Opinion!!! An Epiphany Obi Must Come To Terms With

By Sola Ogunbanjo

If he is 61 now. He must have been born in 1962, two years after Nigeria’s Independence.

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During the elections that ushered-in the 2nd Republic, he must have been an innocent 17-year old boy, not even legitimately qualified to vote.

I have decided to go into the archives and prompted to do so when the cries of Obi shouting “I won this election” started to assume disturbing dimensions.

If Peter Gregory Obi had time then, (because, as a boy then, he would be preoccupied with his GCE).

If he cared to read the newspapers then, which was not common among youths of his time, he must have read why Chief Obafemi Awolowo could not win the 1979 presidential elections.

I remember very well, because I was a young journalist at Lagos Television then, that Papa Awo cleared all the LOOBO States of the South West. The States were Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel (today’s Edo and Delta) and Ondo.

But unfortunately, Papa made a poor showing in the South East and in the North, then.

The constitutional requirement for a presidential candidate to win the presidency, then, and up till today is “winning 25% of total votes cast in two-thirds of the states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

In fact, Alhaji Shehu Shagari that won the election ran into murky waters because he could make 25% of total number of votes cast in 12 states. Nigeria had 19 states then, which made two-thirds 12.66 states.

This became a controversial issue which attracted legal gymnastics between accredited SANs across the country.

Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN, working on the side of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and the National Party of Nigeria NPN, won the case for Shagari by interpreting the clause, two-thirds as two-thirds of the votes in the state concerned.

He won that controversial case for Shagari who later was sworn-in as President and Commander in Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria on 1st October, 1979.

Hence Akinjide added the sobriquet Mr Twelve-two-thirds to his name. A title he carried till his death.

Now back to Obi, like Chief Awolowo, Obi’s votes, did not really have national spread. His votes were concentrated mostly on the South East region.

And the reason the Constitution insists on 25% of votes cast in “twelve-two-thirds of the states of the federation” is to ensure national spread.

What Obi may not realise or pretend not to realise is that the drafters of that Constitution believe that a prospective president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must not be a sectional or tribal leader.

Rather, he must be able to garner support from other parts of the country which is otherwise known as national spread.

But Obi’s major zone or catchment area is just the SE alone.
The drafters of the Constitution deliberately made it so to discourage ethnic or tribal leaders from assuming the mantle of the presidency.

The earlier Obi embraces this truth, the better for him.

Tinubu had seen this long, long before now, hence the various bridges he had been building between the South and the North.

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And he is reaping the fruits of those bridges today.

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