By Austen Akhagbeme

Peter Gregory Obi, the Agulu-Anambra State-born politician and the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, clocked 64 years, on Saturday, July 19th.

In the firmament of Nigeria’s wondrous politics, he is often and erroneously dismissed by his peers as an idealist looking for relevance; an incurable optimist who has refused to recognise the natural and artificial hurdles overtly or covertly erected on his way by geography, Ideology and ethnicity, on his determined journey to lead the change we so much desire as a nation, or so it seems.

But this dismissiveness seems not to gain any traction in the restless minds of the Nigerian youths and so many others who think that there’s a need for politics and governance to take a detour from the selfishness of the known and the familiar, to the collective altruism of a people desirous of a change.

This, he ably demonstrated with his over 6 million credible votes that cut across the length and breadth of the nation in the 2023 presidential election. His birthday celebration yesterday took an equally unprecedented dimension with the declaration of a national day of service by members of the Obidient movement nationwide. While they were prevented from gathering together to carry out humanitarian gestures in some states like Kaduna, they however succeeded in others.

Acts of love and service were carried out by those who loved him across the Country, as a memorial to his optimism about Nigeria and her politics. And this is very remarkable and novel to a political class that only celebrates in canopied fanfares and an opulent splendour.

Peter Obi has dared to be different; it is little wonder that he is being “ostracised” by his political peers, such as earning a “ban” or “a warning” from entering a subnational territory at will in a nation where he is a bona fide citizen, and this is very disconcerting.

While I’m resisting the very tempting urge to discuss his recent foray into the politics of coalition or alignment, I think it is with the same optimism and love for a focused and productive leadership that can be handled in its strictest and simplest form in Nigeria, that is driving him to dine with those whose perception of governance is ideologically at variance with his.

This is not to say that the former Anambra State Governor is a faultless and unblamable saint. No, he is not because he’s human. But a green apple among equally green oranges can still be easily identified and isolated from the suffocating greenery of deceptive surroundings. And that is Peter Gregory Obi.

Nevertheless, it is good to appreciate a unique Nigerian in moments like this auspicious birthday celebration of an incurable optimist like Peter Obi. Happy birthday to you, sir.