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In sprawling, dramatic theatre of Nigerian politics, three main characters dominate the stage: Tinubu, Atiku, and Peter Obi, each with their unique style, strategies, and destinies that keep the audience endlessly entertained and frustrated alike.
First stop: Tinubu, Nigeria’s undisputed champion of the “Go to Court!” strategy. Like a seasoned star of courtroom dramas, Tinubu’s signature catchphrase reverberates across election seasons, shifting attention away from what political insiders quietly deem “the coldest electoral robbery” in recent memory. His legal theatrics are less about seeking justice and more about a well-scripted distraction, If Tinubu’s political saga were a movie, it might be “Catch Me If You Can” - but with less Leonardo DiCaprio charm and heaps of legal documents and plot twists. Tinubu’s courtroom battles act as fog machines masking electoral sleight-of-hand, preserving a political status quo that few dare challenge.
Enter Atiku, the perennial “serial primary election winner,” whose rallying call, “Go to the Primaries!” lures hopefuls down a labyrinthine path that resembles less a democratic contest and more a dollar-guarded fortress. With primaries functioning as cleverly disguised bait traps, Atiku’s political game is one of chess played in smoke-filled rooms, where the dice are loaded and rivals ensnared before the real contest even begins. Hopeful candidates thinking to challenge him find themselves entangled in what feels like an impenetrable labyrinth, more a dollar-guarded vault than a fair contest. Atiku’s primaries operate less as open contests and more as baited traps, cleverly disguised as democratic rituals. Together with Tinubu, they form Nigeria’s notorious “siamese twins” of dark politicking, two halves of a political hydra that keeps the nation’s drama rolling through court battles and poisoned primaries.
But then comes Peter Obi, the underestimated underdog whose political saga in Anambra State not only defied expectations but upended entrenched power structures. While Tinubu and Atiku’s games unfold in Abuja’s corridors and courtrooms, Obi quietly rewrote the rules in a volatile state dominated by powerful political godfathers and a dynasty of kingmakers who once believed the governorship was their private playground.
At the heart of Obi’s storm was a formidable opposition: the Uba brothers - Chris, Andy, and Ugochukwu, whose political dynasty funded and backed rival candidates with presidential blessings from Olusegun Obasanjo. Chris Uba, the outspoken “kingmaker,” famously boasted about crafting political destinies in Anambra - that he made and unmade every major politician in the state, including his own preferred “protégé,” Chris Ngige. Ngige himself broke with Uba in a dramatic fallout, but both represented the deep entrenchment of godfatherism that roped in the likes of Andy Uba, Chris’ brother and long-time political heavyweight, including backing Chris Ngige and later his own brother, Andy Uba, whose brief, contested governorship was a centerpiece of godfather meddling. Alongside them, billionaire oil magnate Chief Arthur Eze lent weight and resources, representing the business interests deeply intertwined with the state’s political scene. The Uba brothers (Chris, Andy, and, to an extent, Ugochukwu Uba) made up a political dynasty that sponsored candidates, brokered deals, and in Andy’s case, even staged a fleeting governorship rubber-stamped at the federal level
Obi challenged this entrenched cabal with grit and strategy. After an initial loss to Chris Ngige in 2003, he launched legal battles that culminated in him assuming office in 2006. His tenure was a stormy one: surviving an impeachment coup, navigating relentless pressure, and ultimately overturning Andy Uba’s disputed 2007 election via a Supreme Court ruling. Obi stayed in power until 2014, turning what seemed like an impossible victory against the political establishment into a legacy of governance.
His achievements were concrete and transformative: Anambra rose from the 25th to the top spot in WAEC examinations, thanks to free school buses, textbooks, and uniforms that revolutionized education. Infrastructure bloomed with over 800 kilometers of roads rehabilitated, cutting torturous hours-long journeys to smooth 15-minute drives. Poverty mapping, health sector improvements, and fiscal prudence garnered national and international accolades, proof that good governance could rise even amid godfather politics.
In the grand election saga, therefore, Tinubu’s courtroom dramas and Atiku’s primary baiting might be the flashy acts drawing crowds, but Peter Obi’s story is the underdog’s triumph against overwhelming odds - a David confronting Goliaths armed with kingmakers, billionaires, and presidential endorsements. Where the former two play chess and checkers in a spectacle of power maintenance, Obi scripts a different game- complex, pragmatic, a blend of business acumen, grassroots appeal, and principled leadership, and rooted in real governance that challenges the very institutions of godfatherism.
For the Nigerian voter, this trio embodies a political theatre as exhausting as it is compelling. “Go to Court!” or “Go to the Primaries!” are refrains loaded with meaning, but they don’t tell the whole story. Behind the scenes, the underestimated Peter Obi quietly dismantled godfather myths in Anambra, showing that the last laugh might belong to the outsider who rewrites the script.
So as the nation watches Tinubu’s court battles and Atiku’s primaries breathlessly, it should also remember the underestimated contender from Anambra who fought not just for office but against the very nature of Nigerian godfatherism, Peter Obi, the political underdog whose quiet conquest might just hold the blueprint for a new Nigeria.