Biography of Peter Obi
Peter Obi, known as ‘Okwute ndi Igbo’ (Rock of Igbo) among his people, is a Catholic Nigerian businessman and politician.
He has held the office of the Governor of Anambra State three distinct times from 2006 to 2014.
In May 2022, he became the Labour Party flag bearer for the President of Nigeria in the Nigeria 2023 presidential election. He is also a Catholic Papal Knight of the Order of Saint Sylvester.
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Peter Obi Early Life
His full name is Peter Gregory Obi and he was born into an Igbo Catholic family on the 19th of July, 1961 at Onitsha in Anambra, a state located in the southeast region of Nigeria. He is from Agulu in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra state.
He is 61 years old at the moment but will become 62 years old by 19th July 2022. There is little known about his parents, Mr. Josephat (deceased) and Mrs. Agnes Obi(also deceased) except that they raised Peter Obi and his siblings in the commercial city of Onitsha.
His father died when he was nine years old while he was a primary school student which prompted him to go into business.
His worried mother had fears about the negative influence of money on him due to his young age but he relieved her of any fear by retaining academic progress and excellent business acumen.
Peter Obi Education
Peter Obi attended Christ the King College, Onitsha, where he completed his secondary school education and got his West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) certificate.
He enrolled at the University of Nigeria Nsukka in 1980 where he graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in philosophy after four years. Peter Obi later attended Lagos Business School, where he completed the Chief Executive Program.
He completed two major programs which are mid to mid-marketing and Changing the Game at Harvard Business School, Boston, U.S.A.
At the London School of Economics, he studied Financial Management /Business Policy, he also studied marketing management at Columbia Business School, New York, U.S.A.
He received certificates for Senior Executive Program and Break-Through Program for CEOs at the International Institute for Management Development, Switzerland where he studied.
He attended Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University for its Advanced Executive Program and Global Advanced Management Program. He later attended Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and Cambridge University’s Judge Business School for their Advanced Management & Leadership Program and Advanced Leadership Program respectively.
Peter Obi Family
Peter Obi got married to Margaret Brownson Obi (née Usen) in 1992 and is blessed with two children. Gabriella Nwamaka Frances Obi is his first child and his only daughter while Gregory Peter Oseloka Obi, his only son, is his second child.
He has four siblings, two sisters, Bibiana Adani and Martina Obi, and two brothers, Fabian Chinwuba Obi and Josephat Ndibe Obi, but his elder sister, Bibiana Adani, died in 2018 from an undisclosed ailment.
Peter Obi Business Career
Peter Obi started his life as a trader when he was a child, being born into a trading family in the commercial city of Onitsha.
He started by trading kerosene at the tender age of nine before venturing into the corporate world.
He has held positions of leadership in various private establishments such as Former Chairman of Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Future Views Securities Ltd, Paymaster Nigeria Plc, Next International (Nigeria) Ltd, and Former Director of Guardian Express Bank Plc, Chams Nigeria Plc, Emerging Capital Ltd and Card Centre Plc.
He is known as the youngest Chairman of Fidelity Bank Plc.
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Peter Obi Political Career
Peter Obi started his political career when he contested for the governorship of Anambra state as a member and the flag bearer of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) political party in 2003 with Virginia Etiaba as his running mate but his opponent, Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was unlawfully declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
For three years Peter Obi challenged Ngige’s victory in court, he was declared the actual winner by the Court of Appeal on 15 March 2006 and he resumed office on the 17th of March, 2006.
He was impeached after seven months on the 2nd of November by the State House of Assembly making his deputy the first female governor in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Peter challenged the impeachment in court and the Court of Appeal in Enugu overturned the impeachment on the 9th of February 2007 (After 3 months). His former deputy handed power back to him after his reinstatement.
He ruled for only one year before vacating the governor’s office for Andy Uba on the 29th of May 2007 after the latter won the general elections.
He kept on fighting against the election with the claim that his four-year tenure only started counting when he assumed office in March 2006 not 2003 when the election was held and his four-year tenure should be completed.
His claim was approved by the Supreme Court of Nigeria which ordered Uba to vacate the office for him where he served as a first-term governor until March 2010.
In the Anambra 2010 governorship election, he emerged the winner after he defeated Professor Charles Soludo, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and served his complete second term until he handed it over to Willie Obiano on 17th March 2014.
On the 7th of October 2014, he officially left APGA to join PDP and was appointed as the chairman of the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the 2015 Presidential Election Winner, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
He later became the running mate of PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar on 12th October 2018 but they lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of APC.
Peter Obi declared his intention to contest as the flag bearer of PDP for the 2023 presidency election on March 24, 2022, but later withdrew from the party’s primary and resigned from the PDP on 25 May 2022 stating that there is too much corruption and bribing of delegates.
He announced that he is a member of the Labour Party (LP) on 27th May 2022 (two days after he resigned from PDP) and that he would be aspiring for the presidency as the party’s candidate. This was accepted by other candidates and they stepped down for him making him the Party’s sole candidate.
In June 2022 Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party held talks of a possible alliance but the alliance fell apart due to none of them wanting to step down and become the running mate of the other.
Peter Obi Net Worth
No official figures have been tied to Peter Obi’s financial prowess. However, Peter Obi’s net worth is estimated to be $10 million, according to Forbes, and Business Insider. He is one of the richest politicians in Nigeria and one of the most popular.
Peter Obi Awards
Peter Obi has received numerous awards such as Sun Newspaper’s Man of the Year (2007), Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Sylvester Pope and Martyr (2014), and The Voice Newspaper’s Award for Outstanding Example in Leadership and Governance (2014) among many others and appointments such as member of National Economic Council Committee on Power Sector Reform, Federal Government Committee on Natural Resource during his time.
Although there have been accusations against him that he was involved in the management of businesses as a civil servant, he has dismissed them with substantial evidence.
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