Photo capturing emotion, passion for Peter Obi goes viral on social media

A photo of Peter Obi campaigning in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, has sent waves of excitement among Nigerians on Twitter.

The Labor Party (LP) presidential candidate, with huge popularity among Nigerian youths, campaigned in Lagos on Saturday for the February 25 election.

The photo, which trended on Twitter on Saturday, captured a young man standing in front of Mr. Obi’s open-top SUV, with his arms open.

Mr. Obi, who stood out through the open roof of the vehicle, smiled at the young man.

Ecstatic supporters surrounded the candidate’s convoy as it drove through the crowd.

A lot of Nigerians really liked it and retweeted the photo. Some say it’s the picture of the year, while others say it’s already a phone wallpaper.

“When Pain meets Hope,” Twitter user @OtuekongCosmas said of the photo.

“Still love money can’t buy,” another Twitter user, @RealKingBona, said.

Twitter user, @DikeDanielEmeka, waxed poetic with his thoughts on the photo, which he said depicts the president’s sweat, desire, appeal, hug, and vulnerability.

This is “Unspoken Communication. This is the Moment of Orgasm. The Surrender. The Warmth. The Love,” he wrote on the microblogging site.

The young man, who identified himself as Yusuf Alami, said he is from Ibadan in Oyo State but resides in Lagos. He said he stood in front of Mr. Obi’s convoy because of his love for the LP candidate.

Apparently shocked by the photo, Twitter users announced a donation of N100,000 for Yusuf.

“How can I find this boy? I’m going to give away 100K. This is the young hour. I hope the common man will come back,” said the man who also promised to buy the boy a smartphone.

“They should be online to see Peter Obi win,” he added.

Uduak Umoh, a photographer and poet, who appears to be working for Mr. Obi’s campaign, saw many photos uploaded on his Facebook page, capturing the viral photo.

Mr. Obi enjoys a good following, especially among young Nigerians who believe that he has the sincerity and capacity to solve Nigeria’s many problems.

However, his two main opponents – Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party – said the LP candidate lacked the political structure to win the presidential election.

“The structure we have now is what we want to dismantle. It is the structure of criminality,” Mr. Obi said recently in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

“It is a structure that has produced 133 million people in poverty, 20 million children out of school, and made Nigeria surpass India in infant mortality.

“It is a structure that destroys us and we want to destroy that structure. And you are the next structure. We want to build a better place for our children,” he said.