PETER OBI HAS A RUNNING MATE WHO KEEPS REWRITING HIS MANIFESTO ON LIVE TV.
I watched Rabiu Kwankwaso’s interview with Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie and somewhere around the fuel subsidy discussion I began checking the bottom of the television screen. Perhaps I had misunderstood the ticket.
“Why is it that everything around Peter Obi is always so shambolic, chaotic and disorganised?
PETER OBI: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. RABIU KWANKWASO: VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. Correct. Because at several points Kwankwaso sounded remarkably like a man unveiling his own manifesto.
Take fuel subsidy. Peter Obi has repeatedly said subsidy removal should stand. His argument is that the old subsidy regime was corrupt and that the real scandal is what government did with the savings.
Enter his running mate. “We are bringing subsidy in our own way.” Excuse me? Who is “we”?
Then state police. Peter Obi supports state police, although he wants implementation after the 2027 election with proper safeguards. Kwankwaso? “I have always been against state police.”
Wonderful. One presidential ticket. Two security architectures.
Then refineries. Obi has argued for privatisation of the moribund government refineries. Kwankwaso says if private businessmen can build refineries, government can build refineries too.
At this stage, perhaps NDC should stop printing a manifesto and start printing a menu:SUBSIDY: Obi — No. Kwankwaso — Yes, but “our own way.”
STATE POLICE: Obi — Yes, with safeguards. Kwankwaso — No. STATE REFINERIES: Obi — Privatise. Kwankwaso — Government can build them.
PLEASE TICK YOUR PREFERRED PRESIDENTIAL POLICY.
And then Adesuwa asked perhaps the most delicious question of all. Does Kwankwaso believe Peter Obi won the 2023 presidential election?
His answer was essentially: No. That is gone. Let us face the future. Somewhere, an Obidient probably dropped a phone.
Nigerians are entitled to ask whether these two men have formed a GOVERNING PARTNERSHIP or merely a CONVENIENT ELECTORAL PARTNERSHIP.
Peter Obi already has enough difficulty imposing command over the sprawling political movements surrounding him. Now his running mate appears to have arrived with something even more ambitious: HIS OWN MANIFESTO.
And that raises the question Adesuwa came tantalisingly close to asking: WHO EXACTLY IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT HERE?
At this point, the problem is no longer policy disagreement. It is command. Peter Obi is the presidential candidate, yet his running mate is publicly offering Nigerians a different government.
Obi says keep subsidy removed; Kwankwaso says bring it back “in our own way.” Obi supports state police with safeguards; Kwankwaso says he has “always been against state police.”
That is not healthy intellectual diversity. That is a presidential ticket struggling to answer the most basic question in government: WHOSE POLICY IS POLICY?
A ticket can contain independent minds, but it must eventually produce ONE PROGRAMME, ONE CHAIN OF COMMAND and one answer to: WHAT EXACTLY WILL THIS GOVERNMENT DO?
That raises a broader leadership question around Obi: can he convert strong, autonomous personalities and movements into a coherent political machine?
Leadership does not eliminate disagreement; it resolves it into decisions. If Nigerians are hearing competing versions of an Obi presidency from Obi and his own running mate, the ticket has a serious coherence problem to explain before asking for executive power.
Because Nigeria is electing one presidency. Not a political duplex with separate policy entrances.
ONE TICKET, TWO MANIFESTOS: WHO EXACTLY IS THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE?
