Opara’s suitcases and Obi’s minimalism, by Valentine Obienyem

by · The Eagle Online

I initially began writing this as a reply to a post by Emeka Amadioha Opara. What prompted me was a comment by Ngozi Agbapu, who wondered why Emeka seems to develop an “erection” (word mine) whenever Peter Obi’s name is mentioned. Knowing Agbapu as a refined and thoughtful person, I sensed that she was genuinely troubled by some of Emeka’s recurring commentaries on Obi.

While drafting my response, I received a phone call. By the time I returned, I could no longer find either the post or my unfinished reply. I therefore decided to expand my thoughts and publish them on my wall.

The essence of Emeka’s argument is that wearing only one wristwatch or owning a limited number of shoes, as Obi claims, is not synonymous with humility. Those who agreed with him described Peter Obi’s lifestyle as mere packaging or political branding in their comments.

Emeka used himself as an example. He spoke proudly of his love for clothes, shoes, and watches, insisting that these preferences do not make him less human or less worthy than Obi. In contrasting himself with Obi, who travels light, he mentioned travelling with two large suitcases, which, among other things, enabled him to wear fresh boxers every day.

No reasonable person would quarrel with that. Personal preferences differ. However, some of our preferences aid in understanding who we are. Thus, regardless of the romanticised identity we hold in our minds, our choices, how we view other people’s lives, preferences and habits, are the ultimate blueprint of who we are, revealing our true nature.

What surprises many people, however, is that Emeka’s views on Obi often seem inconsistent with the depth of learning and experience one would expect from someone of his background.

An ancient saying holds that education comes one-quarter from teachers (School and home-teaching), one-quarter from private study, one-quarter from one’s peers, and one-quarter from life itself. By that measure, Emeka ought to be richly endowed and profoundly educated. As a graduate who has attended many professional courses for continued self-improvement, he has learned enough from teachers. Indeed, his father was one. His professional life would have exposed him to extensive reading and observation. He has associated with knowledgeable people, including his peers, from whom he must have absorbed enough through the osmosis of mutual influence. And at over 50 years of age, he has experienced enough of life’s joys and disappointments, in the systolic and diastolic movement of life, to acquire considerable wisdom.

Which education is greater than this? And what is it supposed to do to one’s life? Well, you can glean the answer from the way Aristotle distinguished the educated from the uneducated. To him, the difference was akin to that between the living and the dead. This is why, on seeing an uneducated man sitting on top of a stone, Diogenes would say: “Behold a stone on top of another stone.” This is quintessential Diogenes; he treated an uncultivated mind as completely inert, lacking the active reason that makes a human being truly human. Without education, discipline, and an active soul, a person remained almost indistinguishable from the inanimate matter beneath him.

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Yet when it comes to Obi, Emeka often disappoints many who expect greater balance and a wider perspective from the educated. 

It is not about not supporting Obi, which nobody begrudges him.

Let me be clear: everyone has the right to support any politician of his choice. I will defend that right from the rooftops. What concerns me is when support or opposition abandons reason. It is this abandonment of reason that prompts a person to make an issue of Obi’s didactic reference to one watch and two shoes.

My difficulty with his argument is that rather than looking behind the scene at the import of Obi’s remarks, he joins others in judging him through externals.

Let us look at Emeka’s attempt. It seeks to judge Obi through the lens of fashion preferences. Any thoughtful observer would recognise that a man at Obi’s level can no longer be meaningfully assessed by the number of watches he owns or the variety of shoes in his wardrobe. If he wishes, he can wear one pair of shoes and one watch every day until the end of his life. He passed that stage long ago. Emeka is supposed to have passed that stage as well, but the problem is that some people refuse to grow and develop, remaining becalmed at a particular stage in life.

When Obi says he owns only one wristwatch or keeps just a few pairs of shoes, he is not claiming moral superiority. He is not talking about prudence, nor is he preaching deprivation. Rather, he is illustrating a philosophy of life – a deliberate effort to detach oneself from unnecessary possessions.

Those knowledgeable in Oriental philosophy would know the Buddhist idea that many human problems arise from excessive desire – not the natural desire for decent living, but the endless pursuit of things we do not truly need. The higher individual, one who understands himself, gradually learns to reduce his needs to the Buddhist minimum. This is a valuable lesson of life, not a statement of superiority.

This is the context in which Obi often speaks. He says watches are for telling time, and one watch does that adequately. He keeps Nigerian time and does not bother with multiple watches as if he were keeping multiple time zones. He says shoes are primarily for protecting the feet. Once they serve that purpose, their value has been fulfilled. It is not Obi’s fault if you seek values from a shoe beyond the protection of the feet.

To a mentally emancipated person, this makes perfect sense. It is a statement about moderation, not deprivation.

Some people, including Emeka and several of his commentators, dismiss this as pretence or public relations. I struggle to understand that conclusion. The ability to control one’s desires and appetites is one of the clearest signs of maturity. Growth is measured not only by what we acquire but also by what we learn to live without.

Peter Obi speaks of owning one watch. I personally do not wear or own a wristwatch at all. Over the years, I have received expensive watches as gifts, including some engraved with my name. Most eventually found their way to my younger brother. Why? Because I always have my phone with me, and it tells me the time. What additional purpose would multiple watches serve?

When people assume Obi knows less about fashion than they do, I laugh. As a young businessman and an undergraduate, Obi travelled frequently to Italy and imported clothing, shoes, and watches. Those who knew him in those days, including friends like Benjamin Uba, will tell you that few dressed more fashionably than he did. He enjoyed fashion, social life, and was, I was told by Benji, a wonderful dancer. Today, he is no longer interested in designer clothes that may even be inferior to ordinary ones. However, though simple, his clothes have to be impeccably tailored, clean, and neat.

Now cast your eyes to other parts of the world and you will discover that many self-made millionaires drive ordinary cars, live in upper-middle-class neighbourhoods, and avoid lavish displays of wealth. On the contrary, upper-middle-class and newly wealthy individuals are often the most visible consumers of luxury cars, designer clothing, expensive watches, and large homes because these items signal that they have arrived. Obi has since passed that stage and will not remain becalmed in it.

Apart from a few, like that bank owner who is childish about wealth, the truly wealthy Nigerians, such as the Zenith man and Dangote, prefer privacy to noise-making. That is precisely the point.

As for neatness, to which Emeka made allusion, anyone who knows Obi will testify that his standards are extraordinary. I can personally attest to this. If he leaves one event for another, his convoy will stop simply so that he can wash his hands thoroughly with soap and water before proceeding. You dare not see a piece of dirt in his car. His rooms are models of neatness. And he does all the cleaning himself, without any aide.

In hotels, he is known to tidy his room before checking out, often leaving it in a condition that surprises hotel staff. He does not subscribe to the notion that cleanliness is someone else’s responsibility simply because he has paid for a service. If he sees litter on the floor, he instinctively picks it up. If a bedcover is disarranged, he is inclined to straighten it. These are habits that flow naturally from his character.

We would often tease him while he was trying to keep his hotel room in order before checking out. For him, a chaotic room reflected a chaotic mind. His fanaticism for cleanliness and physical order mirrors his obsession with systemic order. His neatness is simply the external expression of an absolute and uncompromising desire to organize his environment.

Ask his aides, drivers, or those who travel regularly with him, and they will readily confirm these traits. Many have watched him pause to pick up scraps of paper others would walk past without noticing. Such habits reveal a man who believes that discipline begins with the little things and that personal responsibility does not end where public responsibility begins. These are reflections of character formed over time.

And for your information, Obi travels with one hand luggage at all times, especially when travelling alone. He is a man who is extremely careful. Rather than carry multiple bags and risk some son of the devil planting something in them, he may travel with three clothes in his hand luggage and have them washed alternately by a laundry service.

So I find it curious that mature adults would spend so much energy debating whether a man owns one watch or ten pairs of shoes, or travels with only a few boxers. Such discussions seem to miss the larger point entirely.

And for those obsessed with what to wear, have they ever paused to consider how our first parents lived? They were naked and knew it not until Satan disrupted the paradise of primitive nudity. Since then, man has spent an inordinate amount of time trying to impress others with coverings. Yet the truly important question is not how many possessions a man has, but whether he possesses himself. That is why the wise say that the learned know others, but the wise know themselves. In the final analysis, this debate is really about the difference between the learned man and the wise man.

Should I remain becalmed in my adolescence and go back to the attached hair style?

. Obienyem is Obi’s Media Aide.

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