eter Obi has a well-known habit of appearing whenever there is a protest in Lagos that can be framed as an attack on his political base. He shows up, issues statements about injustice and due process, and presents himself as the defender of the oppressed trader. That pattern was on full display after the 2025 demolitions at the Trade Fair Complex.

So where is he now?

Igbo traders at the same Trade Fair Complex have been protesting Chinese retailers who import goods, undercut prices, sell directly to consumers, and squeeze out the middlemen who built their businesses on the container-import model. The chants were clear: “Chinese must go.” Yet Obi has gone quiet. This silence is revealing.

For years, many of these same traders sourced goods from China, sold them at a markup, and operated in a system that often treated planning rules, building permits, and drainage setbacks as optional. Substandard products flooded the market. Structures went up without proper approvals. Drainages were blocked.

When Lagos eventually enforced its own planning and environmental laws, the conversation immediately turned ethnic. Suddenly it was no longer about illegal construction or public safety. It was about tribe. And Obi was ready to amplify that framing.

Now that the competition is Chinese rather than Yoruba administrators, the outrage machine has stalled. The man who cites China as an economic model has nothing to say when Chinese operators apply the same aggressive commercial logic inside Lagos markets. Lagos is open for business. Anyone, Nigerian or foreign, can trade here if they operate within the rules.

Nobody is entitled to a protected market share simply because they arrived first or because they belong to a particular group. Nobody is bigger than the law, and Lagos does not belong to any visiting political messiah or his supporters. It belongs to Lagosians, and the rules apply to everyone.

If Obi’s concern is truly justice and fair enterprise, he should apply the same energy to this protest that he applied to the last one. Selective silence is not principle. It is politics.