Peter Obi was right not to attend Buhari’s funeral

Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2023 (s)election, was slammed by some Nigerians on social media for being absent from former president Muhammadu Buhari’s funeral in Daura on Tuesday.

One guy interpreted Obi’s absence as saying goodbye to the alleged 12m votes that Buhari received in northern Nigeria in each of the previous (s)elections. Some went as far as claiming that Obi’s absence at a funeral attended by President Bola Tinubu, most governors, perennial presidential candidate Abubakar Atiku and many other VIPs (or Vagabonds In Power as Fela Kuti called them), meant that Obi was just a “sectional” politician that didn’t bother appealing to a region as big as northern Nigeria.

Tinubu at Buhari’s funeral

This take on Nigerian politics is beyond daft. Naijiant.com has in the past criticised Obi for cavorting with the same people whose misrule made the lives of the majority of Nigerians a misery, impoverishing most of them, while getting stupendously rich at their expense. We pondered how Obi could claim he represented change while mingling with the forces of oppression and underdevelopment in Nigeria.

So Obi giving Buhari’s funeral a miss was a welcome development and step in the right direction to distance himself from the deceased mass murderer and his ilk. The argument that Obi would lose votes from not being at the funeral is senseless. For starters, Buhari wasn’t as popular as portrayed by ignorant Nigerian commentators, especially after his first term that was a complete disaster. Secondly, the millions of votes he and others received in Nigerian (s)elections were via fraudulent means.

Time to bury the myths about mass-murdering Muhammadu Buhari

So Obi had more to gain by his absence than his presence. However, it seems that the hoopla about his absence forced Obi into paying Buhari’s family a condolence visit today. This type of U-turn demonstrates spinelessness, if, as alleged, it was due to negative commentary about his absence. And it has not gone down well with his critics. Political prostitute and Tinubu supporter Reno Omokri wrote: “Going to Daura a day after Buhari’s burial because you were dragged o social media for your absence at the funeral is medicine after death! The message to Arewa [the north] has already been passed and understood”.

Atiku, Nasir El-Rufai, Obi and others at prayers for Buhari in Daura

The real message is that Omokri is talking out of his back passage. The other message is that Obi should have grown a pair and steered clear of Daura. His explanation for his absence from the funeral – flight restrictions – rang hollow. His tribute to Buhari in which he spoke of  how “President Buhari has always comported himself in a dignified manner as a leader” and asked God “to reward his efforts in service to the nation”, had already left a bad taste in the mouths of the victims of Buhari’s tyranny and Obi’s supporters.

Obi needs to learn that he can’t have it both ways and play both sides. He either sides with the majority of Nigerians or sides with their oppressors. No straddling the fence. He can’t be for Buhari and for his victims.