SOKOTO: WHEN LEADERSHIP LEAVES THE PODIUM AND WALKS AMONG THE PEOPLE I have travelled with Mr. Peter Obi to many parts of Nigeria and beyond, but the two days in Sokoto reminded me again of something fundamental about the man I have come to know closely: Mr Peter Obi does not merely speak to people; he listens to them. And sometimes, listening is the first act of responsible leadership. Our Sokoto visit began with the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III. It was more than a courtesy call. There was a depth to that encounter that only history can explain. The Sultan recalled knowing Mr Peter Obi since 1980, when Obi was a young university student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, almost 46 years of acquaintance and relationship. There was something deeply significant about watching that interaction. Two men, separated by different journeys and responsibilities, speaking about Nigeria, its unity, its security, its poverty and the responsibility that comes with leadership. The Sultan reminded them of a truth that should never be forgotten: political offices are temporary, but the peace and unity of Nigeria are permanent responsibilities. From the Sultan's Palace, Mr Peter Obi went to the people. He sat with party members. He met community leaders. He engaged women. He interacted with young people. He met members of the Obidient family and the Kwankwasiyya movement. He listened to different groups and different perspectives. And then came the town hall. For me, this was perhaps the heart of the visit. Mr Peter Obi did not come simply to deliver a prepared speech and leave. He sat before Nigerians and took their questions, on unity, security, education, healthcare, corruption, poverty, agriculture, infrastructure, electricity, subsidy and the future of our country. His philosophy was clear: government should be demand driven, not supply-driven. Leaders must first listen to citizens, understand their problems and then formulate policies around those realities. That is not just a campaign technique. That is a philosophy of governance. He spoke about education because he understands that a nation that abandons its children is abandoning its future. He spoke about security because development is meaningless when citizens cannot sleep safely in their homes. He spoke about corruption because no nation can transform when public resources continue to disappear. He spoke about electricity, jobs, agriculture, healthcare and infrastructure because poverty is not solved by speeches. And he repeatedly returned to the same central idea: government must be about the people. But what moved me even more was what happened outside the political theatre. Mr Peter Obi and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso went to the Ramin Kura IDP camp and sat with displaced Nigerians. They did not merely speak about internally displaced persons as statistics. They went to see them, listen to them and feel the reality of their condition. That is why his recent words at an IDP camp in Ramin Kura have stayed with me: “As long as you are in an IDP camp, Nigeria is in an IDP camp. When you go home, Nigeria is at home.” That statement captures something profound about his understanding of leadership. An IDP is not somebody else's problem. A hungry child is not somebody else's child. An abandoned village is not somebody else's village. A farmer driven from his land is not somebody else's Nigerian. Their pain is Nigeria's pain. And that is the kind of humanity we must demand from anyone seeking to occupy the highest office in our country. I have watched Mr Peter Obi travel long distances, move from one engagement to another, sit with ordinary Nigerians, answer difficult questions, visit places where comfort does not exist, and still continue listening. There is an extraordinary energy in this man. But more important than the physical energy is the moral energy, the refusal to become detached from the people he seeks to serve.

WARRI: WE WALKED THROUGH THE FEAR Yesterday in Warri, Delta State, I witnessed something that I will not easily forget. I travelled to Warri to honour the invitation for the One Million-Man March for Obi-Kwankwaso, alongside other committed Obidient leaders and in the company of the NDC governorship candidate in Delta State, and many other Nigerians who came simply because they believe that a new Delta and a new Nigeria are possible. We set out peacefully. There were no guns in our hands. No knives. No stones. No weapons. We were walking. We were chanting. We were engaging people. We were exercising what should be one of the most basic rights in any democracy, the right of citizens to peacefully express their political choice. And then, suddenly, everything changed. I saw them myself, Men came out carrying sticks, stones and knives. I saw the aggression. I saw the attempt to intimidate us. And, most frighteningly, I personally witnessed firearms being pointed in our direction and shots being fired. This was not something I heard from somebody. I was there. I was standing there. I saw it happen. We captured it on videos including images of individuals carrying firearms. The attackers are APC political sponsored. But there is another moment from today that I will never forget. In the midst of the confusion, Dcn Chris, the NDC governorship candidate, stood beside me. He looked at me and, with the reality of the danger before us, said words to the effect of: “If we die today, we will die. But we are not retreating. We will march till the end.” Those words were not spoken from a comfortable office. They were spoken while danger was right in front of us. And we did exactly what we said we would do. We marched. We did not retreat. We did not abandon the people who came out with us. We did not allow fear to determine whether citizens would exercise their democratic rights. And something remarkable happened.nThe people stood together. Mama P, Amb. Young Peiro and others refused to give up. The Kwankwasiyya and Obidient family stood firm. The NDC family stood firm. People who came to march peacefully found courage in one another. And eventually, those who came to intimidate and disrupt the march were pushed back. That moment taught me something profound. The greatest weapon of tyranny is fear. And the moment ordinary people refuse to be ruled by fear, tyranny begins to lose its power. What happened in Warri is therefore not merely about a political rally. It is a reflection of the dangerous level to which our politics has descended when political disagreement can be met with sticks, knives and firearms. It is a reflection of a system in which some people appear to believe that the easiest way to defeat an idea is to attack the people carrying it. But they have misunderstood the people. You can frighten some people. You can scatter a crowd. You can threaten individuals. But you cannot permanently intimidate a people who have discovered that their collective voice is more powerful than the instruments of fear. Yesterday, I saw that power. I saw it in Warri. And I saw something else: the enormous strength that emerges when the opposition decides that it will not merely complain about the state of the country, but will stand together, organise and confront the forces trying to silence peaceful political participation. This is why the events of today must not be reduced to a fight between political groups. The bigger question is: What kind of Nigeria are we building? A Nigeria where citizens need protection from political thugs before they can march? A Nigeria where political competition becomes a contest of intimidation? Or a Nigeria where ideas confront ideas, candidates confront candidates, and ultimately the people decide through their votes? I choose the latter. And that is why we must not respond to violence by becoming violent ourselves.

Today, I had the privilege of accompanying Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), to the commissioning of the Makinde, Daura 2027 Presidential Campaign Office of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Abuja. For those who understand Nigeria only through the narrow lens of conventional politics, they may see nothing extraordinary in Mr Peter Obi standing beside his friend, Governor Seyi Makinde, who is himself a presidential candidate on another political platform. But for those who understand the Nigeria before us, today was much bigger than politics. It was a glimpse of the Nigeria we must become. Mr Peter Obi and Seyi Makinde are presidential contenders. They are not running on the same platform. They have different political structures and different routes to the presidency. Yet Peter Obi showed up. He did not show up because he had surrendered his ambition. He did not show up because political competition had ended. He showed up because Nigeria is bigger than any political party, and the Nigerian project is bigger than any individual ambition. That is the difference. Mr Peter Obi understands something that our politics has struggled to understand for decades, you do not build a nation by burning every bridge to the people who disagree with you. You build it by constructing enough bridges for everyone to cross into a common future. This is particularly important in a country as complex as Nigeria. We are a nation of different peoples, languages, religions, histories, cultures and political experiences. We are North and South. Christian and Muslim. Urban and rural. Young and old. Rich and poor. We carry different memories of Nigeria, different fears about Nigeria and sometimes completely different ideas about what Nigeria should become. The answer cannot be to erase our differences. The answer is to build bridges across them. And that is why, for me, Mr Peter Obi's significance at this moment goes beyond his candidacy. He represents something that Nigeria has not seen enough of in its political leadership, the courage to transcend the old political psychology. The old psychology says: If you are not with me, you are against me. The new Nigeria must say, We may compete today, but we may still need one another tomorrow. The old politics says, If my candidate does not win, Nigeria has lost. The new politics must say, Whoever Nigerians freely choose must become a partner in rebuilding Nigeria. The old politics is about defeating people. The new politics must be about defeating poverty, hunger, insecurity, unemployment, corruption, institutional failure and hopelessness. That is why Mt Peter Obi's words today matter. He said of Seyi Makinde: “Is he qualified to be president? Yes.” He went further to call for unity and inclusion and insisted that, after the election, Nigerians must come together to rescue the country. That is not weakness. That is political confidence. It takes a certain kind of confidence to acknowledge the competence of someone who is competing against you. It takes a certain kind of patriotism to understand that the success of Nigeria cannot depend entirely on whether your own name is on the ballot as the winner. And it takes a certain kind of leader to understand that today's political opponent may become tomorrow's partner in solving a national problem. This is why I increasingly believe that Mr Peter Obi represents something much larger than a presidential candidate. He is one of the clearest breakers of the political jinx that has kept Nigeria trapped in the old way of doing things. He challenges the assumption that politics must always be about bitterness. He challenges the assumption that ethnic identity must determine political loyalty. He challenges the assumption that religion must be weaponised for political mobilisation. He challenges the assumption that political disagreement must become personal hatred.