reSee.it - Tweets Saved By @jollynony

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

1. Are you worried about the ferocity of the political class and how they will offer violent resistance against Peter Obi? Let me help you worry less. Come with me to Anambra just at the turn of the century from 2003. Grab a drink, it’s a long thread.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

2. The dedication you see today is the product of a deliberate and principled life. PO’s confidence is not the bravado of someone who doesn’t understand what they were getting into. It was forged in the fire of stiff resistance of brutal players in Anambra State politics.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

3. Players who thought PO was a pushover. His small voice deceived them. They had already burnt the Anambra State govt house, kidnapped the sitting governor before him, tossing the man unceremoniously in the boot of a car! Never happened anywhere in Nigeria before or since.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

4. So brazen were they. A proper law unto themselves. They forced previous governors to pay them heavily each month. Got so bad that schools couldn’t find money to pay teachers leading to strikes that had lasted 2 years. Few civil servants got paid anything in those dark days.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

5. School buildings crumbled from disuse, became overgrown with tall grass and bred snakes. The godfathers didn’t care. As long as they had access to the statutory allocations, Anambra could burn to the ground. Her people needed their own grit and industry to survive.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

6. The godfathers effectively put the Harvard-educated Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju in their pockets until his forgettable tenure ended. Then they ordained a certain diminutive man as their next figurehead. One Dr Chris Ngige, a firebrand in his own right.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

7. To tame him, they took him to a shrine to swear allegiance under the pain of supernatural death. As God would have it, running against their candidate was a soft spoken 46-yr old Peter Obi. The Anambra State cabals wrote off his idealism as naïveté.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

8. So when PO flooded the state with posters asking, “Is Anambra cursed or are we the cause?”, they laughed him to scorn. With time, as the young PO went into the deepest parts of Anambra asking his poser, the message began to resonate. The people had found a champion.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

9. On election day, Anambra people came out en-masse to vote for Peter Obi who was flying the flag of a little known party called APGA. This was significant. Pay attention. Chukwuemeka Ojukwu (APGA) was on the ballot as president against Obasanjo of PDP same party as Ngige.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

10. Obasanjo (PDP) won against Ojukwu (APGA) in Anambra state! But Peter Obi (APGA) won against Chris Ngige (PDP). Remarkable. Such was PO’s allure even in those days. Anyway, the cabal struck. They did their voodoo and boom Chris Ngige became governor.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

11. They reckoned that Peter Obi would just go back to his banking after they had delivered their masterclass of election black magic. But they underestimated the stubbornness of the young bank chairman who took the matter to court where it worked up the process from 2003 - 2006

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

12. Meanwhile the state was overrun by criminals who had steadily lost all conscience. Upper Iweka in Onitsha was an eyesore that was a breeding ground for the underworld. Children had already dropped out of school in record numbers. But for the boy-boy system of apprenticeship,

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

13. Anambra would have totally gone to the dogs. You remember the governor-kidnap I spoke about, it was Chris Ngige. The man had grown a conscience. The plight of his people broke his heart and he severed the tentacles draining the treasury. He dared the Okija shrine

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

14. upon which he swore to take him. He leaned heavily on the premise that if you did right by the people as a leader they will bestow you with real power and legitimacy. And they did. For the first time in a long time, Ndị Anambra saw some reprieve.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

15. The cabals didn’t plan to walk off into the night. They engineered breathtaking violence in Anambra to hobble the governor, but the man refused to cave. Soon it didn’t matter. The Supreme Court ruled in Peter Obi’s favour. That was how PO became governor after 3 years.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

16. No one gave the humble Peter Obi a chance. Who was he going to convince with that tiny voice? He had no one in his corner. No House member from APGA. The cabal couldn’t believe their luck or so it seemed. Until the young man went to work.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

17. He cut expenses and channels of embezzlement like a frenzied farmer in a field of weeds. No avenue of illicit gains was spared. Bloody hell! This wasn’t in the script. He stopped padded budgets mid-flight and cut them to the bone.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

18. ₦430m for govt house was built completely with about ₦80m. To make matters worse, he was practicing some nonsense he called capital formation i.e. saving 15% of revenue. What the actual hell! Time to act. They activated their stooges in the House, who themselves were

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

19. feeling the pinch. “Get that bonzo out!”, was the order. Sure enough the House convened an impeachment hearing. But even then they had taken some liking to him. Honesty does that to you. In their “mercy”, they told Peter Obi to reverse himself. Leave the padded budgets

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

20. as they were & forget that nonsense about savings. Using his tiny voice, young PO refused. O well, they tried, they assured themselves. The gavel came down. He was impeached. Did PO lay down & die? Of course not. He headed back to court & got his mandate back after 3 months.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

21. There are many more things that read like heart-thumping thriller but let’s leave them here for now. Just know that when he was done, Anambra went from 26th to 1st in education in his first 3 years, had the best rural road network, arrested erosion, became cleanest,

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

22. became safest & many more. The man placed his final signature as governor in 2014 on a handover note containing savings of ₦75b (about ₦290bn today) including other investments. All without borrowing. This is world class stewardship in any jurisdiction on earth. Legendary!

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

23. Peter Obi is a man of principles and effortless integrity. He has a lot of courage. He’s as clean as a whistle. He conquered greed. When he says he will do the right thing, it’s not a joke. It has the force of conviction backed by a lived experience that is extraordinary.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

24. But do you know his ultimate super power? YOU 🫵🏽! YOU will vote for him. YOU will be his critic & praise singer. When deviants rise against his good policies, YOU will deny them agency because YOU have the power.

@jollynony - naijaPatriot

CORRECTION: Peter Obi was 41 years old on election day 2003.