Comrade March Oyinki
Dear Obidients,
I salute your resilience and relentless efforts to keep the struggle for a New Nigeria going, despite the harsh and unabated downward spiral of the economy, due to its mismanagement by the handlers of the country.
Its impossible to rule out the fact that we have all been hit hard by the economy. So much that even our popular slogan, “WeMove” appears to have weaned its sails, and we tend not to be moving anywhere. I implore us to keep the flag flying and not allow these daring times to reduced us to half mast, where the center no longer holds and everything tends to be collapsing all at the same time.
Life has become so difficult. Even the political arena is no better, as everything is in comatose and then the turmoil in the Labour Party (LP). There are worrisome allegations of misappropriation of party funds, the call for the removal of Abure, the LP chairman, by the NLC and some party members, as well as the contentious upcoming National Convention of the party. In all of these, where does the Obidients stand?
What is the position of the already polarized Obidient Movement? Where one segment is tag the real non-partisan Obidients and the rest as party loyalists.
The issue we must now deal with, is how to synergies the cracks in the Obidient family? This is no doubt a daunting task that requires all hands on deck. It is not what only a few persons can handle.
Though, quite sadly, some persons have the erroneous impression that they are the core Obidients because they have direct access to PO, especially, some of the card carrying party members, which is a misconception, that have only compounded issues even more, because of the belief that they are influencers and hence they can pull crowds.
These set of people are yet to see the hand writing on the wall that, events in the last general election have exposed many anomalies in the LP and the Obidient Movement, of which the support groups and their conveners learnt many hard lessons that will dramatically, change the tune of all future elections in the country.
You can take this to the bank, because most of the generic support that was offered free to PO and the LP will in future attract costly gratification and in lieu. Its not going to be business as usual, and that is why the call for early dialogue and engagement is crucial to pacify the aggrieved.
The earlier we bring all the support groups and their conveners together, especially, those that were actively involved in the PO campaign trail across the country and the 2023 general election, to brainstorm and deliberate on how to unify, and strengthen our position as Obidients.
Those who believe that they are more Obidient than the others, will be rudely shocked to realize that they need more than just their single vote and PO’s goodwill to win future elections. This is exactly the point where the Obidient Movement Council comes to play a crucial role.
We are aware that we have polarized coalition groups whose leadership are unwilling to come under a neutral body where they do not have full control. Well, OBMC is an open platform that gives everyone equally opportunity to test their popularity in an election that will appoint executives.
OBMC is strictly for Conveners, though we are aware that there are a few persons who are not conveners amongst us. At the appropriate time, all non-Conveners will be weeded out. The group will be strong, influential and financially independent. It will have representation across the country and in the diaspora.
We already have a large number of verified conveners that have joined, who are eligible to via for executive positions in the National, and hold positions as Obidient Ambassadors in countries around the world. If you are a convener and have not already enlisted, here is another opportunity for you to do so before the election to the various offices are held.
Comrd. March Oyinki is BOT Chairman,
Obidient Movement Council and author of The Obidients’ Mandate
