Why Peter Obi is a scandal to PDP

By Celestine Kezie Jr.

Venerable Fulton J. SHEEN, the fiery 20th Century American Bishop and TV personality, in his autobiography titled "Treasure in a Clay" said that "chastity scandalises  harlots". 

I don't think Sheen stated an unknown truth. The truth of his statement is evident in our midst in different forms. Ever watched Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ? Let me give you tips from it! 

Pilate, in a coward bid to to set free the innocent prisoner before him, asked his soldiers to chastise Him so brutally, with the hope that on seeing how he's been dealt with, the angry surging mob will feel assuaged and back down on their demand. 

But after that scourging that revealed the depth of human bestiality, Pilate presented Him to the crowd with the shout of "Ecce Homo" (Behold the Man). Pilate was disappointed by the reaction from the mob. 

It seemed as if, on seeing his bleeding flesh and visibly disfigured face with blood dripping uncontrollably from his skull pierced with long torns from the mockery crown of torns, more legions of demons entered the crowd, reinforcing their diabolical possession, and in a frenzy characteristic of an accursed mob they let out screams and yelling: crucifige eum! crucifige eum!!. Volumus eum mortuum.. 😱 😱 

The Prisoner was a scandal to their lifestyle; His presence reminded them of their hypocrisy and corruption. His humility hurt their pride, His chastity unveiled their lust, His sobriety indicted their gluttony, His meekness reprimanded their pomposity, and his frugality sentenced their extravagance! 

His very life drove them crazy and so, even though they had waited millennials for a rescuer from their foes (the Romans), not willing to admit that their greatest foe was their personal sins, they were willing to choose Barabas "a THIEF" and a "TERRORIST" over a man of Peace and integrity. 

Few weeks ago, I wrote a piece I titled "Peter Obi and the Metaphor of an Unheeded Circus Clown". Therein, I warned of an impending doom post-2023 if we don't get our leadership right. Like those in the Kierkegaardian Village (see my above mentioned article), we seem oblivious of the festering inferno. And like those gluttons lost in the orgy of mundanity aboard the sinking Titanic, the depth of the ocean as our grave shall be our awakening. And then we shall all weep: Had we known the day of our visitation! 

Nothing rattles a corrupt and mediocre system much as the presence of one who, by his lifestyle, rebels against the system. Socrates, the Greek sage, was a rebel to a corrupt Athenian society. He was a bone stuck in the throat of Athenian aristocrats.  How? 

Simply, by opening the minds of the Athenian youths, through his teachings, to the moral and political decadence that defined the Athenian state. When the powers that be could not get him to stop talking, when they could not bribe him to flee the city for them, when they could not emotionally blackmail him through his wife and kids, to become complicit in their rot, they fed him with Hemlock! 

In the light ot the foregoing, you can now contextually grasp the meaning of my title that "Why Peter Obi is a scandal to PDP". His refusal to be an accomplice to their money sharing tradition hurts their depraved political sensibility, his consistent simplicity in dressing hurts their chameleonic dressing taste, his genuine and convincing issue-based campaign hurts their hypocritical,  empty, and lies-riddled campaign rhetoric. 

They just can't stand him. As the clock ticks to their presidential primary they are consumed with rage towards him. Why didn't we know that it will come to this? They lament! 

Peter's presence in PDP rattles the demon in them. They now wish that he never joined them. But Peter is not perturbed. In his stubborn mannerism, he will see this to the very logical conclusion. Revolution is on the way. 

"We shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust. We will have to demand high standards and give consistent, loyal support to those who merit it" (Martin Luther King, Jr. June 11, 1967).