BY EMAMEH GABRIEL
There is an old political axiom that says: ‘If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.’ Peter Obi, Nigeria’s erstwhile Labour Party standard-bearer, seems determined to test the limits of that wisdom. Within weeks, he has so thoroughly contradicted himself on presidential term limits that one questions whether this is an elaborate social experiment, or simply a politician who has forgotten his own convictions.
In June, he declared with solemn finality that he would serve only a single four-year term if elected president, framing it as a moral imperative that his apologists now brandish on social media to mask his deteriorating political standing.
By August, he had shifted to advocating for a five-year single term, citing the need to eliminate distractions and ensure focus. The irony, of course, is that his own shifting stance has become the distraction. A politician who cannot decide how long he wishes to govern is unlikely to convince anyone that he knows how to govern.
Obi’s supporters might argue that this is merely a refinement of policy, an evolution of thought. But there is a difference between refinement and reinvention, between adjustment and outright reversal. If a man cannot commit to the duration of his own hypothetical presidency, what does that say about his capacity to commit to anything else, economic reform, institutional strengthening, national cohesion?
The deeper concern is not just the inconsistency itself, but what it reveals about Obi’s political instincts. His sudden embrace of a five-year term, justified with vague appeals to South Korea’s model, feels less like a considered policy position and more like an attempt to remain relevant in a shifting political landscape. Desperation, not principle, appears to be the driving force.
Obi now treats constitutional reform like a market trader adjusting scales- four years yesterday, five years today, perhaps six tomorrow and who knows what next if the political winds shift. This is not how to lead; it is arithmetic masquerading as ideology. A statesman’s convictions shouldn’t have half-lives measured in news cycles.
A man who reinvents his convictions weekly for political convenience (party ticket) is not a leader – he is just a weathervane.
What then becomes of the economy should he became president? Nigerians would be reduced to mere gears in a machine he cannot reliably operate.
This is not how serious leaders behave. When Winston Churchill warned of the gathering storm in Europe, he did not hedge his language. When Lee Kuan Yew set Singapore on its path to prosperity, he did not oscillate between competing visions of governance. Clarity of purpose is the hallmark of credible leadership, and Obi, at least on this issue, has failed that test.
Worse still, his proposal undermines the very accountability he claims to champion today. A fixed single term, whether four years or five, removes the most basic check on executive power: the need to face the electorate again. The fear of losing re-election concentrates the mind; its absence invites complacency. Obi’s argument that leaders waste time campaigning for a second term ignores the fact that the threat of losing office is what keeps many from total indifference. If a president knows his fate is sealed from day, he will be on top of his game. So, what incentive remains to deliver?
There is something revealing comical about watching a man who once positioned himself as Nigeria’s pragmatic, disciplined alternative now floundering in a sea of his own contradictions. The Peter Obi of 2023 campaigned on clarity and competence, the same man who repeatedly churned out wrong and misleading figures. The Peter Obi of 2025 offers only confusion masquerading as conviction. Nigeria may have dodged a bullet in 2023.
Nigeria does not need gimmicks. It does not need leaders who treat constitutional reform as a rhetorical flourish rather than a solemn responsibility. What it needs, what it has always needed, are men and women who say what they mean, mean what they say, and understand that leadership is not about chasing applause but about earning trust.
Obi still has time to recalibrate. But if he continues down this path, he may find that the public’s patience for political shape-shifting wears thinner by the day. And rightly so. A country cannot be built on the shifting sands of a politician’s whims. It requires foundations, firm, fixed, and unshaken by the winds of expediency.
For now, Obi’s legacy risks being defined not by what he achieves, but by what he cannot decide. And that, in the end, is the most damning verdict of all.
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