Obidient Movement shouldn’t have been named after Peter Obi — Kenneth Okonkwo

Kenneth Okonkwo, former spokesperson for Peter Obi’s 2023 presidential campaign, has said the Obidient Movement should not have been associated with the former Anambra State governor, arguing that doing so made the movement vulnerable to whatever happens to Obi’s public reputation.

Okonkwo made the remarks during an interview on Selah Meditate Podcast, where he was asked to describe the Obidient Movement in one sentence.

According to him, the movement emerged organically from young Nigerians seeking a better country and therefore should have retained an identity independent of any individual politician.

“This was an organization that grew organically. It should have been left organically without putting any name tag on it. It should have just been left as movement for a better Nigeria or something without attaching a name to it,” he said.

Okonkwo argued that attaching Obi’s name to the movement created a direct link between the politician’s personal reputation and the fortunes of the wider movement.

“Whatever happens to the person’s reputation, it affects their movement,” he said.

He maintained that the movement was broader than Obi, describing it as a product of a wider political awakening among young Nigerians.

“That movement predates any politician. It was an organic movement by all younger Nigerians,” Okonkwo said.

When reminded that the movement emerged largely because of Obi’s candidacy, Okonkwo disagreed, tracing the search for an alternative political force to the 2019 general election.

“No, remember when they were talking about third force from 2019, they were looking for third force, but in 2019 they were not able to aggregate themselves,” he said.

According to him, Obi subsequently became the figure supporters rallied around during the 2023 election, but he described the decision to associate the movement directly with Obi’s name as a mistake.

“So as 2023 was going on, they now saw somebody they felt could be a symbol, and the mistake was now tagging the name that appears as if it has the name of a person, meaning whatever happens to that person happens to the organization,” he said.

Okonkwo also said he had drawn a lesson from the experience and would ensure that his own political movement was not named after him.

“I learned from it. My movement now is simply called movement for good governance, and they will never attach my name to it. So it will outlive me,” he said.

He explained that separating a movement from an individual would allow it to survive changes in the person’s popularity.

“If I become unpopular tomorrow it would not follow the movement, if I become popular tomorrow, the movement can profit by it,” he added.