No Nigerian old enough to know what the times say will forget 2024 in a hurry. It was a frightful year; the year when all the negative effects of the policies President Bola Tinubu had put in place to address the country’s many problems were most jarring in their effect. The pump price of petrol (the most consequential of the policies with the worst domino effect) rose at least twice in as many months. The naira was in a free fall for most parts of the year and food inflation was, perhaps, its highest on record. But in the last few weeks of the year there was a slight but sudden shift in the direction of the headwinds, a change in the state of the economy. 

This happened in a manner that suggested that the gains the Tinubu administration promised would mark the culmination of the reform policies he rolled out with his “fuel subsidy is gone” declaration, were not a fluke after all. Two of the three state-owned refineries, in Port Harcourt and Warri, that had been comatose for years suddenly came alive and started production. The third one in Kaduna is expected to start production soon. In the last days of the year, the pump price of petrol dropped for the first time ever and this happened twice! In Nigeria, prices of goods and services defy gravity. Once they rise, they never fall. But in this case, the price fell twice in a matter of days. 

The oil sector appears to be experiencing a rebound with some major oil players, like Shell, making a splash in the offshore sector. For the first time in many years, the holiday season of Christmas and New Year came and went without long queues of vehicles waiting to be filled at fuel stations. It was also the first time in many years when that season was not celebrated to the background noises of bomb explosions, the staccato fires of AK-47 in bandit-ravaged communities and the shrill cries of women and children abducted en mass. The road accidents, robberies and civil disturbances, hallmarks of the holiday period, were apparently down unlike in previous years when the media were awash with such reports. 

Hundreds of thousands of Nigerian students received loans for their education for the first time in 2024. Workers’ salaries were raised; the battle to free our local governments from the apron strings of state governors had been won and the tax reform bills have been making their way through the National Assembly amid protests by the loafing, freeloading governors, with plans to fine-tune them to the expectation of those opposed to their passage. 

The gains so far made are modest in the extreme but they give hope that there are better days ahead. The state of our “federation” at the close of 2024 and by most account was beginning to look good. Many critics are beginning to show some understanding (and this is as it should be), not necessarily endorsement, of the situation. The outlook for the future seems promising. There have been many firsts recorded both for good and for ill during the Bola Tinubu presidency but the firsts recorded towards the end of the year were for the most part good. It was for this reason, his dogged and intentional pursuit of his policies, that ThisDay, a sister organisation of Arise Television, the most implacable and critical media organisation of the Tinubu presidency, named him the Person of the Year. 

That award is undiluted bile to the usually dour and foul-mouthed Obidients, a section of the political rabble that was blindsided by the announcement. They have since been inconsolable, raining curses and insults on both ThisDay and Arise Television. The owner of the organisations and anchors of some of their flagship programmes have not been spared either. It was against this backdrop that Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in last year’s presidential election, held a New Year’s Day press conference in which he demanded that the president put an end to his foreign medical excursions, spend more time at home and visit hospitals in the country’s capital as well as travel the roads across the country more often, rather than flying. 

He painted a grim picture of life in the internally displaced persons camps and invited the president to visit them. It was in general a more comprehensive, if not coherently delivered, address; not his typically reactive twitter/X takes that are made for the nonce and often peppered with sometimes fly-by-night statistics. He marred it all when, in responding to a question about the country’s lacklustre opposition, he claimed that it’s not easy to be in opposition, going on to say nobody wants to be associated with him as an opposition figure. All of this he said, typical of an Obidient ala Dele Farotimi, with neither evidence nor elaboration. 

As if that was not bad enough, he doubled down on it after his address elicited a robust Arise Television response from the Publicity Secretary of the ruling party, Felix Morka. Obi claimed later that his New Year Day address has resulted in threats to his life, his associates and their business. Again, there were no specifics beyond Felix Morka’s verbal attack. Morka was critical of Obi for being undiscriminating, tactless and unguarded with his “maliciously deceptive” doomsday criticisms. 

Prodded by his interviewer, Sumner Sambo, if his harsh criticism was not “below the belt”, Morka responded by accusing Obi of frequently “crossing the line” with his criticisms of the ruling government. Obi, he argued, should in return take in his strides criticisms that come his way however harsh.

In claiming that his life was being threatened, Peter Obi proved Morka’s theory of being maliciously deceptive by taking his words about him crossing the line out of context. This is the ultimate gbajue. Obi’s stock as an opposition figure has of late fallen, leaving his base headless and despondent. In terms of party affiliation, he is virtually destitute. 

He may have denied any merger plans with Atiku Abubakar but in real terms Obi seems poised for one- except for fear of the reaction of his Obidient base. Things are presently volatile. He can find less dangerous explanation for his waning influence than claiming his life and business are under threat.

These are very dangerous allegations especially when made without explanation. Of what electoral value would Obi’s elimination be to the ruling government or the president at this time? If his life was not in danger all through the court processes to validate the outcome of the presidential election, if nobody thought it necessary to threaten him before Tinubu’s inauguration, is it now that Tinubu is safely president that the ruling party would seek his end? Fear God o!