"So here is my position. I cannot support you unless you publicly...distance yourself from the people conducting this campaign of intimidation in your name."
You didn't have to hide this in the last paragraphs. Unravel with your full chest - your choice, your right.
An Open Letter to Peter Obi: Control Your Supporters or Lose the Presidency
Letters from Stockholm
Dear Mr Obi,
I write this letter with sadness, because I have wanted to give you a fair chance. For the better part of four years I have directed my political fire at Bola Tinubu, at Atiku Abubakar, and at the financial networks that surround Nigerian power. I have deliberately left you out of it, in the hope that Nigeria might at last be ready for an Igbo president and that you might be the man to deliver it. That restraint is now ending, and the reason is not you. It is the people who march under your name.
Anyone who debates you, questions you or criticises you is set upon. Not answered. Set upon. Insulted, mobbed, taunted, threatened and hounded across every platform until they either fall silent or fall in line. I have reviewed the attacks directed at me and at others, and they do not come from a broad national coalition. They come from a narrow, organised and increasingly sectarian mob that has convinced itself that loyalty to you is a substitute for argument, and that anyone outside its circle is an enemy.
Let me tell you what that mob has done to my family.
My father, Chief Godfrey Kio Jaja Amachree QC, was Nigeria's first Solicitor-General and the first African Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. During the civil war he served as General Gowon's special representative to the United States, and his work as an international diplomat helped bring that bloody war to an end. He defended Isaac Boro in court, for free, against a charge of treason. He later did the same for Ken Saro-Wiwa. That is the record of the man your supporters have called a baby killer and a traitor. I have had his name and my family's name slandered by your people more times than I can remember. A man who helped stop the killing, maligned as a killer, by people who were not born when he did it.
I am Kalabari Ijaw, not Igbo. I believe in a united Nigeria, as my father did before me, and no amount of rubbish from your supporters will deter me or stop me from writing freely.
Understand the difference. I have received six death threats from Tinubu supporters. My late mother and father have been insulted by them. But those are trolls, idiots being paid to attack anyone who opposes Tinubu, and I treat them accordingly. Your people are something else. They are unpaid, they are organised, and they are sincere, which makes them far more dangerous.
Consider this. I sat down, wrote a song and made a video in an effort to help free Nnamdi Kanu, an Igbo Biafran leader with whom I have no relationship and whose cause I do not support, because his legal rights are being trampled and I fight for legal rights. That is what my father would have done. In return I am maligned by idiots in your camp, Mr Obi. That is the gratitude of the Obidient movement towards a Kalabari man who stood up for an Igbo prisoner.
And I am not alone. Let me put names to it, because you cannot dismiss all of us as agents of the opposition.
Wole Soyinka has said he knows for a fact that you encouraged Obidients to attack him and others with opposing views online before the 2023 election, and that your supporters wear their refusal to accept constructive criticism as a badge of honour. He has said he hopes for the sake of the nation that you do not run again, and when you visited him and called it a reconciliation, he publicly denied that any reconciliation took place.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, said this April that you raised monsters and that the Obidients will be your downfall if you do not call them to order.
Reno Omokri has said he is a target of sustained online harassment by your supporters, and this is a man who nonetheless put up his own money to hunt down those who threatened your family.
It is not only Yoruba voices, and it is not only your opponents. Chimaroke Nnamani, a serving Igbo senator and former governor of Enugu, has described your supporters as rude and disrespectful. Dave Umahi and Emeka Ihedioha have fallen foul of the same mob. Only yesterday Ugochukwu Afuba, who says openly that you are his preferred candidate, wrote that Obidients throw insults at him while intentionally avoiding the substance of the matter. Even the ADC, when your supporters adopted an "Obi or nothing" line earlier this year, had its publicity secretary Bolaji Abdullahi caution them against inflammatory rhetoric.
A Nobel laureate, a federal commission chairman, a serving Igbo senator, two former Igbo governors, one of your own supporters and a coalition party spokesman. That is not a conspiracy. That is a verdict.
And your response, each time, has been to deflect. When Pastor Adeboye was attacked, your media office blamed a campaign of calumny from opposition ranks and insisted your supporters were not involved. After the Soyinka affair, you told your supporters to bear the attacks on them as sacrifices for a new Nigeria. Not once have you looked your own base in the eye and told them to stop.
I am not writing from the streets. I have a large platform, and I am telling you that your lack of leadership within your own organisation is causing Nigerians a problem the likes of which I have never seen. Not even Tinubu, with all the money of the Nigerian state behind him, commands an organised online mob like this one.
This is not democracy. Democracy is the willingness to be disagreed with. A movement that cannot tolerate dissent before it reaches power will not tolerate it afterwards. If you cannot discipline your supporters today, what should a country of 230 million people expect from you in Aso Rock?
The arithmetic is not complicated. You won a quarter of the vote in 2023 and came third. To win in January you need Yoruba, Northern, Niger Delta and Middle Belt votes, and every one of those voters is watching what happens to people who question you. Your supporters are not winning you converts. They are manufacturing your opponents. Tinubu must be laughing. Atiku must be laughing. Neither of them needs to lift a finger when your own people are doing the work for free.
I have my own quarrel with you, and I will state it. You have never once, to my knowledge, gone after the Chagoury family and the corrupt intimacy between that family and the Tinubu machine. It is the clearest line of attack available to any serious opposition candidate in Nigeria, and you have left it untouched. But even that is secondary, because a candidate whose movement drives away every ally he will ever need does not get the chance to prosecute anyone.
So here is my position. I cannot support you unless you publicly and unambiguously distance yourself from the people conducting this campaign of intimidation in your name. Not another media office statement blaming the opposition. A direct, personal instruction that this stops, backed by consequences for those who continue.
The behaviour of your base is a greater danger to your candidacy than anyone threatening your life. Assassins you can guard against. This you cannot, unless you choose to.
Shut it down now, Mr Obi. Show the Nigerian people who you really are, or go your way. We do not need another four years of trouble.
Kio Amachree
Founder and President, Worldview International
Stockholm
@Ivory1957 "To win...you need Yoruba, Northern, Niger Delta, Middle Belt votes, &every one of those voters is watching what happens to people who question you"
Which other contestant has been questioned, interviewed or scrutinized as much as Peter Obi? Your assertion falls flat on its face
A CONSTRUCTIVE RESPONSE TO RIO AMACHCREE
You continue to trend on the reputation of your father who by your narrative was a man of integrity who will not be reckless in words or conduct like the characters you mentioned, such as Prof, Wole Soyinka, Abike Dabiri, Reno Omokri, Chimaroke Nnamani, David Umahi, Chukwuma Soludo, Daniel Bwala, etc.
You confirmed that Obidients are not paid, which means they are driven by an ideology that is beyond the political convention of bowing respectfully to the class of mediocre that are ruining the country just because they control and waste public resources to bribe their ways through and appease their praise-singers.
Be advised that asking Peter Obi to resign in obidients is asking him to do the impossible. Obidients are a new bread political voice and force who wish for and want a Nigeria that functions maximally to the best international standards under the rule of law, a country with valued passport that makes it possible for the citizens to be respected globally as human beings, not seen and treated on first encounter as drug traffickers, dishonest corrupt people, money launderers and certificates/document forgers.
Anyone who decides to stop the realisation of this ideological vision which Peter Obi is the vehicle to the destination is an enemy of Nigeria and will be treated as such by critically analysing what they write, say and do.
Obidients don’t attack people for their constructive criticism of Peter Obi. But they will unapologetically attack anyone that lies against Peter Obi, who frames up Peter Obi to satanically tarnish his character.
You need to be reminded about the attacks by Dave Umahi purely because he hates to hear the applause for Mr Obi’s impeachable character, which he described as making him look like a saint while the rest look like satan. Those are his words. Umahi failed to demonstrate the responsibility expected of a man in his position which is a stack contrast that of Peter Obi. It’s a shame that you mentioned Dave Umahi, Prof. Soyinka, Aike Dabiri and Reno Omokri.
Peter Obi remains focused on issues, but others sustain their focus on Peter Obi, not just on his political ideology, capacity, identity and credibility, but on lies about him. Should Gov. Chukwuma Soludo be left unchallenged while using the instrument of state and federal govt and their paid 20 thousand social media warriors to promote falsehood against him?
If you constructively criticise Peter Obi, obidients will comment constructively with evidence to explain the issues you may raise. But if your criticisms aim to attack Obi’s character falsely with malicious intent, they will come after you and there is nothing that Peter Obi can do about it. Obidients do not need the permission or approval of Peter Obi to defend their own interests which Obi’s character represents.
My personal advice to you is to support who you like based on your genuine convictions and be mindful of what you write about anyone, be the person Peter Obi or someone else.
The measure you give is the measure you get. Obidients only responds in counterattacks, they never start any attack.
Social media is a leveller which is beyond the monopoly of govt, the rich and influential and the mainstream brown envelope media to control the narrative that suits them.
We know that the truth that obidients provide to counter the lies of the ruiners of Nigeria as well as deconstruction and demystifying of their structures of criminality, cult empire and powers executed from the coven certainly hurts those affected, both within and outside of the country.
Have a wonderful time.
Yesterday, 28th September, after paying a courtesy call on His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, we had a very engaging Town Hall with the people of Sokoto. It was an opportunity to listen, answer questions, and speak honestly about the Nigeria we want to build together.
The questions were clear: unity, security, education, subsidy, healthcare, corruption, poverty, agriculture, power, infrastructure, ethnicity, and the future of our country.
Our message was equally clear: there will be no fake promises. We must unite the country and confront insecurity decisively, while also addressing human insecurity. We must fight poverty, unemployment, hunger, and hopelessness if we are to reduce criminality and create a safer society.
We discussed money politics and its devastating consequences. When poverty becomes the instrument through which politicians buy votes, citizens are trapped in a cycle where the same system that impoverishes them is repeatedly rewarded. We must break this cycle of bad leadership driven by transactional politics.
The work ahead is enormous. But with courage, competence, compassion, character, and the collective determination of Nigerians, we can begin to change the story.
A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO
@akintollgate@officialABAT This day was coming, just a matter of time. You took too long, more than the six months for both Daddy GOs fast. Now thst you're home, X can now rest.
109 days till we retire Seyi's father from Aso rock. Since he takes so much vacations, he can just rest.
If you're not busy, send this message to your people:
https://t.co/NxrqWaBMc3
Why don’t I tell you about some things that His Excellency @PeterObi did as Governor of Anambra. I supported the Nigerian Governors Forum to put in place the world’s first sub-national peer review mechanism. Gov Peter Obi volunteered to be reviewed first. This is what we found…
Tinubu is requesting a fresh @WorldBankGroup loan of $1.5billion. Can you imagine how he wants to spend it? Two-third of the total sum is for cash transfer to the poor and for children development.
To end such profligacy, we must vote Peter Obi, the political SI unit.
Sai Obi!
2027 - A New Nigeria is within our Grasp, Let’s reach for it together ✊🏽
A New Generation of Leaders are Rising and We would surely take our place
I Peter Otu Akah, I am Committed to being a Part of this Service to My People and Nation
We Must Take advocacy into the chambers and Speak Truth for Every Nigerian
And together we would build that New Nigeria that is POSSIBLE ❗️🇳🇬✌🏽
Peter For Nigeria: A Voice For the People🎤
Thank you @zonicast and @kenkabulli for this beautiful ad, it means a lot to me and I am most grateful 🙏🏽💌