Peter Obi: Between a people’s manifesto and copied fakes — By Onwuasoanya Jones

Setting out the plans and ideas of what you plan to do when you take office or your driving force for seeking an elective office is what a manifesto means to an average commentator out there and that’s what it really is. Manifestos are not deemed to have been presented, only when a special event is called for it or when there is a media blitz around its presentation. Manifesto is simply a public presentation of a candidate’s ideas, plans, intents and strategies to solving identified problems bedeviling the constituency he or she intends to represent or govern.

There is none among the presidential candidates in this 2023 election who has given a more compelling manifesto than Peter Obi of the Labour Party. He has given an easy to understand and very verifiable set of ideas on how to solve Nigeria’s problems. No one of the present presidential candidates has so communicated his ideas for transforming Nigeria than Peter Obi and this is nothing but the truth. In fact, I have just finished the first part in my series of short films, inspired by what the ordinary man understands about Peter Obi’s manifesto for a New Nigeria.

When the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party and their agents speak about Peter Obi not having presented a manifesto or what they call a policy document, they are simply talking about him not having hired some professors or so-called consultants to research on some of the best policies around the world as presented by present and past political leaders, twitch a few words here and there and marry those ideas to Nigerian situation and present as manifesto. This is why most times, we don’t see our political leaders actualizing half or even any significant part of the manifesto they presented before their elections. Most of them do not know anything written on the so-called manifesto documents, and when you take them to task on what is presented in that manifesto I can bet you that they won’t be able to speak to the ideas bandied in their very own policy proposal.

Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu are scared stiff of attending debates or making themselves available for live TV appearances, because they do not know what to say and they are not confident of defending the mostly plagiarised materials they presented as manifestos. But Peter Obi has his manifesto on the tips of his fingers and walks around with his manifesto in his mouth, wake him up in the middle of the night, and ask him any question relating to any of the issues bogging Nigeria and he will give you the same answer he gave ten months ago, because these are ideas he has believed in and even put into practice both as a private businessman and as a public official. These ideas have worked in Anambra and they will work in Nigeria.

There is no presidential candidate in the 2023 elections whose ideas for a working Nigeria is more popular with Nigerians than the ideas propounded and steadily spoken about by Peter Obi. Ask the old farmer in Sokoto today about Peter Obi, and he will tell you that man talking about “Consumption to Production”, because that’s at the heart of Peter Obi’s manifesto. He wants to turn Nigeria to a producing nation, from its present position as a consuming nation, and no one who knows a thing about working economies would tell you there is a better idea to transform Nigeria.

Peter Obi has outlined his plans for every single sector, for a every problem bogging Nigeria, Peter Obi has, at his several townhalls, media outings, rallies and everywhere he has ever been to, sold his ideas to Nigerians in the most unambiguous words. From the United States of America to Europe and across many nations, and 36 States of Nigeria plus the FCT, Peter Obi’s manifesto resonates with Nigerians and our current and prospective international partners. He doesn’t need to print a book he doesn’t know its contents and distribute to people in order to be seen as having presented a manifesto. If he eventually does that, that’s for political purposes, not that it has been a mistake all the while he hadn’t done so.

Nigerians will rather trust a man who is a walking manifesto than men who go about clutching bogus book of fake promises whose contents they don’t even know and can’t speak extemporaneously about. Peter Obi has internalised his ideas and plans for bringing about a working and New Nigeria that Nigerians can trust him his capacity and readiness to deliver on those promises without excuses.

Truth Above Copied Fakes.