2023: Obi Under Fire over Enenche’s Appointment into Campaign Council
POLITICS DIGEST- Nigerians are reacting angrily to the appointment of former Director of Information at the Nigerian Defence Headquarters, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, as a member of the Presidential Campaign Organisation of Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi.
Enenche had claimed photos and videos of unarmed #EndSARS demonstrators who were hurt by soldiers at Lekki Tollgate shooting on October 20, 2020, were photoshopped.
Obi released a list of his campaign team, which had 1,234 names, including Enenche who was appointed as a representative of the North-Central.
Since the release of the list, it has sparked up different controversies. Enenche’s inclusion in the list has added more woes to the current predicament of the party.
It stirred mixed reactions on social media platforms especially from Obi’s supporters. His supporters argued that Enenche’s appointment is a big slap to Obi’s presidential ambition.
Reacting, popular investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo said: “By appointing John Enenche, an officer who claimed photos and videos of slain #EndSARS protesters were ‘photoshopped’, into his presidential campaign council, Peter Obi confirms what many have always said: he is ‘one of them’.
@I_Am_Ilemona said: “Enenche acted as an enemy of the youth and with blithe disregard for the sanctity of human life. He and anyone who chooses to have him on his campaign team are both enemies of the people and deserve no place near the nation’s highest political office. Pure and simple.”
“Maj Gen John Enenche (rtd), who appears on the Labour Party PCC as representing the North Central, once called the Lekki Massacre “photoshopped”. His appointment barely 10days to the 2nd anniversary of the Lekki Massacre, should raise very serious concerns for everyone
“The conflict of ideology is apparent. And no matter the circumstances, anyone whose first instinct was to call the shooting at Lekki “Photoshop” cannot be said to represent the best interests of the Nigerian young person,” he added
Editi Effiong said: “No one who was part of murdering #EndSARS protesters or defending their murder should be a part of a movement trying to “take back Nigeria”. Yes, this is a test of leadership.
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“If Peter Obi allows that retired general to remain on his PCC, he will lose my support.”
Rights activist, Segun Awosanya, popularly known as Segalink said: “We keep warning but people usually don’t listen until they are burnt by the same fire again. There’s no difference between Obi and the rest, and you can’t hide smoke for long. Sentiments blind. We have a country to save and we have a role to play even after choosing a candidate.”
Nigeria-born, US-based Professor, Farooq Kperogi, also said Enenche’s appointment was a testament to the fact that Obi is not different from the regular politicians he is seeking to displace.
“Peter Obi’s initial presidential campaign council proves the point I’ve always made in private to his fervid fans: after all is said and done, Obi is just another Establishment Nigerian politician who has neither the willingness nor the capacity to be the different and transformational leader that his supporters think he will be.
“He’s merely riding on the crest of the wave of mass discontent with the status quo.
“The list isn’t just inexcusably insular (Igbo men are even state coordinators for Sokoto and Lagos!), it is also riddled with the type of embarrassing clerical errors and oversights that we’ve become accustomed to from Nigerian governments.
“If I were a man that idealistic young men and women have elevated to near sainthood as Obi has been, I would look through the list carefully, ensure there are no clerical errors in it, think through the optics that the names in it will communicate, and be careful to not come across as indistinguishable from the establishment parties because it’s the first hint of what he’ll be as a president. He failed in that elementary duty–much like Buhari.
“That’s why former Defence spokesperson John Enenche who said two years ago that “videos of shootings in Lekki tollgate were photoshopped” was appointed to Obi’s presidential campaign council.
“The inclusion of Enenche on Obi’s campaign list is significant because the core of Obi’s youthful supporters who’re engaged because they’re enraged are drawn from #EndSARS agitators for whom the cover-up of the massacre of protesters in Lekki is a sore point.
“To put a denier of the mass massacre of their comrades in the campaign council of a candidate they support and campaign for is both insensitive and disrespectful,” Kperogi wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday evening.
