Peter Obi, vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has explained why he invested $30million of Anambra State funds in a company owned by his family.

He stated this in response to a question by Kadaria Ahmed, host of ‘The Candidates’, a presidential town hall co-production between Daria Media and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), with support from the MacArthur Foundation, held in Abuja on Wednesday.

http://www.247kadia.com.ng/peter-obi-questioned-on-why-he-invested-30m-state-funds-in-company-where-his-family-owns-shares/

The best incoming vice president!

My intepretation of his explanation

International Brewery offered Peter Obi a 15 percent personal stake in the company but he declined in order to avoid conflict of interest and suggested an alternative course of action.

He invested in his capacity as governor and custodian of the states finances on behalf of Anambra state, in Anambra states name, 30 million dollars in International Breweries. Which was a ten percent of the company shares and is valued at 100 million dollars today.

International Breweries then sold 5 percent of its stock valued at 15 million dollars to his parents company Next International Nigeria Limited, as suggested since he had no personal involvement in either equity or oversight in the company. Therefore his parents company coughed out 15 million dollars out of pocket to invest in the venture.

And if you do a little research on tbe company, they are a FMCG company with subsidiaries in UK and various cities in Nigeria. They are not a paper company designed to siphon government funds. So i believe they could come up with 15 million dollars to invest in International Breweries.

So at the end of the day, Peter Obi did not invest Anambra state funds in his parents business.

...Except it can be proved with evidence that Anambra state borrowed or gave his parents the 15 million dollars to buy a 5 per cent stake in International Breweries...then that will be clearly wrong.They took a risk and they could have lost their money.

If other state governments can take a cue from this and invest state funds for state governments in private business, i am sure they will be less inclined to tax those companies to death and create an environment where those companies can thrive and expand and employ more people.

When APC government came in, NCC heavy fine on MTN over selling unregistered lines made MTN sack at least 3,000 employees. Both contract staff and permanent.I know because all my former colleuages at Maritime house were affected. ...yet underage voters are still being registered under this APC government