PETER OBI: A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN



Nigeria, like many other countries across the globe is on the edge. The inflationary trend which continues to reduce the disposable income of the public is ubiquitous around the world. The ‘saner climes’ not excluded. Only few days back, news went viral how life was becoming unbearable in even developed countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, Spain to mention but a few. Overt as this is seen globally, of course there are those in Nigeria and even diaspora Nigerians who think Nigeria should be immune to these cyclopedic quagmire. It is the way we are largely wired. So many naysayers and misanthropes who gloat about bad news on their country but melancholic and downcast when milestones are recorded. In any case, the world at large is sick and this does not preclude Nigeria from being affected. Life may be said to be generally somewhat hard, not because the government of the day is insensitive to the general living standards, but particularly a resultant effect of past experiences.

Nigeria no doubt is going through a teething period which essentially is a corollary of the malfeasance leadership and endemic legacy bequeathed to the country by the former handlers of the country – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). And as it is peculiar with every birth and rebirth, it comes with concomitant pains. This, exactly is what Nigeria is passing through with the rebirth started with the All Progressives Congress (APC) government. Change, is said to be painful at the beginning, messy at the middle but a sweet sensation at the tail end. As Nigeria travels on the voyage of this howbeit ‘painful’ experience, she obviously needs a midwife who can take her delivery to a safe berth. The 2023 poll presents a make or mar critical moment that requires a man with the requisite wherewithal that can navigate the country through her current challenges to a safe haven. The question that begs for answer is, ‘Who drives Nigeria to her safe haven?’

Nigeria in her present state requires no greenhorn or tyro with no experience in public office as her numero uno. Her heterogenous and diverse complexities do not give room for such experiment. This is why presidential ‘wannabes’ like Yele Sowore (AAC), Kola Abiola (PRP), Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim (YPP) and Prince Adewole Adebayo (SDP) do not stand any chance. Therefore, the frontline candidates who had held public office at one time or the other in the country should be placed on the scale of their antecedents. And this is where people like Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Peter Gregory Obi come to the fore. Each of these individuals have had a shot at public office and their records should be able to speak, loudly for them on their capability to steer the voyage of a country like Nigeria. But I have always asked myself a question about the leadership capability of Mr. Peter Obi and I often quip, ‘Does Mr. Peter Gregory Obi has what it takes to lead a country like Nigeria?’

If anyone would ask me about the candidacy of Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, I would not blink an eye to retort, ‘Obi is a disaster in waiting should Nigeria make such a huge mistake’. My reasons are simple and not far-fetched. Let us examine his 8-year leadership as the Governor, Anambra State from year 2004 through 2012. Whatever discovery or findings arrived at will tell of his intellectual capacity to lead over 250million people of the most populous black nation in the world. Now, I will attempt to examine the leadership of Mr. Obi as Anambra State honcho within a few prisms of public governance, health, education, infrastructure, politics, economy, security and public accountability. An understanding of these analyses will help, largely, Nigerians who have remained fence-sitters or seeming apolitical as the country moves towards another electioneering that will usher in new leadership in a couple of months;

a. PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

Nigeria requires a man with empathy for, not only the masses but also the civil service. This, Mr. Peter Obi lacks in all ramifications. If a man does not take workers’ welfare as top priority in a state with less than 50,000 civil servants, how do we commit the lives of hundreds of thousands of Nigerian civil servants into his hands, needless to mention the general public? It is on records that under the leadership of Mr. Peter Obi as the governor, the salaries of workers of the State Water Corporation Board were withheld and not paid. This left over 200 of State workers to die in penury.


b. HEALTH

Mr. Peter Obi took over from a predecessor who was (and still is) a doctor. It would be expected that the camaraderie that existed between his predecessor and the health sector would be maintained, even if only for its cosmetics. But nope! It was under this same mistake of a public office holder that the Anambra State medical doctors went on strike action for more than 13 months! As if that were not enough, health workers across the State went on 8-month strike action under Obi’s leadership. Who jokes with the health sector as a leader and expects public support?

c. EDUCATION

In the entire history of Anambra State, no single teacher, not even one was employed in the 8-year rule of Mr. Peter Obi. Do we need any soothsayer to perform divination before we know that education remains the bedrock of any society which plans to develop? Instead, records have it that right under the ascendancy of Mr. Peter Obi as the Anambra State Governor, the State University went on 6-month strike action. That’s aside his wicked decision to increase tuition fees of public schools when his counterpart in Lagos had provided free education and free examination fees for all Senior Secondary School students planning to write both WAEC and NECO examinations. He was even reported to have said, ‘Education in Anambra is not for the poor.’ Obi was said to have forced students of the public secondary schools to pay for three terms at once! How much more wicked could a leader be?!

d. INFRASTRUCTURE

Today, the duo of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso can boldly point at their signature milestones while holding sway as governors in both Lagos and Kano States respectively. The other day, the Commissioner for Information & Strategy under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s tenure as Lagos State honcho was on the microblogging Twitter Space held on Sunday, August 28 where he rolled out, to the chagrin of all attendees, the achievements of his principal. It will take the passing of camel through the eye of the needle to point to signature projects of Mr. Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra State.

e. POLITICS

Mr. Peter Obi has proved time and time again that he is a politician with unstable character. He does not believe in politics of consistency even though he has constantly preached about politicians being consistent and stable in one political party regardless of their experience in such party (ies). Recently, a video of an interview Mr. Peter Obi granted Channels TV’s Sunrise crew surfaced online. In the said interview, Mr. Obi had said pointedly that a politician with a stable character should not been seen moving from one political party to another. But today, Mr. Peter Obi had not only moved in the last 8 years after leaving office as the Anambra State governor, he had actually moved from the All People Grand Alliance (APGA), his original party to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and lately to the Labour Party (LP).

f. SECURITY

Right under the nose of Mr. Peter Obi as Anambra State Governor, over 100 souls were murdered and their bodies thrown into the Ezu River. If this inhumane action is not massacre, then, I am afraid of how to describe it. The nightmare of Akpaka Forest close to 33 Nkwere Ezunaka in Onitsha is better left untold. Other dreaded areas at Onitsha include but not limited to Fegge. These were no-go areas. Kidnapping and mysterious deaths were the orders of the day.

g. PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY

Mr. Peter Obi’s larger than life hoodwinkery is perhaps one of his best-selling façades to hypnotize the gullible public. The Nigeria political class relishes opulence and ostentatious living in contradistinction to the overt ubiquitous abject poverty. But Obi was able to deceptively create a false impression of himself. Having lied publicly on a popular yearly programme of Pastor Poju Oyemade of the Covenant Nation church called ‘The Platform’, that he used only one wristwatch throughout his two-term as Anambra State Governor; a statement that was later found to be a blatant lie. Another of his selling anecdotes that he handed over N75B to his successor has been a subject of controversy as the latter has repeatedly described the claim as a ‘humbug’. A man who claims to have invested public funds in his family private business is not worth leading a country like Nigeria, needless to mention his driver caught with N250M he was to launder for him.

The country will be doomed to root for a man whose name appeared boldly on the list of public office holders involved in fraud – the Pandora papers.

h. ECONOMY

On the State’s economy, a quote credited to the former Apex Bank honcho and now Governor, Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma C. Soludo is apropos here; “While Obi gloated about savings, there is no signature project to remember his regime except that this regime took the first position among all states in Nigeria in the democratisation of poverty – mass impoverishment of the people of Anambra. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), poverty rose under his watch in Anambra from 20% in 2004 (lowest in Nigeria then) to 68% in 2010 (a 238% deterioration?” Above is an excerpt from Gov Soludo’s article “Beyond The Elections’ published in 2015.

The statistics above does not include Mr. Peter Obi’s claim (on television) that he invested Anambra’s State funds of $30M in SABMiller and that the investment is now worth $100M. However, after subjecting his claim to thorough check, it was revealed that only $12M of the State’s funds was invested in the name of Anambra. The question is, “Where is the remainder of $18M?” Sadly too, the $12M state investment has dropped significantly to about $3.5M as of today.

Conclusively, it will take people with biases and ethnic sentiments, not pure love for the country Nigeria to drum support for a candidate like Mr. Peter Obi. In saner clime, Peter Obi will be best as Senior Special Assistant (not even adviser) to any presidential candidate on trade matters. The only thing Peter Obi is good at is ‘import’ which in itself is not entirely bad but can be counterproductive when it exports jobs that should have been meant for the locals.

Nigerians, shine ya eyes! Peter Obi is a disaster-in-waiting!

Lalasticlala Seun
Mynd44

It's amazing how some youth think he's worthy of their votes.

This same post over and over again. Its boring.

Peter Obi for everyone

LordviccoDaGuru:



Lalasticlala Seun
Mynd44

Who is not a disaster? Tell us.
All of them are a disaster we agreed. But
Nigeria doesn't need a big disaster.
Let's pick the least disastrous candidate.

Kingspin:
Who is not a disaster? Tell us.
All of them are a disaster we agreed. But
Nigeria doesn't need a big disaster.
Let's pick the least disastrous candidate.

Why do you waste your energy to reply a jobless fool who has completely lost his s senses?

If Obi is a disaster waiting to happen, what is tilumbu? Tilinbu is the saviour abi? Tilinbu that is a thief and a drug pusher. U need to enter into psychiatrist hospital ASAP before it's too late.zombie urchin with no brain

Another trash. When will you people learn?

The more you try to run Obi down the more you make mockery of yourself and makes Obi popular.

Obi is years ahead of his fellow contestants when it comes to good governance, competence and integrity.

rusher14:
It's amazing how some youth think he's worthy of their votes.

Zombie!! We the reasonable youths wants to change the narrative and if you are not comfortable with it, locate any transformer nearest to you

The OP is sick and needs medication fast. Anu manu

Looks like the OP had PO in his dreams. Sorry Mr OP you just wrote a beautiful nonsens

We do not expect our government to be saints...so far so good Peter Obi is miles ahead of the Tinubu and Atiku who are diabolical thieves with an insatiable thirst for power for powers sake and not to better the lot of the mass of citizens they serve

I would like to monitor the blood pressures of LP and APC supporters on and off NL.

You are truly a reflection of your presidential aspirant.

APC-Agbado-AGBEROS-very offensive!

LP- Obi-VAMPIRES-hungry for blood day and night! Extremely defensive.

PDP-Atiku-Chilling. No stress. Focused with reason and devoid of venom. They have failed, learned and become seasoned in the game.

Despite the Wike-factor, I prefer PDP to LP because of Atiku’s wise and calm nature. Obi gra-gra no be am.

Comfortable with Obi ONLY if Atiku does not win.
APC is not to be considered.TUEH!

If you call Peter Obi a disaster, then what would you call an old ex-druglord with shaky hands who pees on himself?

Everyone knows Obi is a disaster even the zombidients know as well, but they always placed their ethnic card above competence and capability hence the reason they are so backward.

Op rest before you come down with high BP...