Rights activist and Director of Contact and Mobilisation of the Labour Party(LP) Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Patrick Osagie Eholor, has described the party’s Presidential flagbearer, Peter Gregory Obi, as hope for Nigerians.
Asked to respond to the belief in some quarters that Obi may turn out not to be the messiah that some people feel he is, Eholor said: “A lot of people who see him as a messiah you cannot fault them. You cannot see beyond your vision – your sight. You have blind people and you have people who can see clearly. Your sight has limitation. When our sight is getting weak we apply lenses to improve the sight.
“You can’t fault them. I must tell you something that you must know. Obi cannot face Nigeria’s problem for 32 years but he will start to repair the problem of Nigeria. We, the Obidient people will assist him because governance is not only by the presidency it is also by the citizens. We also have our responsibilities. Now, we are claiming that we are Obidient we must truly practice what we preach that we are truly Obidient to support him obidiently.
“We will respect the rights of others. We will respect law enforcement. We will be our brother’s keeper. We will have appointments but we will not take advantage of that appointment. We will pledge allegiance to Nigeria not to our ethnic groups. With that Nigeria will become a country that manufactures, exports. Not a country that consumes. When you plant today you don’t harvest the same day.
“Those who are seeing Obi as the messiah it is their feeling because they have never seen anything like this before. They have never fought any war. When hope dies a man dies. Hope is the last thing that keeps a man alive. So Peter Obi is hope for us.”
Chief Eholor exonerated Obi of making false claims. He asserted, “I want to say that Obi is not claiming anything. We are claiming everything because Obi is more like a vehicle that is leading the movement. It is not even about Labour Party. It is about us. Obi is not on the ballot. We are on the ballot, all of us. That’s why you see it is family.
“Let me just take you back a little bit. I know that you’re going to laugh. Don’t laugh, please. Umbrella with a hole in it will come and the rain is beating us directly with the umbrella. We have broom in the other party. The broom is weak. It cannot push anything. If it can push anything there will not be scarcity of petrol. There will not be scarcity of money. This is the first time that we will appreciate our money more than the dollar and the pounds.
“People are ready now to take back their country. I did a video today and said we don’t have money to pay agents. It is true. Who are our agents? The voters are our agents. Anybody that votes on that day will wait and protect the vote because this is not about Obi.
“There is something mystical about this election. This might be the last trumpet if we don’t hear it now very clearly. It is 30 years anniversary when General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida(rtd) annulled a free and fair election of Chief M.K.O. Abiola. The children who are voting today we’re not born then but they were told the story. They were sad about the story. They said ‘not in my time. I wish I was born then it would not happen.’ It is a challenge to them. They are here now to make sure there is no repetition of that.
“We are doing more like a combo not just one thing. We are multitasking. We are reclaiming back our country. We are tired of victimisation. We are tired of having this fear of Fulanisation. We are tired of herdsmen. We are tired of kidnapping. We are tired of armed robbery.”
