Sanwo-Olu Blasts Obi Over Criticism of Tinubu
Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has allegedly said that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Obi, lacks the moral ground to talk about poverty in Nigeria. Nigerian home decor ideas
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In a signed statement titled: “Factually Addressing Mr. Peter Obi’s Criticism of Nigeria at Johns Hopkins University,” Sanwo-Olu accused him of having a hand in the ever-growing poverty level in Nigeria and claimed that during Obi’s governorship in Anambra State, poverty rose astronomically.
It is worth recalling that Obi had been in Johns Hopkins University a week earlier and, during his presentation, compared Nigeria, China, and Vietnam in terms of poverty, arguing that Nigeria, with its nearly 50 million poor, had the least number of persons presumed poor in 1990 as against the other two.
Sanwo-Olu, in his Sunday statement, argued that not just did Obi denigrate Nigeria by disparaging it before the world abroad, he also made statements which he had no moral standing to make.
“On Thursday, April 24, 2025, former Governor Peter Obi, Labour Party presidential candidate for the 2023 election, was at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he cast several aspersions on Nigeria.
He cast aspersions not only on the governance of Nigeria in general but also on Nigeria. I find Mr. Obi’s conduct discouraging. Every time prominent Nigerians travel overseas, they ought to speak well of Nigeria.
They do not have to speak well of the government. But what we must do together is project Nigeria on the global stage instead of de-marketing her. That is true patriotism.”
Sanwo-Olu said that Obi had started the controversy by mentioning poverty and alleging that the government policies were deepening poverty for the Nigerians, and for that reason, he would speak on that issue.
“It is the ironic thing that a man like Mr. Obi would criticise a government of Nigeria which is building schools and hospitals but for eight years as governor of Anambra did not build a single school or a stand-alone hospital and did not run any credit facility sustainably that may benefit the people.
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 two hundred schools and provided student loans to more than two hundred thousand undergraduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Interrogation of a governor engaged then
“But let us look at the messenger and not just the message; let us look at the issuer as well as the issues. Mr. Obi talks well. But did he alleviate poverty during his tenure in Anambra? Let me say that, perhaps, the facts can speak for themselves.
Under Peter Obi’s two terms as Anambra governor, poverty increased in Anambra, not lessened. Prior to Peter Obi becoming Anambra governor on Thursday, June 14, 2007, the rate of poverty in Anambra was 41.4 per cent.
But, two years down the line, the poverty rate in Anambra went to 53.7 per cent. Interestingly, five years into Peter Obi’s exit from office, his successor, Willie Obiano, brought down the poverty rate in Anambra from almost 60 per cent to 14.8 per cent.
Clearly, this puts the whole question of whether Mr. Obi is morally placed to make the terrible statements that he made against Nigeria at Johns Hopkins. Mr. Obi contributed toward making poverty worse in Nigeria, while Governor Tinubu, as he then was, contributed toward making millions out of poverty. So, on what moral grounds would he criticize?”
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