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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Peter Gregory Obi is a Nigerian politician and businessman who was nominated as the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) vice presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election.
Peter Obi served as governor of Anambra State from 17 March 2006 to 2 November 2006. He was impeached from the 9th of February 2007 to the 29th of May 2007, when his impeachment was overturned. During the governor elections on February 6, 2010, he was re-elected to a second term in office. He is also a presidential candidate under the Labour Party in Nigeria’s presidential election in 2023.
Peter Obi was born in Onitsha, Anambra, on July 19, 1961. He is the fourth son of a devout Catholic and an entrepreneur mother and father, who ran a popular supermarket in Onitsha.
He completed his senior school education at Onitsha’s prestigious Christ the King College. In 1980, he enrolled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, one of Nigeria’s first generation universities, and graduated in 1984 with a B.A (Hons) in philosophy.
Peter Obi studied at Lagos Business School in Nigeria, Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, where he completed two programs, London School of Economics, Columbia Southwest School in New York, New York, USA, and the Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, where he earned two certificates in Senior Executive Program and Chief Executive Officers Program.
He also studied at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in the United States, the Said Business School at Oxford University, and the George Business School at Cambridge University.
Before entering politics, Peter Obi worked as a businessman and dealer. He began his career as a trader before moving into the corporate world.
He held positions of leadership in a number of private businesses. Next International Nigeria Ltd, Chairman, and Director of Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Guardian Express Bank Plc, Future View Securities Ltd, Paymaster Nigeria Ltd, Chams Nigeria Ltd, Data Corp Ltd, and Card Centre Ltd are just a few of the firms he has worked with.
He was Fidelity Bank Plc’s youngest chairman.
In 2003, Peter Obi ran for governor of Anambra State as a candidate for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) certified Chris Ngige of the People’s Democratic Party as the winner.
On March 15, 2006, the Court of Appeal overturned Ngige’s victory after nearly three years of a lawsuit. On March 17, 2006, Obi was sworn in as the governor of the state.
He was impeached by the state house of assembly on November 2, 2006, after only seven months in office, and was replaced the next day by Virginia Etiaba, his deputy, who became Nigeria’s first female governor.
Obi successfully appealed his impeachment and was re-instated as governor by the Court of Appeal in Enugu on February 9, 2007. Following the court verdict, Etiaba returned power to him.
Obi departed from the government on May 29, 2007, after Andy Uba won the general elections. Obi went back to court, this time claiming that the four-year term he had won in the 2003 elections only began to run in March 2006, when he took office. Obi’s claim was upheld by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on June 14, 2007, and Obi was reinstated in office. The election of Obi’s successor, Andy Uba, was invalidated by the Supreme Court on April 14, 2007, on the grounds that Obi’s four-year mandate should have been uninterrupted until March 2010.
Peter Obi was proclaimed the winner of the 2010 Anambra State gubernatorial election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), defeating Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Governor Obi was re-elected for a fourth term as governor of Anambra State as a result of this election triumph. On March 17, 2014, Peter Obi completed his second tenure as governor and handed over the reins to Willie Obiano.
President Goodluck Jonathan selected Peter Obi as head of the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission following the 2015 general election (SEC).
On October 12, 2018, Peter Obi was announced as Atiku Abubakar‘s running mate in the Peoples Democratic Party‘s presidential election campaign in Nigeria. His political party came second. Peter Obi announced his desire to run for President of Nigeria on the Peoples Democratic Party platform on March 24, 2022.
On May 24, Peter Obi resigned his membership in the Peoples Democratic Party in a letter to the party’s leadership. Obi feared being humiliated at the party’s presidential primaries, according to the article. Mr. Obi verified the report to the newspaper, claiming that he was being pursued by a gang.
Peter Obi got married to Margaret Brownson Usen in 1992. Their marriage is blessed with two children – one boy and one girl.
The marriage was rumoured was about to hit the rocks in 2017. Margaret debunked the rumour while describing it as the height of wickedness.
Meanwhile, Obi has tried as much as possible to keep his private life off the public eyes.
Peter Obi’s children are Gregory Peter Oseloka Obi (male; younger) and Gabriella Nwamaka Frances Obi (female; elder).
His daughter, Nwamaka, is married to a Chicago-raised businessman, Chukwuma Okeke-Ojiudu. The wedding was held in April 2022.
Obi described her daughter as “a teacher in secondary school”.
Peter Obi’s son, Gregory is a Philosphy graduate from Bristol University, England.
He claimed his children “have never participated in any public life” and that his son “that is going to be 29/30 soon doesn’t own a car because he has to buy his own car, not me”.
However, there are reports that his son Gregory “drives a 2017 BMW X6 worth approximately N60million in the UK and he has been driving same since February 2018″.
Peter Obi is a successful businessman as well as a wealthy politician. Before entering politics, he worked in the corporate world for a while.
He has an estimated net worth of about $10 million.
During the Pandora Paper saga, Peter Obi in an Arise TV programme said; “I was the sole engineer of South African Breweries. I was also bringing in Ovaltine.
“The company I was with before, I left it for my brother who took over and paid me off. That company became the Next Cash and Carry which you see in Port Harcourt and Abuja.
“I was sitting in the board of three banks and was the chairman of one before I became a governor.”
In October 2021, he was named in Pandora Papers, an investigative reporting carried out by more than 600 journalists in 117 countries for tax evasion.
• Former Chairman: Fidelity Bank Plc.
• Former Chairman: Guardian Express Mortgage Bank, Ltd.
• Former Chairman: Future Views Securities, Ltd.
• Former Chairman: Paymaster Nigeria Plc.
• Former Chairman: Next International (Nigeria) Ltd
• Former Director: Guardian Express Bank Plc.
• Former Director: Chams Nigeria Plc.
• Former Director: Emerging Capital Ltd
• Former Director: Card Centre Plc.
Obi’s Membership of Professional Associations/Organisations:
• Member, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG)
• Member, Nigerian Chartered Institute of Bankers
• Member, British Institute of Directors (IOD)
• Sun Newspaper’s Man of the Year (2007)
• Thisday Newspaper’s Most Prudent Governor in Nigeria (2009)
• This Day’s Governor of the Decade (2020)
• Champion Newspaper’s Nigeria’s Most Trustworthy Governor (2009)
• West Africa ICT Development Award for Governor of the Year (2010)
• Zik Leadership Prize (2011)
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Best Performing Governor on Immunization in South-East Nigeria (2012)
• Ezeife Leadership Foundation’s Leadership and Good Governance Award (2012)
• Methodist Church of Nigeria’s Golden Award on Prudence (2012); Business Hallmark Newspaper’s Man of the Year (2012)
• Silverbird’s Man of the Year (2013)
• The Voice Newspaper’s Award for Outstanding Example in Leadership and Governance (2014)
• Champion Newspaper’s Most Outstanding Igbo Man of the Decade (2014)
• Nigerian Library Association’s Golden Merit Award (2014)
• Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Sylvester Pope and Martyr (2014)
• Catholic Diocese of Onitsha’s Golden Jubilee Award (2015)
FURTHER READING:
• He was the first gubernatorial candidate in Nigeria to legally challenge to its logical conclusion, his governorship electoral victory that was denied him. He won in the Courts and reclaimed his mandate.
• He was the first Governor in Nigeria to legally challenge his wrongful impeachment and was reinstated by the Courts.
• He was the first Governor in Nigeria to seek the interpretation of tenures of Governors when INEC allowed elections to take place in Anambra State when his tenure had not expired; the election already concluded was cancelled and he was allowed to complete his tenure.
• He was the first Governor to serve a 2nd term in both the new and old Anambra State, that is, almost 40 years after creation of the State.
• He was the first Governor, whilst still in Office, to be appointed a Special Adviser to the President.
• He was the first serving Governor to be appointed into the Presidential Economic Management Team.
• He was among the first Governors to be honoured with a National Award in 2011, while still in office.
• Though the only Governor whose political party was in government in only one State, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum twice.
• Though the only non-PDP Governor in the South-East (made up of 5 States), he was elected by the other 4 PDP Governors as their Chairman for 8 years rather than the usual one year.
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