TwoCents | Announcing Mr. Peter Obi's Not-So-Secret Ace

Mr. Peter Obi has run a formidable campaign. From the day he moved to the LP from the PDP, it was obvious to everyone that he must run a campaign such as never before seen to even stand a chance in this race. How he should do it, what amount of effort would suffice to give him a fighting chance, and if he could rise to the occasion, nobody knew for certain. Forget that he had achieved a similar feat as a political neophyte on his way to becoming Anambra state governor 20 years ago. Nigeria is 200X bigger, is home to 40X more people, and is politically hostile to the idea of an Igbo presidency. Plus, at 61 years old, how much could his body bear? Today, however, even his most ardent supporters marvel at how he has conducted his campaign, and the impact of it is clear to all. Yet even Mr. Peter Obi knows that his fantastic campaign is only a small part of what he needs to win. His ace in this election has always been with him. And he needs that ace to deliver more than any bigwig endorsement. Young people in Nigeria have endured so much unfair criticism from the older generation over the last few years. Generational wars are normal and to be expected. But when you hear many of our older citizens speak of us, it sounds like we are the worst to ever live – while they are the best thing to happen to Nigeria. We have been tagged, the “social media generation”, a way of saying that we are all talk and zero action. When Peter Obi first declared to run, and it was clear that he is the overwhelming favorite of the youth, the social media spaces were awash with, “Elections are not won on social media” and “There is no polling booth on Twitter” campaigns, and they tagged the man “Twitter President” and “Facebook President”. This mockery of our generation has been consistent with older people. At first, they accused us of being too self-indulgent and lacking the ability to organise ourselves for change. Even our president went abroad and told the world that Nigerian youths are “Lazy”. Then, when we hit the streets in 2020 to demand an end to police brutality, they jeered at first, assuring us that we’ll leave the streets after a few days. And when we sustained the protests for weeks, united in purpose, even shunning our jobs, they shifted to complain that we were disrupting their lives. All in all, they paid no heed to our demands. They tasked us to organise politically instead of protesting. In spite of our organic, decentralised, and efficient organisation of the #EndSARS protests, they were still so sure that we lacked the ability to organise politically. For 15 months after the protests, they jumped on every opportunity to label us as inept, unfocused, weak, lazy, and self-indulgent. We were tagged with every bad name in the book, and we endured it. Then came 2022, and amidst the usual octogenarians presenting their entitled selves to be voted for president in the upcoming elections, we identified with Mr. Peter Obi based on his record of prudence, tangible delivery of good governance, and simplicity. We declared our support for him, then the older ones came with their mockery again. This time, they said we would be unable to sustain the support with the required intensity for 9 months. They listed many events that people in our generation enjoy, and invoked their opinions of us as the reasons why we would soon lose steam; "Big Brother Naija, The English Premier League, The FIFA world cup, and Big Brother Africa" would soon take our attention, they said. But those events have come and gone, and yet we have kept Mr. Peter Obi’s name on the lips of every Nigerian, and even made other Africans take notice and be invested in the outcome of our elections. In 2 days, the Social Media generation has the opportunity to put an end to the disrespect on us – and hopefully, stop the culture of disregard for younger people in our society. While many older people continue to be blind to our potential, I have seen enough to believe that we have it in us to complete this mission. I must say that I am immensely proud of my generation of Nigerians. We will not always agree on issues, we might continue to bicker on the age long issue of male and female roles in society, and there will surely be more fights in the future, but these are not grounds enough for the political establishment to disrespect and ignore us as they have for the last 8 years. This is not the time to fear about whether we will succeed or fail. It is not the time to buckle under their pressure. Looking back at the last 2 years, we have consistently confounded the naysayers, and I dare to say that we can do it again this Saturday. They have been wrong about us on many issues, yet they refused to learn their lessons. That they still believe Obi cannot win, in spite of the youths being the majority of registered voters is a testament to the fact that they still doubt us. However, Mr. Peter Obi not only believes in us in words, but he has also banked his run on that trust that we as a generation have the ability to deliver. So, shut your ears to naysayers today. Seal your heart to contrary thoughts. From now, till when the votes are counted and declared at your polling unit, have only one thought on your mind: I MUST WIN MY POLLING UNIT FOR PETER OBI! PS: Dear friend, I have written this to encourage other young people to come out and vote, and I want to thank you for reading to this point. Has this encouraged you? Please let me know. And if your answer is yes, it would be amazing if you could share it with your friends and community, so that many more can be encouraged to vote on Saturday. Thanks again.

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