The recent movement of Obi from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to NDC has further confirmed our position that he has nothing to offer except desperation for power; his vague mantra – one tenure – is a ploy to swindle the North, especially the Hausa-Fulani power brokers. The move has further declined Obi’s electoral fortunes if he dares stand for the 2027 presidential election as he has already been exposed a political harlot who is ideologically inconsistent. His political leadership and dependability has not only been devalued by this nomadic party culture; it has irredeemably nose-dived.

It is, therefore, inconceivable to handover the leadership of a country like Nigeria to an inconsistent person. Maybe Obi should be reminded, and for the purpose of taking a cue, that Tinubu never moved to another party till he became President even when he suffered isolation and unjustified humiliation in the party he co-formed.

*Alabi, the National Chairman of Ondo Eminent Persons Group, is also the alternate Chairman of Eti-Osa chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association.