₦airaland Forum

Opposition leader and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has lambasted President Bola Tinubu's administration over its decision to allocate a staggering ₦712.3 billion for the renovation of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, calling it a gross misplacement of priorities amid widespread hunger and hardship across the country.

Mr. Obi, who is seeking to unseat President Tinubu in the 2027 general elections, issued a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, denouncing the expenditure as "profoundly troubling" and tone-deaf to the current suffering of ordinary Nigerians.

“It is profoundly troubling that at a time when millions of Nigerians are facing the crushing burden of hunger, the Federal Government has chosen to approve a staggering ₦712.3 billion—not to feed its people, not to lift them out of hardship, and not to invest in their well-being, but to renovate an airport,” Obi stated. “This raises a fundamental and urgent question: Where are our national priorities?”

The criticism comes days after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the airport renovation plan as part of broader efforts to modernise aviation infrastructure and enhance passenger experience.

Obi referenced a July 2025 United Nations report which warned that 34 million Nigerians were at risk of hunger by August — a figure he described not as mere statistics but as “real people — our parents, children, neighbours, and friends – who are going to bed hungry and waking up without hope of a meal.”

He also recalled Nigeria’s earlier investment in airport infrastructure, pointing out that in 2013, the country secured a $500 million loan from the China Exim Bank, supported by counterpart funding, to upgrade five international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu.

“If that massive investment was made barely a decade ago, what justifies an even larger sum today for just one airport—especially at a time when Nigerians are starving, internally displaced, and desperate?” Obi queried.

The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate accused the Tinubu administration of prioritising "grandiose infrastructure projects" over critical human development indicators like food security, healthcare, education, and internal security.

https://voicenews.com.ng/peter-obi-slams-tinubu-over-%e2%82%a6712bn-lagos-airport-renovation-amid-worsening-hunger-crisis/

We all love Peter Obi for being very honest with me truth

Peter Obi is the most honest man in Nigeria today.

This packaged fraud should go and sit down.


Even one-tenth term, you no go see, so rest ur asss in Lagos and enjoy your pandora loot.

Everything to Obi is always about hunger and poverty. It’s quite ironic that this same guy left Anambra State with the highest poverty rate since the state was created but he’s now the advocate of what he couldn’t do while in office just because of politics.

When accident happens for whatever reason, Obi will be the first to tweet that it was as a result of bad road. When FG eventually allocates huge sums to fix bad roads, Obi will be the first to tweet that people are hungry and fixing bad roads is a misplaced priority. We all saw how he advocated vigorously against the landmark Lagos -Calabar expressway.

Now, he’s against the renovation and complete remodeling of our airports. As in, how can someone be against the reconstruction of a runway that has been in use since the 70’s? If an accident happens on the old Lagos airport runway, Obi will be the first to blame the government for the accident. Now that FG is being proactive instead of reactionary, Obi is still angry.

Maybe the Tinubu government should just stop building badly needed infrastructural projects simply because people are poor. Maybe angry folks like Obi will be happy if Tinubu start sharing money to every poor Nigerian instead of fixing the country.

Obi pressing their necks.

Tinubu is the biggest political thief to emerge from Nigeria.

seunmsg:
Everything to Obi is always about hunger and poverty. It’s quite ironic that this same guy left Anambra State with the highest poverty rate since the state was created but he’s now the advocate of what he couldn’t even do while in office just because of politics.

Tinubu gave Lagos state a poverty rate of 69%.

What does a senseless Obi know about airport. If na Obiano now I for de reason am, atleast that one alse built an airport after the 8 years failure of Obi so is opinion should count but not this Agulu criminal.

vanbonattel:
We all love Peter Obi for being very honest with me truth

Peter Obi is the most honest man in Nigeria today.

Is that with the N250 million he was caught red handed looting monthly from Anambra coffer to his house on Aerodome rd in Apapa ?!

vanbonattel:
We all love Peter Obi for being very honest with me truth

Peter Obi is the most honest man in Nigeria today.

Money for owambe will not provide itself.

seunmsg:
Everything to Obi is always about hunger and poverty. It’s quite ironic that this same guy left Anambra State with the highest poverty rate since the state was created but he’s now the advocate of what he couldn’t do while in office just because of politics.

When accident happens for whatever reason, Obi will be the first to tweet that it was as a result of bad road. When FG eventually allocates huge sums to fix bad roads, Obi will be the first to tweet that people are hungry and fixing bad roads is a misplaced priority. We all saw how he advocated vigorously against the landmark Lagos -Calabar expressway.

Now, he’s against the renovation and complete remodeling of our airports. As in, how can someone be against the reconstruction of a runway that has been in use since the 70’s? If an accident happens on the old Lagos airport runway, Obi will be the first to blame the government for the accident. Now that FG is being proactive instead of reactionary, Obi is still angry.

Maybe the Tinubu government should just stop building badly needed infrastructural projects simply because people are poor. Maybe angry folks like Obi will be happy if Tinubu start sharing money to every poor Nigerian instead of fixing the country.

The SW president is only looting nigeria wealth via useless projects. He is gathering money to rig 2027 election. We will surprise him come 2027.We will count many of those he is planning to use in defence of our vote.I will be glad to meet your type on that day

Obi is very much on point here!
This is exactly what is expected of opposition: expose govt waste and profligacy and redirect national consciousness to critical needs of the populace.

Just last week, MSF reported that over 400k kids are malnourished in the north. They reported a 74% increase in cases of malnutrition from 2024 and informed us that 30,000 children have died from malnutrition related cases in this year alone.

Think about that. 30,000!!

That's more than the number of people in some LGs in Nigeria. In other words, a whole LG's worth of Nigeria’s future has been wiped off unceremoniously by hunger!!

This is minus those killed by flooding, insecurity, diseases and other signs of bad governance that continues to claim human lives in Nigeria needlessly.

And what has been the govts' reaction to this heartbreaking news from a foreign NGO? 1000 data boys were recruited to exhume old tweets of citizens holding Peter Obi accountable. They have been at it since yesterday. 1,000 jobless youths who should have been organised into a Volunteers Corp to tackle this damming statistics.

To the new data boys, I beseech you, think about it. 700bn plus will go a long way to save the lives of dying kids. The number of dead kids from hunger continues to swell by the minute. Be patriots. Use the data to call attention if your paymasters to the urgent need to save the lives of Nigerian kids. Use the platform given to you to save lives instead of attacking political opponents.

God and posterity is watching you

Kukutente23:
Obi is very much on point here!
This is exactly what is expected of opposition: expose govt waste and profligacy and redirect national consciousness to critical needs of the populace.

Just last week, MSF reported that over 400k kids are malnourished in the north. They reported a 74% increase in cases of malnutrition from 2024 and informed us that 30,000 children have died from malnutrition related cases in this year alone.

Think about that. 30,000!!

That's more than the number of people in some LGs in Nigeria. In other words, a whole LG's worth of Nigeria’s future has been wiped off unceremoniously by hunger!!

This is minus those killed by flooding, insecurity, diseases and other signs of bad governance that continues to claim human lives in Nigeria needlessly.

And what has been the govts' reaction to this heartbreaking news from a foreign NGO? 1000 data boys were recruited to exhume old tweets of citizens holding Peter Obi accountable. They have been at it since yesterday. 1,000 jobless youths who should have been organised into a Volunteers Corp to tackle this damming statistics.

To the new data boys, I beseech you, think about it. 700bn plus will go a long way to save the lives of dying kids. The number of dead kids from hunger continues to swell by the minute. Be patriots. Use the data to call attention if your paymasters to the urgent need to save the lives of Nigerian kids. Use the platform given to you to save lives instead of attacking political opponents.

God and posterity is watching you

Brother, you are preaching to people with no or dead conscience. But like you said, posterity will judge everyone of us. Whatever evil we support has a way of coming back to us.

Kukutente23:
Obi is very much on point here!
This is exactly what is expected of opposition: expose govt waste and profligacy and redirect national consciousness to critical needs of the populace.

Just last week, MSF reported that over 400k kids are malnourished in the north. They reported a 74% increase in cases of malnutrition from 2024 and informed us that 30,000 children have died from malnutrition related cases in this year alone.

Think about that. 30,000!!

That's more than the number of people in some LGs in Nigeria. In other words, a whole LG's worth of Nigeria’s future has been wiped off unceremoniously by hunger!!

This is minus those killed by flooding, insecurity, diseases and other signs of bad governance that continues to claim human lives in Nigeria needlessly.

And what has been the govts' reaction to this heartbreaking news from a foreign NGO? 1000 data boys were recruited to exhume old tweets of citizens holding Peter Obi accountable. They have been at it since yesterday. 1,000 jobless youths who should have been organised into a Volunteers Corp to tackle this damming statistics.

To the new data boys, I beseech you, think about it. 700bn plus will go a long way to save the lives of dying kids. The number of dead kids from hunger continues to swell by the minute. Be patriots. Use the data to call attention if your paymasters to the urgent need to save the lives of Nigerian kids. Use the platform given to you to save lives instead of attacking political opponents.

God and posterity is watching you

Folks like you are the reason why Nigeria is still very stagnant. We are where we are simply because we can’t apportion blame appropriately and as such, we let people who should be held accountable to escape scot free.

In a federal system of government with a three tier administrative structure, why should any sensible human being blame the Federal government for malnutrition in the north? What exactly is the work of the various states and local governments in the north? The Tinubu government has pumped so much money into state and local governments all over the country so that these sub national governments can take care of grassroots issues such as malnutrition, primary education, primary health care etc but no, folks like this guy still find a way to blame everything on the president instead of those actually saddled by law to fix the problems.

In a Federal system, the central government is saddled with issues such as defense, foreign policy, immigration, currency regulation, fiscal and monetary policies, Major infrastructural development etc. The president cannot abandon his constitutional duties under the exclusive list and start sharing money to every poor person in the country.

If you truly want a better county and not just interested in playing politics, go and learn about how governance work and then learn to pass blame appropriately.

vanbonattel:
We all love Peter Obi for being very honest with me truth

Peter Obi is the most honest man in Nigeria today.

more honest than your daddy, yes or no? No too much long talk.

seunmsg:
Folks like you are the reason why Nigeria is still very stagnant. We are where we are simply because we can’t apportion blame appropriately and as such, we let people who should be held accountable to escape scot free.

If a federal system of government with a three tier administrative structure, why should any sensible human being blame the Federal government for malnutrition in the north? What exactly is the work of the various states and local governments in the north? The Tinubu government has pumped so much money into state and local governments all over the country so that these sub national governments can take care of grassroots issues such as malnutrition, primary education, primary health care etc but no, folks like this guy still find a way to blame everything on the president instead of those actually saddled by law to fix the problems.

In a Federal system, the central government is saddled with issues such as defense, foreign policy, immigration, currency regulation, fiscal and monetary policies, Major infrastructural development etc. The president cannot abandon his constitutional duties under the exclusive list and start sharing money to every poor person in the country.

If you truly want a better county and not just interested in playing politics, go and learn about how governance work and then learn to pass blame appropriately.

that kukutente23 is devoid of knowledge, e be like say tinubu na em relative wey no gree help am?

Peter Obi remains the last hope for Nigeria

seunmsg:
Everything to Obi is always about hunger and poverty. It’s quite ironic that this same guy left Anambra State with the highest poverty rate since the state was created but he’s now the advocate of what he couldn’t do while in office just because of politics.

When accident happens for whatever reason, Obi will be the first to tweet that it was as a result of bad road. When FG eventually allocates huge sums to fix bad roads, Obi will be the first to tweet that people are hungry and fixing bad roads is a misplaced priority. We all saw how he advocated vigorously against the landmark Lagos -Calabar expressway.

Now, he’s against the renovation and complete remodeling of our airports. As in, how can someone be against the reconstruction of a runway that has been in use since the 70’s? If an accident happens on the old Lagos airport runway, Obi will be the first to blame the government for the accident. Now that FG is being proactive instead of reactionary, Obi is still angry.

Maybe the Tinubu government should just stop building badly needed infrastructural projects simply because people are poor. Maybe angry folks like Obi will be happy if Tinubu start sharing money to every poor Nigerian instead of fixing the country.

[color=#006600][/color]

I didn't bother myself reading the lengthy post.
Just because you are gaining something from this administration, that doesn't mean others are not finding it difficult to survive.
Politics shouldn't make anyone act funny.

9japride:
[color=#006600][/color]

I didn't bother myself reading the lengthy post.
Just because you are gaining something from this administration, that doesn't mean others are not finding it difficult to survive.
Politics shouldn't make anyone act funny.

seunmsg, what is he gaining from the system, u should have read the post, u would have learnt something new.

So he shouldn’t call logical truth as he sees it?, or are u 9japride not aware how the democrazy u practice in the zoo works, what happened to the states & local government?

Established on the logical fact of the system, say na the 3 tiers of government, dey share money every month, but na only tinubu federal government u dey like mention, isn’t that acting funny, or be it hypocritical?

If we ask u mention just one thing your state & local government had one for u, in the last 5 years, u will say na Tinubu dey control fiscal & monetary policies, so u are not expecting any development indexes from them.

Please depart your mind from military mentality, & openly embrace democrazy of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 🇳🇬.

Burob:
seunmsg, what is he gaining from the system, u should have read the post, u would have learnt something new.

So he shouldn’t call logical truth as he sees it?, or are u 9japride not aware how the democrazy u practice in the zoo works, what happened to the states & local government?

Established on the logical fact of the system, say na the 3 tiers of government, dey share money every month, but na only tinubu federal government u dey like mention, isn’t that acting funny, or be it hypocritical?

If we ask u mention just one thing your state & local government had one for u, in the last 5 years, u will say na Tinubu dey control fiscal & monetary policies, so u are not expecting any development indexes from them.

Please depart your mind from military mentality, & openly embrace democrazy of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 🇳🇬.

[color=#006600][/color]

Leave all these long talk. Doing the right thing is very simple.
Africa is the way it is today because of archaic political practices.
The person I quoted supported last administration for complete 8 years and he/she is doing same now.
He shouldn't be in the right place to talk about Peter Obi.

vanbonattel:
We all love Peter Obi for being very honest with me truth

Peter Obi is the most honest man in Nigeria today.

This whole honesty started in 2022.
He was so honest in power he put state funds in banks where he owns shares, man was so honest he hid properties outside the country till Pandora exposed him.
If only Obidents could erase history, they would have done it to whitewash Lienus who claims to have only one wrist watch but wears different wrist watches.

9japride:
[color=#006600][/color]

Leave all these long talk. Doing the right thing is very simple.
Africa is the way it is today because of archaic political practices.
The person I quoted supported last administration for complete 8 years and he/she is doing same now.
He shouldn't be in the right place to talk about Peter Obi.

What’s the right thing to do? Do you want the Federal Government to take over the role of the Governors or Local Government Chairmen? The issue of out-of-school kids is the responsibility of the states and LGAs — let them stand up to their duties.

By the way, he has the right to support even the devil if he so chooses — that’s a constitutionally guaranteed right for everyone, including you.

lionshare:
What’s the right thing to do? Do you want the Federal Government to take over the role of the Governors or Local Government Chairmen? The issue of out-of-school kids is the responsibility of the states and LGAs — let them stand up to their duties.

By the way, he has the right to support even the devil if he so chooses — that’s a constitutionally guaranteed right for everyone, including you.

[color=#006600][/color]

I shouldn't be the one telling them the right thing to do. The way our political system was organized, it gives the presidency so much power to influence a lot of things.
As regards everyone having rights to make political choices, I am of the opinion that people's mental capacity needs to be assessed before they are allowed to vote.
Just imagine having large numbers of funny characters influencing the choice of a country's highest political position.
They waste so much energy and resources in play unnecessary politics and propaganda instead of working.
I believe you are still very young? You won't understand how bad leaders can mess up a society.
Countries that a lot of 9ja youths are Japa to, don't they have humans there? Are they hybrid species?

seunmsg:
Folks like you are the reason why Nigeria is still very stagnant. We are where we are simply because we can’t apportion blame appropriately and as such, we let people who should be held accountable to escape scot free.

In a federal system of government with a three tier administrative structure, why should any sensible human being blame the Federal government for malnutrition in the north? What exactly is the work of the various states and local governments in the north? The Tinubu government has pumped so much money into state and local governments all over the country so that these sub national governments can take care of grassroots issues such as malnutrition, primary education, primary health care etc but no, folks like this guy still find a way to blame everything on the president instead of those actually saddled by law to fix the problems.

In a Federal system, the central government is saddled with issues such as defense, foreign policy, immigration, currency regulation, fiscal and monetary policies, Major infrastructural development etc. The president cannot abandon his constitutional duties under the exclusive list and start sharing money to every poor person in the country.

If you truly want a better county and not just interested in playing politics, go and learn about how governance work and then learn to pass blame appropriately.

Can you kindly quote the relevant section of our laws that make malnutrition and primary healthcare an exclusive responsibility of the states and LGs? Are you saying the Homegrown school feeding program under late president Buhari was a misplaced priority and federal intrusion? Are you also claiming now that the NPHCDA, a federal agency that exists to cater for primary healthcare is an illegal entity having existed since 1990s with different programs and budgets all these years? I expect with your education you're aware of the exclusive, concurrent and residual list. Pray tell where health and food security (Tinubu declared state of emergency on food security) which malnutrition falls under is on the list.
It is very infantile of you to think the correct response to solving issues of child and maternal health is to share money. MSF have not come out to say they shared money. What about access to health facilities and good food? Will sharing money solve that as well? You need to cure yourself of the need to defend politicians. Let them do their jobs which they spend time and money to ask for. Call their attention to the jobs just the same way you call attention to their need to get to power.
When it comes to child healthcare and dying kids, try to discover your soul no matter how deeply hidden it might have been under layers of political and tribal hubris.