OK. That is the new-fangled fashionable coinage of the Peter Obi – Rabiu Kwankwaso joint ticket partnership that has only recently migrated from the embattled African Democratic Congress (ADC) to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). With the NDC zoning its presidential ticket to the South, it is obvious that the duo of Obi and Kwankwaso will be the party’s Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, respectively, for the 2027 elections. To make this arrangement feasible, Mr Peter Obi has committed to serving for only one term if he wins, and the NDC has also adopted a one-term southern presidency as party policy.
The problem is that once a candidate emerges victorious at the polls and is constitutionally entitled to a second term, he can easily disavow any pre-election pledge to serve for only one term. And if he decides to run, he will be able to deploy all the powers of incumbency to drive his ambition to seek reelection. It is unlikely that critical political stakeholders in the North will buy the gimmick that Obi will opt to serve for a single term. After all, this was an Obi that, in Ikemba Odwumegu Ojukwu’s lifetime, vowed never to leave the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). But the very first thing he did after his second term as Anambra State governor was to dump APGA for the then ruling PDP.
If Obi decides to run for a second term, not even the NDC will be able to do anything about it because it will be his constitutional right to do so. And is it even conceivable that Obi’s Igbo ethnic group, not to mention the vociferous and uncontrollable Obedient movement to which Obi is slavishly beholden, will even contemplate his serving one term? That must be a tale for the Marines. The desperation to achieve his ambition may propel Obi to make all kinds of fanciful and outlandish concessions now, all in a bid to stoop to conquer. When reality stares him in the face, however, Obi will realise that his fellow Igbo did not wait so long for the presidency only to spit out the juicy morsel from their mouths after a single tenure bite.
All the foregoing assumes that the far North has quickly forgotten Obi’s divisive religion -driven campaign in 2023 when he campaigned across major Christian, especially Pentecostal, denominations, making a Clarion call on Christians to “take back your country”. Of course, since then, he has resorted to worshipping in mosques and partaking of the Ramadan fast. The problem is that neither Muslims nor Christians may ever fully trust him.
