Is Gov Otti Tinubu’s agent? By Ugoji Egbujo

If every major ally of Peter Obi behaved exactly like Alex Otti, the practical effect would be a significantly weakened, fragmented, and less confrontational opposition ahead of 2027.

And this isn’t because , he didnt move to the NDC with Peter Obi. No, far from it. This is because if  all Obi’s allies adopted the same stance, the opposition would still exist, but it would look more like a collection of locally focused pragmatists than a disciplined alternative government-in-waiting. The moral and mobilising force of the Obidient project would be substantially diluted.

Governor Hope Uzodinma declared that all Igbo governors were united in working for Tinubu’s re-election. Not that it matters. The people have often defied their governors at the polls. Yet Governor Otti quickly issued a disclaimer, insisting that Uzodinma, no matter how hopeful, could not speak for him. At a reception for Tinubu’s wife in Aba, however, Otti all but publicly endorsed the President with a deluge of superlatives. Is Otti’s disclaimer merely an otiose subterfuge?

The elections are six months away. One function of a good leader is to offer the people authoritative direction with moral clarity at critical moments. Otti can no longer sit on the fence. There is no room for neutrality. His neutrality will amount to an endorsement of Tinubu’s continuation. If Tinubu has performed as outstandingly as Otti has proclaimed, then Otti should endorse him fully and stop playing hide-and-seek. He cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hound.

If Otti is afraid of the consequences of criticising Tinubu, then he is neither a man of courage nor of conviction.

The most committed Obidients thrive on moral clarity and a sense of existential struggle. When high-profile figures who rode the 2023 wave treat Tinubu with awe and admiration while focusing on state-level delivery, it becomes far harder to sustain the intensity, volunteer networks, and pressure that once characterised the movement. Many Obi supporters are not wrong to feel betrayed.  Watching Otti  showering ecomiums on Tinubu,  the cause appears diluted, even  abandoned, by some of its own beneficiaries.

Otti must speak for himself. He says publicly that Tinubu has done well. Obi maintains that Tinubu has performed abysmally. Both cannot be correct. If Otti chooses to highlight a few of Tinubu’s good deeds while remaining silent on areas of atrocious performance, then, with respect to the 2027 elections, he is effectively a Tinubu promoter. In the coming contest he must make a clear choice and give objective reasons. That is leadership.

I do not know how much gratitude Otti owes Obi, but he came to power partly on the back of Obi and the Obidients, even if he sometimes denies it. He remains in the Labour Party while Obi has moved to the NDC, but the general consensus among their supporters is that the two men belong to the same political family. That assumption now looks presumptuous in the face of Otti’s open political flirtation with Tinubu. The time for evasiveness and ambivalence is over. Otti cannot continue to support Tinubu by day and Obi by night. That is not tact; it is the behaviour of a chameleon.

Otti has performed well as governor. He whispers to many that he needs Tinubu’s goodwill to attract projects and cooperation. His romance with the President is therefore presented as sheer pragmatism for the benefit of Abia. He knows that openly supporting Tinubu against Obi would pitch him against the Obidients, so he pretends to a tactful neutrality. Critics, however, call it convenient political promiscuity. That  political atilogwu dance with Tinubu does nothing to advance Obi’s campaign, which Otti ought to champion boldly. Many argue it would be more honest for Otti to defect to the APC, as most other governors have done, than to remain in the opposition while blowing Tinubu’s trumpet and shining his shoes.

However, it is instructive that the Obidients, who ordinarily run on a short fuse and a strong cancel culture, appear largely comfortable with the romance between Otti and Tinubu. Otti has neither been branded a traitor nor a sell-out. This is probably because he has performed so well that dissociating from him would cost political capital. In fact, Otti may be the only Igbo governor with the goodwill to deliver substantial votes for Tinubu in the South-East without resort to rigging.

Yet if Otti is permitted to work for Tinubu from within the political shed of the Obidients, then the movement loses all moral authority to call out others who flirt with the President—including those who chose a clean divorce rather than quiet infidelity.

It is disheartening to watch opposition governors lavish praise on a President who has failed to offer any morally transformative leadership. The danger of such capitulation is the steady slide toward one-party civilian autocracy. For democracy to thrive, the opposition must hold the ruling regime accountable. The notion that a governor must become a presidential shoe-shiner in order to secure cooperation or projects for his state is both ridiculous and corrosive. This philosophy of compulsory alignment with the centre has long been used by opposition governors who lack the courage for genuine opposition duties to excuse their own cowardice.

Gov Alex Otti ‘s performance in Abia has been acknowledged. Nevertheless,  he must be held accountable for every act of cowardice or moral confusion .