By SUNNY IKHIOYA

TO win any election, you must humbly submit to the people, even if you want to do otherwise when you finally get the power, as seemed to be the case with President Muhammadu Buhari. You must win the empathy of the people. After three failed elections, Buhari cried publicly, in front of television cameras, lamenting the lack of opportunity to execute his plan for the people.

But after getting the help he wanted and sworn into power as President, he is leaving Nigeria as a country with the highest congregants of poverty-infested people in the world. Humility is a very important virtue; as a strategy in war, that will make your enemies to underate your true potentials and strength. 

Peter Obi is a humble man; we have seen this from his demeanour and carriage, and that has imbued him with a winning aura and a messianic disposition. Obi appears to be somebody whose time has come, akin to someone that the gods have sealed his quest for the leadership of this country and like they say, when God has said yes, who can say no.

That is the thinking of the followers of Peter Obi, many of whom are pssionately promoting and selling his candidature at their own expense and creating the eruption that is being felt all over the country. You cannot stand before a moving train and stop it. Peter Obi’s movement has the characteristics of a divine hand, but it is left for him and his supporters to ride it to fruition.

And they have to be careful as we have seen cases of blessings turned sour because of the inability of the recipient to decode or ride the wave properly. One way of doing this is for all lovers of Obi to begin to run things with the highest level of decency and humility. Obi embodies that and it is left for his followers to do likewise. We must turn the debates to issues and not smear campaigns, fake news and rumour mongering. 

The OBIdients must learn to put their tempers in check, so that they do not lose the big picture. It is common, especially on social media platforms, to receive instant insults anytime a view is raised that is not complementary to their interests. In fact, any attempt to point out lapses is met with forceful reprimands from all sort of people.

Sometimes, it gets people wondering whether they are the works of saboteurs or fake supporters of the movement. To obey is better than sacrifice. If this is their mantra, they must be seen to be doing it. The OBIdients must bring themselves under one umbrella of control, with a common purpose and rules of engagement. The focus should be on strategies for winning the election and not meaningless fights. 

Talking about strategy, Peter Obi should look inward and see how he could take advantage of the vast female population in the coming election. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, release of continuous voters registration, CVR, as at May 30, 2022, shows there are more female registered voters; of the 6.54 million that successfully completed the online and in person registration, 3.29million (3,290,804) are women, more than the male 3.2million (3,253,441).

Although,  INEC has not come up with final figures, the preliminary findings as disclosed above, will not be too different from the final arrangement. Meaning that women votes will play a very significant role in the forthcoming elections. Peter Obi and his OBIdient followers should, therefore, see this as a very critical area of interest, as they begin to work out their strategies, it is all part of structure building, you cannot brush it aside.

The youths still have a lot to learn from the old brigade; it is not the noise and ‘gra-gra’ that delivers the vote, it is achieved through meticulous planning, participation and monitoring; no aspect is greater than the other, all of them must be achieved to hundred per cent perfection.  Looking at the APC, they are using the women’s wing as one aspect of their strategy and not a small part at that.

They have brought the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, as their leader, with different structures of leadership that trickles down to the grassroots. Do not play with women; it is where their sentiments are based that normally determine the direction of the family. On the PDP side, we have seen the antecedents of Titi Abubakar, wife of the presidential candidate; she is leading her own group, especially from her catchment South- West region. A strong grassroots mobilizer, with well established pet projects that she handled as wife to the Vice President, the structures are already there and she is ready to give them more life. 

Obi must bring in his woman and make her role more visible. It is said that behind every successful man is a woman. It does not matter whether the woman is standing beside, behind or in front, what matters is leading the cause to its desired goal. Peter Obi has been going about alone; we have not had the opportunity of seeing his wife all this while. Some say that he does not want to bring his family into the murky waters of politics, but that is the path that he has chosen, the gold fish has no hiding place.

We are not saying that he doesn’t love his wife, he already displayed his love publicly in a happy birthday message, when he wrote as follows: “…My dearest wife and perfect mother to our beloved children, words alone cannot express how far I have come by your support, love and affection. Each moment shared with you renews my strength, brightens my ideas and sharpens my vision…I remain eternally grateful to God for the gift of you in my life. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in productivity and progress…”  

These beautiful words are already in the archives, captured for posterity. That Peter Obi loves his wife is not the issue, she has to be by his side during the campaigns, to serve as a representative of the women and dependable ally of her husband in the whole project. She must be available to take care of matters that affect women. 

There are occasions that the husband will want to attend to women in a one-on-one situation, it is important for her to be around. There should be no division, his going it alone is not sending the right signal. A leader must have his family intact and all must be in sync in the search for a common goal. It is said that a man that cannot control his home is not deserving of leadership position. Peter Obi must show that his home is settled with Mrs Margaret Obi at his side. There is a wise words picture I am just reading now, it says: “A man that listens to his wife never gets lost”. 

You can have all the expertise and knowledge that the world has to offer, you can even be the most powerful President in the world, after everything, you will still come home to your wife and she is the one that will determine whether you will have peace or not. Peter Obi must give the women a chance in his project.