Obi's lie machine now on autopilot
Former Anambra State governor, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, and rallying point of the aggressive, abusive and cantankerous Obidient mob, Mr. Peter Obi, has not
Former Anambra State governor, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, and rallying point of the aggressive, abusive and cantankerous Obidient mob, Mr. Peter Obi, has not looked back since he adopted lying as the directive principle of his presidential campaign. If a hall on infamy is ever instituted for the art of lying, Obi's place as a pioneer member would be unquestionable, and his followers would not need to stress themselves advertising him as the winner like they did when he came third in the 2023 presidential election.
If indeed talent comes in different forms and can be honourable or dishonourable, Obi's penchant for lying would rank in the second category. Observant Nigerians have lost count of his catalogue of lies in his desperate bid to present himself as the best presidential material sent down straight from heaven to turn the country into Paradise despite presiding over Anambra as governor for eight years with a legacy he now wishes could be erased from the memory of every Nigerian, including the living victims of his misrule.
Under him, Anambra endured eight odd years without a single classroom added to the existing primary and secondary school buildings. Medical activities were also paralysed in the state's hospitals for eight months because his government could not find a solution to the protracted strike embarked upon by doctors.
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In one of his recent lies meant to project him as a man of the people, he said he would make his phone numbers available to every Nigerian if he becomes president. But concerned citizens are quick to ask how many Anambra indigenes had his telephone number in the eight years he held sway as governor.
Only recently, the story went viral of a youthful singer, Ifunanya, who died after she was bitten by a snake in his Abuja residence, and Obi saw in it another opportunity to unleash another bundle of lie, saying the young lady died because “there is no snake venom in the whole of Nigeria”. More precisely, Obi said: “Common snake bite you, na death. There is no snake venom in the whole of Nigeria.” But people are asking what was in the snake that killed Ifunanya if not venom. And where was the snake that bit the deceased singer if not Nigeria. Even if our snakes have no venoms, the one harboured by Obi against Nigeria is more deadly than viper's.
Apparently, Obi meant to say 'anti-venom injection' when he said 'venom' but, his antecedents considered, he simply does not know the difference between 'venom' and 'anti-venom'.
In his unwarranted holier-than-thou mission, he has ended up embarrassing and de-marketing himself the same way he has embarrassed and de-marketed Nigeria at every given opportunity. In one instance, he boasted about taking advice from a mad man. To portray a Spartan lifestyle, he told a gathering of young people that he never owned a piece of land in Abuja, only to be reminded by some observant countrymen that he is the owner of the largest supermarket in the nation's capital city.
Frustrated with his own lies, he once lamented that even his children now take his words with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, there is little he can do about the anomaly because the machine that rolls out his lies is now on autopilot. While before now he used the phrase 'go and check' to paint his lies in the colour of truth, he has stopped adding the clause when he realised that Nigerians have seen through his lies and would no longer fall for them like they did before the 2023 elections.
In all this, my concern is for the blind lot among Obi's followers who have now grown so familiar with his ways that they now see lying as a virtue. My Obidient was once so honest that you could take his word to the bank, but all that is now in the past. The other day, he returned home late from work with his head wrapped in bandage. Asked what was amiss, he said his car broke down in Oshodi on his way home from work, and he was attacked at the spot by hoodlums, only for a stranger to show up in his house the following morning, warning his wife to rein in her husband. "The next time I catch him with my wife, I will not only break his head; I will send him to hell."
