Nigeria, Nov. 11 -- In 2023, Obi possessed something Wike would have loved to have: A nationwide emotional constituency.

The Obidient phenomenon gave Obi access to:

millions of young Nigerians; social-media activists; professionals; diaspora supporters; entrepreneurs; Christian constituencies; reform-minded voters; dissatisfied APC and PDP voters.

Wike possessed something different: A network of politicians and political operators. Put the two assets together and you have the ingredients of a formidable political organisation: Obi's mass enthusiasm plus Wike's political machinery.

That combination never materialised.

It is therefore reasonable, as a matter of political analysis, to ask whether Obi's biggest loss was not that he didn'...