Adedokun Waliyu 
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate under Labour Party did not plan to run for president. If he did plan to run for president, he would not be freewheeling through endless tunnels of gaffes and inchoate ideas. But really, he did not plan to run for president. An accident happened.
Peter Obi’s presidential bid is a freak of politics; an idea contrived for performance and political quota. His bid is perhaps only relevant for regional affirmation and for intimation of anger by a section of the youth.
In 2019, Peter Obi lobbied to be the running mate of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Although Atiku preferred choosing a running mate from other zones in the south, the wave of agitations at the time worked in Obi’s favour.
It was reasoned that Obi being from the southeast where the agitation for secession was at its apogee at the time, a bloc vote was guaranteed for Atiku. Peter Obi becoming the running mate of Atiku in 2019 was an afterthought of political contrivances.
In the build-up to the PDP presidential primary election in 2022, it was clear Atiku would be picked as the standard bearer of the party. It was also certain that Peter Obi would not be the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP. He had run out of utility as a political pawn.
Prior to the PDP primaries, some southeast leaders who presumably were lobbying on behalf of Peter Obi, had asked that he be selected as vice-presidential candidate. But Atiku did not see any strong political point or value to pick Peter Obi again. He had chosen him in 2019 but lost the election.
Some northern leaders in the PDP were also uncomfortable with Peter Obi as vice-presidential candidate for what they perceive to be his strong ethnic leaning. The thinking was that the northern electorate will not be welcoming of his candidature.
It was obvious to Peter Obi that he had been consigned to irrelevance in the PDP. Disgruntled and egged on by associates, he left the PDP for the Labour Party (LP). Peter Obi’s presidential bid was then born.
Obi’s bid was not out of compulsion to fix Nigeria or to make any change to the country; it was a just response to the scheming in the PDP. He was schemed out of the loop by a party notable for treachery. Peter Obi never planned, designed, or imagined running for president. His presidential bid is a hoax and a ploy to get back at those in the PDP who declared him a political liability.
