Monday, April 28, 2025 - Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has taken a swipe at the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, claiming the former Anambra State governor lacks the moral right to talk about poverty in Nigeria.
In a statement he personally signed, titled, “Factually
Addressing Mr. Peter Obi’s Criticism of Nigeria at Johns Hopkins University,”
Sanwo-Olu accused Obi of contributing to the current poverty in the country,
and alleged that under his tenure as governor in Anambra State, poverty grew
astronomically.
Recall that Obi was at the Johns Hopkins University last
week and during his speech, drew a comparison between Nigeria, China and
Vietnam in the area of poverty, stressing that Nigeria, with about 50 million
poor people, had the least number of people in poverty in 1990 than any of the
three countries
“The
question then is, what exactly did these countries do to be able to achieve the
desired growth and development? That is where political leadership comes in.
These
comparable nations, and, indeed, other progressive nations, unlike Nigeria,
have competent leadership with character, capacity and compassion, committed to
prioritising investment in critical areas of developmental measures: education,
health, and pulling people out of poverty.”he said
In his statement released on Sunday, Sanwo-Olu argued that
Obi did not only de-market Nigeria by openly “denigrating” the country abroad,
he also made statements that he had no moral standing to make.
“On
Thursday, April 24, 2025, former Governor Peter Obi, the Labour Party
presidential candidate for the 2023 election, was at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore, Maryland, where he made several disparaging comments about
Nigeria.
He made
unflattering remarks not just about the incumbent Nigerian government, but also
about Nigeria. I also find Mr. Obi’s pattern of behaviour disturbing. When
prominent Nigerians go overseas, they ought to project Nigeria positively.
They do not
have to do that for the government. But we all owe a duty to market Nigeria on
the global stage rather than de-market her. That is what true patriotism is
about.”
Sanwo-Olu stated that because Obi focused on poverty and
said the current administration’s policies were making Nigerians poorer, he
will concentrate on that.
“Now, I find
it somewhat ironic that a man like Mr. Obi, who did not build a single school
or a stand-alone hospital throughout his eight-year tenure as governor of
Anambra or sustainably provide credit facilities, would criticise the
government of Nigeria, which is actively doing that.
I say this
because the president of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is my
predecessor, and as governor of Lagos and now President of Nigeria, has built
over 200 schools and provided student loans to more than 200,000 undergraduates
of Nigerian tertiary institutions.
In less than
two years, he has provided over half a billion dollars in credit facilities to
small and medium-scale enterprises.”
While he was governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007,
Sanwo-Olu said Tinubu reduced poverty by more than 46 per cent, and explained
that there was every reason to believe that based on what he did as governor of
Lagos, he will repeat the same feat at the federal level.
“After all,
the best predictor of the future is the past,” he wrote.
The governor alleged
“But let us
examine the messenger, not just the message, and look at the issuer as well as
the issues. Mr. Obi talks a good game. But was he able to reduce poverty while
he governed Anambra? Perhaps we can let the facts speak for themselves.
Under Peter
Obi as a two term Anambra Governor, poverty in Anambra increased. It did not
reduce. Before Peter Obi became Anambra Governor on Thursday, June 14, 2007,
the poverty rate in Anambra was 41.4 per cent.
But after
only two years in office, the poverty rate in Anambra jumped to 53.7 per cent.
But the interesting thing is that five years after Peter Obi left office, his
successor, Willie Obiano, reduced the poverty rate in Anambra from almost 60
per cent to 14.8 per cent.
As such, I
am not sure that Mr. Obi is morally well placed to make the alarming claims he
made about Nigeria at Johns Hopkins. Mr. Obi contributed to the increase in
poverty in Nigeria. Governor Tinubu, as he then was, was responsible for
lifting millions out of poverty. Being that that is the case, who should
criticise who?”
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