During World War II, a Norwegian military officer and politician, Vidkun Quisling, helped facilitate the Nazi invasion of his own country and led a domestic collaborationist regime loyal to Führer Adolf Hitler. For his infamous role, he was executed for treason in 1945, and his surname became synonymous with ultimate betrayal. The Norwegian traitor’s perfidy reminds me of Kenneth Okonkwo, the actor turned politician, who has proven to be an Igbo quisling extraordinaire. He is not in government. He hopes to be if his principal, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, wins the 2027 presidential election. That is a legitimate ambition.
But in so doing, he is actively sabotaging the legitimate aspiration of Ndigbo, as evidenced in his virulent attacks on Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). He has every right not to support Obi’s political ambition. That is the beauty of democracy because the principle of choice is the heartbeat of a democratic society. And in deciding not to throw his weight behind Obi’s aspiration, he is not alone. Politics is a game of interest and it is not often that people subsume their personal interests in the overarching national goal. But what he has no right to do is to continuously lie against Obi and impugn his character in the name of politics. An Igbo has the right to aspire to the presidency. It is left for Nigerians to make their choice and live with the consequences because elections have consequences, a point poignantly made by the irrepressible Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Afenifere leader, lawyer, politician and activist, in his February 13, 2023 interview with TheNiche online newspaper where he said that if Nigerians failed to vote right in that year’s presidential election, the consequences will be dire, even as he would probably be in his grave enjoying himself by then. He died on February 14, 2025, exactly two years after that interview. The jury is already out on the correctness of his assertion.
So, if democracy offers the people the opportunity to choose, particularly in an election where there are multiple presidential candidates, why is Okonkwo bent on destroying Obi? Appearing on Sunrise Daily, an interview programme on the Channels Television, on Monday, June 8, Okonkwo alleged that Obi and the South-East caucus of the NDC demanded bribes from House of Representatives and Senate aspirants in return for tickets. Not only that, he claimed that Obi personally compiled a list of the party’s candidates from a room at the Johnwood Hotel, Abuja. Calling Obi a fraudster, he alleged that the former Anambra State governor scammed the aspirants and is in the habit of travelling abroad to defraud unsuspecting people in the name of politics. Finally, accusing the NDC presidential candidate and the leaders of the party in the South-East of perpetuating criminality, he accused Obi of being the leader of the criminal gang.
These are weighty allegations, which as Obi’s lawyers noted on Tuesday “were not mere political commentary,” but words that “crossed the permissible bounds of fair comment and constituted a direct assault on his person, integrity, image and reputation.”
Okonkwo, a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) claimed that one Obunike Ohaegbu, NDC aspirant for the Nnewi North/Nnewi South Ekwusigo Federal Constituency ticket in Anambra, alleged that Obi collected N10 million bribe from him. On Tuesday, Ohaegbu appeared on the same Channels Television programme to deny ever making such allegation against Obi. The N10 million, he said, was paid into the NDC bank account on the mandate of the party’s national secretary, Ikenna Enekweizu. While he claimed that a list of party candidates was compiled at the Johnwood Hotel, he denied accusing Peter Obi of perpetrating the act. Thereafter, Obi threatened a lawsuit against Okonkwo over the defamatory comments. In a pre-notice letter through his lawyer, Alex Ejesieme, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), he demanded that Okonkwo publishes an unreserved apology letter over the “extremely grave, damaging and reckless imputations of bribery, extortion, fraud, financial dishonesty and criminality” against him.
Insisting that the comments were “false, baseless, malicious, reckless, defamatory and wholly unsupported by any fact,” Ejesieme said “they were made with the clear intent and purpose of lowering our client in the estimation of right-thinking members of society, exposing him to hatred, contempt and ridicule, and injuring his hard-earned reputation as a man of unquestionable integrity, a statesman and political leader” and demanded a retraction, unreserved apology and payment of N5 billion “as general, aggravated and exemplary damages for the grave injury occasioned to his hard-earned reputation.” But anyone who expected Okonkwo to offer an apology must be delusional. Why? Because he is an agent who is acting a script written for him by his paymasters. As the legendary novelist, Chinua Achebe, would say, “A boy sent by his father to steal does not go stealthily but breaks the door with his feet.” Okonkwo is acting with extreme audacity, knowing that he is backed by those in authority and, therefore, has protection.
Though he claims to be working for Atiku, and Atiku is running against President Bola Tinubu, the president and his political camp are perhaps more determined to see Obi destroyed politically than Atiku. So, it is a classical case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – two opposing political interests – Atiku and Tinubu – uniting against a shared adversary – Obi, with Kenneth Okonkwo acting on their behalf. So, it was not surprising when, rather than apologizing, Okonkwo took to the social media on Wednesday to present his fabled evidence against Obi. In a rant on X, he wrote, “If Peter Obi is looking for money to campaign, he should privately ask me for assistance, not come from extortion, and I will help him.” And then the subtle blackmail: “Let me sound this note of warning, the Lawyers must take responsibility for any information I may have to divulge, which I acquired as a spokesperson… Anyone who decides to sue his former spokesperson for defamation is indeed very unwise.” Really?
Sadly, nothing proved in any way Obi’s culpability. The payment receipt which apparently was sent to him by Ohaegbu showed the N10 million was paid into the account of NDC. Obi, though the presidential candidate, is not a party official. So, how did that amount to him being a scammer? Ohaegbu said he was told that while they were at the primary venue, some unnamed people were in a hotel room compiling list of NDC candidates. He didn’t mention Obi’s name. Assuming, without conceding, that is true, how did Okonkwo conclude that the person in the hotel room was Peter Obi? When Ohaegbu sent him a text on WhatsApp to “read how the party blamed HE Peter Obi for the charade called primaries,” rather than asking, as a lawyer, who “the party” is, he jumped at what he saw as the smoking gun to nail his bête noire: “Please send the message so I can use it for interview tomorrow. I intend to use your name and message as evidence to prove that PO is responsible for this fraud. I believe that PO will find a way to start refunding you people your money after the interview.”
It is weird for a 57-year-old man who holds not only a Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree but also Master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Nigeria, to be so fickle. That is what happens when a man is consumed by hatred. On Wednesday, Kenneth Okonkwo, the quisling extraordinaire, tweeted, “It will be a shame to Peter Obi and his lawyers if they do not take this case to court.” As I am writing this, someone called to say he hopes the case would be given accelerated hearing. Truth be told, it will not in a judiciary that has become a parastatal in the presidency. That is why Okonkwo could be so disdainful. It is sad that Kenneth Okonkwo has decided to live his life literally as a gun for hire. He is on a mission to subjugate Ndigbo politically.
Peter Obi’s crime is his audacity to actively seek the presidency of his country and his seeming invincibility despite the banana peels strewn on his way. If he decides to throw in the towel today and go back to his business of buying and selling, he will be hailed as a patriotic Nigerian because the only good Igbo man is one who has no ambition or whose ambition does not challenge the post-civil war social orthodoxy and power calibration in the country. But woe betide any Igbo who plays the collaborationist role of a quisling.
