“From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore - Foreign Affairs (3)

“From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore - Foreign Affairs (3) - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum › Nairaland General › Politics › Foreign Affairs › “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore (15293 Views)

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Kewekubosineh: 10:07am On Sep 06, 2025

Racoon:
What an emotionally touching story of incredible transformation. This is the power of capable, accountable responsible, and visionary leadership.

And not a leadership driven by greed, bigotry, agberoism emilokanism, certificate forgery, ethno-religio-regional sentiments

Well said 👏

But such transformation can't happen in Nigeria because of hindering factors you enumerated.

Until our Leaders think outside the box, the Singaporean transformation can't happen in Nigeria.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by budaatum: 10:07am On Sep 06, 2025

occfx:
Nonesense. Nigeria go tear into pieces very soon.

I really have little to no time for prophets who make declarations with no supporting evidence. Sorry.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by nightsaint(m): 10:10am On Sep 06, 2025

I have read that book! As bulky as it is, I was able to finish it. It's a book I'll encourage our so-called leaders to read to know the real meaning of leadership.

Racoon:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1YmPZRw1G3/ nlfp.mod

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Brendaniel: 10:12am On Sep 06, 2025

budaatum:
I am not arguing Nigeria's civil war with you. It's been fought, and a side won and a side lost, and here we are, One Nigeria.

Igbos are currently renting the old kolanut and cocoa warehouses that my Osogbo people are unindustrial to find uses for. And while I've heard of Made in Aba, I have not yet heard Made in Ibadan.

Soon they will marry our women and born lots of Chinedus, then our eyes will be opened and we too might learn to make Made in Aba in Osogbo.

And after the war of over 50 years, is Nigeria of today the Nigeria of your dreams?

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by occfx: 10:13am On Sep 06, 2025

franchasng:
It wont be easy for them cos they are outnumbered. One Senator Chinda from Rivers state raised the motion in 2022 and he was completely shut down by North and Southwest Senators.

So the best is for North and Southwest Senators to help us Southeasterners by expelling Southeast from Nigeria like Malaysia did to Singaporeans, na beg we de beg una biko, ejoor, it's for our collective good and progress

Hahaha, we dey beg them oo, to expell us from the Niger royal company but fear no dey gree them.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Eriokanmi: 10:13am On Sep 06, 2025

budaatum:
No right to secession in the Nigerian Constitution
Indivisible sovereign state: Section 2(1) of the 1999 Constitution explicitly declares Nigeria an "indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state," which effectively prohibits secession.

Territorial integrity: The Constitution mandates the armed forces to maintain Nigeria's territorial integrity, making unilateral secession unconstitutional and subject to military intervention.

Onerous amendment process: Any potential legal path to secession would require a constitutional amendment, a difficult process that demands broad support across two-thirds of Nigeria's states.

We're not ready yet ni. If we yorubas want to go, no amount of the Abdulsalaam Abubakar's 1999 constitution (as amended) can deter us. We're the ones still holding other tribes. This shall happen, only that we dont know when.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Chaolin: 10:14am On Sep 06, 2025

Pls am begging Nigerian echelon to expile Biafra from Nigeria like Singapore

Ehh for God sake we really want to go and build our dream country

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by budaatum: 10:17am On Sep 06, 2025

Onegai:
And for any tribe that screams "Secession!", please be my guest and leave. Budaatum is very right.

I was not aware I said this here, but yes. Any tribe that does not want to be part of Nigeria should pack their load and go somewhere else please.

There is plenty land they can go occupy in the Sahara desert for a nominal fee to those who currently own it.

Those who remain will make us stronger because we'd have gotten rid of those tearing us apart. And one day we'd be better than Singapore, and might have done it without Singapore's racial eugenics.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Kewekubosineh: 10:17am On Sep 06, 2025

franchasng:
Very very inspiring.

Nigerians should give Peter Obi a chance to become our own Lee Kuan Yew for our collective good

Tinubu have tried his best, he has done his bit, but unfortunately his best is not good enough to get Nigeria out of the woods it was pushed into since 2016

We need to try something new and compare till we get things right, Nigeria need to enter the right path to future prosperity before things get completely out of hand

You are right.

But Nigeria won't give Peter Obi a chance to replicate Singaporean transformation. Majorly because of hate and ethnic differences.

Tinubu has come,but not much changes in transformation.

Until we're ready to embrace changes, Nigeria will continue to claw.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Guestmale: 10:19am On Sep 06, 2025

Brendaniel:
That is why I asked you the question, is Tinubu leading by good examples to Nigerians and the governors he is sharing the money to?

Was his sole purpose of becoming president to remove subsidy, share more money to governors and lead by bad examples to them ?

You said Tinubu is not sacrificing but asking Nigerians to sacrifice but it seems you didn't read my respond to that.So tell me what good example are you expecting Tinubu to live.

And I asked you the money he gave to the governors what are they doing with it. And apart from the subsidies removal which has removed fuel scarcity and queue in our filling stations,it has also increased our GDP and stabilized our economy. There are many infrastructures like building of roads going on all over the country.

Many reforms in economy are on going which will we may not see the results now but will latter become visible.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by nairalanda1(m): 10:19am On Sep 06, 2025

The basic problem with this thread is that the OP is a secessionist and also anti-tinubu (no problem with being anti-tinubu, I too am)...and is using LKY as a stick to beat tinubu and one nigeria with. And then the tinubuite supporters are busy here telling us that tinubu is the new LKY.

I want to laugh. My problem with Nairaland politics is simple. Our leaders change sides, do the same thing that has been done for years, and the opposition opposes them, while their supporters support them

For Nigeria to become a first world nation, we must accept we are no Singapore. Singapore in addition to what has been said lies across a major seaway from Europe and the rest of the world to Asia. LKY just simply took advantage of that.

Second, we are going to make our education so merit based, that even Southerners will weep. That means training teachers better. But see how Nigerians responded when EL rufai wanted to reform education in Kaduna state by weeding out bad teachers and eventually replacing them with teachers who had MsC? They abused him and told him he was making nigerians suffer. Some years earlier Oshiomole suffered the same, DESPITE him holding the exams on live TV where we were treated to the spectacle of teachers not being able to answer simple questions. Nigerians don' want reform in education...so . Then there is cheating in exams. If we really started enforcing laws, Nigerians will protest.

Third, we have to wake up and realize that university is not for everyone , and that we need to invest more in vocational and technical education to train the people that will power our industrial development. Not this SUPA project tinubu is doing...spend more on schools in naija. But this one where people think that you are fully educated with Bsc, while someone with guild exam in automotive enginerring is an illiterate...lol. So, at the end, no technicans

Fourth, we got to wake up and stop thinking oil is enough. THIS OIL WE ARE CRYING ABOUT EVERYDAY...can only feed 5 million of us well enough. GHaddafi built libya because he had to rule over less than 7 million people for most of his reign, and libya was producing 5m bpd at the height of his regime. He could loot, and the money left over was enough. Nigeria wit 230 million wants to live like libya and UAE.That's why we are in debt.

Fifth corruption....Nigerians love their corruption. All the tinubu people and people like op have favorite politicans, and when their person is involved in corruption, dem go defend am tire. And then there is petty corruption. If we started fighting the thing now, people will cry their tribe and religion and so on are being persecuted. I don tire.

Sixth, forget about secession. Because the argument for Biafra is simply Igbos controlling all the oil Nigeria produces and using it to live like dubai. The owners of the oil can see that which is part of why the SS is not backing Biafra. North and west want one nigeria, because without oil they would be broke. With attitudes like this....how are we going to develop the mindset to be industrial and first world....when all everyone wants is oil money?

The truth is, until we develop a national economic plan that forces everyone to use their resources to make stuff for export, we can't be first world.

Raccon, if your side was in power, you will be singing a different tune, and you know it. Ditto all the APC supporters. Y'all love your oil. Well, for this country to develop, we have to first wake up and realize oil is on its way out and brain power is how we are gonna survive. Stop hitting each others with sticks.

I don talk my own. I have been dissapointed with all our democratic leadership since 1999. All they do is use money for special purpose vehicle programmes...give everyone palliative, tractor, wheelbarrow, etc. That's not how to develop a nation, that's how you deepen oil dependency. Venezuela does that a lot, people are happy, but the economy gets wrecked. Even subsidy , the money comes from the budget, and the hole is filled up by more debt.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by budaatum: 10:20am On Sep 06, 2025

Eriokanmi:
We're not ready yet ni. If we yorubas want to go, no amount of the Abdulsalaam Abubakar's 1999 constitution (as amended) can deter us. We're the ones still holding other tribes. This shall happen, only that we dont know when.

Please go. Pack your load and leave my Nigerian land for those of us who are Nigerians.

Trust me, no one will stop you if you go. Just make sure you go far enough away so you can't be mistaken for Nigerian, please.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Lithiumite: 10:24am On Sep 06, 2025

Racoon:
The is a man the famed builder of Lagos is being compared to? For goodness sake, they are miles apart.God help Africa with it useless autocratic and tyrannical despots foisting themselves on a failed continent.

The world have long left us behind as if the colonial masters or imperialists should have continued the conquest or slavery. Most African nation never deserved independence

You not supporting your president primarily because of political differences and Also the fact he isn't from your tribe makes the development of Nigeria an almost impossible task same way it had always been since independence.....while yew was busy building Singapore,we were plotting and overthrowing govts and ripping the country apart because one person was Yoruba,you were Igbo and the other was Hausa......we couldn't optimise the strength in our diversity,we couldn't have unity of purpose even fought a gruesome war just cause a plateau man took power from an Igbo man.....Singapore didn't suffer the complexities of 450 different ethnicities and even more diverse languages which has been calamitous from day one they are one people with one language and one culture

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Oakenshield: 10:24am On Sep 06, 2025

Racoon:
What an emotionally touching story of incredible transformation. This is the power of capable, accountable responsible, and visionary leadership.

And not a leadership driven by greed, bigotry, agberoism emilokanism, certificate forgery, ethno-religio-regional sentiments

yes oh forget USA arrogance they have a solid leadership structure that countries envy especially their judiciary you don't mess with. But you see Nigeria na criminals we get

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Brendaniel: 10:29am On Sep 06, 2025

Guestmale:
You said Tinubu is not sacrificing but asking Nigerians to sacrifice but it seems you didn't read my respond to that.So tell me what good example are you expecting Tinubu to live.

And I asked you the money he gave to the governors what are they doing with it. And apart from the subsidies removal which has removed fuel scarcity and queue in our filling stations,it has also increased our GDP and stabilized our economy. There are many infrastructures like building of roads going on all over the country.

Many reforms in economy are on going which will we may not see the results now but will latter become visible.

He reduced our GDP, so you have lied

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Nico360: 10:33am On Sep 06, 2025

benardtotti:
God bless you bro, the two faced OP didn't even read the article he posted , Lee Kuan yew dealt with riots and strikes viciously and ruled Singapore for 30 years ! !!
Yet the Op is pontificating and praising him to high heavens while deriding his own president who is trying to reform his country and is not even doing half of what Yew did .

Thanks.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Lithiumite: 10:33am On Sep 06, 2025

Racoon:
Meanwhile, when Biafra wants to go away from the federation, una go they blab rubbish. Here the Malaysian parliament voted unanimously to ensure the country became a federation of its own.

"3.2 Basis of the Federation: "(1) Every Ethnic Nationality and People in Nigeria has an unconditional right to self-determination within here delineated territories.

The Yorubas saw this problem far ahead of anyone else that was why awo insisted it be put in our first constitution but the hausas supported by the Igbos resisted it.....now who is crying?

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Eriokanmi: 10:35am On Sep 06, 2025

budaatum:
Please go. Pack your load and leave my Nigerian land for those of us who are Nigerians.

Trust me, no one will stop you if you go. Just make sure you go far enough away so you can't be mistaken for Nigerian, please.

See this one. Just mark today's date. It shall happen, sooner or later, I reiterate.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Lithiumite: 10:38am On Sep 06, 2025

Dogalmighty17:
A country younger than Nigeria. Look at what visionary leadership can do. Who cursed the black man? Who?

A country of barely 2m with one language and one culture is what you want to compare to that of over 200m with over 400 different ethnicities and even more diverse languages.....try and manage a common cda in your area first and let's see how you will fare.....there is no one the Yorubas would bring,the Igbos would never support and vice versa and there is no one northerners would bring that will get the full support of the south,we the people are our own problem.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Basic123: 10:41am On Sep 06, 2025

franchasng:
Very very inspiring.

Nigerians should give Peter Obi a chance to become our own Lee Kuan Yew for our collective good

Tinubu have tried his best, he has done his bit, but unfortunately his best is not good enough to get Nigeria out of the woods it was pushed into since 2016

We need to try something new and compare till we get things right, Nigeria need to enter the right path to future prosperity before things get completely out of hand

Why was he not lee kuan yun of ANAMBRA??

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Lithiumite: 10:41am On Sep 06, 2025

tommy589:
A very interesting story. Is it achievable in our own brand of democracy even if we have a visionary leader at the helm for 31 years

They didn't mention the dark side to Singapore's progress.....it was a martial state that period and dissenting voices were not tolerated.....but her you can abuse tinubu to high heavens and nothing would happen to you.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Olajohn0808: 10:41am On Sep 06, 2025

Racoon:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1YmPZRw1G3/ nlfp.mod

great nation with visionary leader not the puppets with low IQ and inhumane hearts parading themselves as African leaders

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Nteogwuija(m): 10:42am On Sep 06, 2025

Guestmale:
What are the things has Tinubu has asked Nigerians to sacrifice.Has he asked you not to seek medical attention where you can get it even outside the country.Has he tell you not to travelled to anywhere you desire to travel,has he asked you not to import whatever you wish to import except illegal things. Has he banned freedom of speech.Is there no freedom of association. The money he got from fuel subsidy removal has he not distributed it to your state governors inform of increase monthly allocations.

You people should stop this talk about Tinubu distributing money to governors. And then you guys would turn around to gaslight Nigerians, telling them to hold their governors accountable.

If Tinubu really was altruistic and cared about the citizens of each state, setting up a system that'd ensure that the governors account for every penny spent won't be an issue for him.

If he can comfortably suspend an elected governor, then this should be a walk in the park for him.

But we all know he won't do. And we all know the real reason he's "blessing" the governors.

About reforms. GEJ removed subsidy in 2012 and Tinubu championed a protest that saw GEJ rescind on his decision.

The same Tinubu came and announced subsidy removal in 2023.

The point is that Tinubu is not one to be trusted to carry on these reforms. Apart from having a load of baggages, he's not ready and won't lead by example. The proofs are everywhere.

Anyone who's truly honest about implementing reforms and needs the trust of the citizens is someone who's Nigeria first, such politician having a second passport should not be trusted.

Has no mystery surrounding their identity, can be accepted by most Nigerians as an honest person, someone whose integrity isn't debatable.

Tinubu does not tick any of those boxes. I'm yet to see any politician that ticks all of those boxes, maybe they're yet to emerge in the political scene.

Until then, we'll continue to revolve around our existing circle.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Basic123: 10:42am On Sep 06, 2025

erniok:
The first thing he did was kill corruption. One of his ministers committed suicide when he was about being investigated for corrupt practices.

Which Nigerian leader apart from OBJ has shown he has balls to kill corruption.

Did OBJ kill himself huh

?

Which corruption was OBJ fighting?
He was only using EFCC has an attack dogs for his political enemies

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by amaridigital(m): 10:43am On Sep 06, 2025

Racoon:
The is a man the famed builder of Lagos is being compared to? For goodness sake, they are miles apart.God help Africa with it useless autocratic and tyrannical despots foisting themselves on a failed continent.

The world have long left us behind as if the colonial masters or imperialists should have continued the conquest or slavery. Most African nation never deserved independence

No, that was the man one slowpoke Agulu nonentity was compared with. A failure who left no impact as Governor for eight years and performed less than an ordinary LG Chairman. Singapore is on a class of it's own. A very small Island City without any natural resources. The only leaders we've ever had that iwas a bit close to the founder of Singapore were the post independence leaders like Nkrumah, Awolowo, Balewa and Zik. We can NEVER achieve the magic of Singapore with this wacky presidential system of
Government, Never. Singapore is a parliamentary democracy. I was in Singapore in 1997 and I was amazed how a man could turned a fishermen's village to a first world country. Although today the world would frown at some of his human rights violations but it worked for Singapore. Our system of Government is full of waste and I doubt if a Singapore will ever come out of Africa. For the past ten years Singapore passport is number 1 in the world with visa free access to over 193 countries. No nation can fully understand the code of Singapore and remains undeveloped. That's the fact. Singapore is just only one City.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by madridguy(m): 10:43am On Sep 06, 2025

I don't like seeing mentions like this. How many times do you want us to tutor you on best way to get your biafla?

franchasng:
This is what we Igbos have been begging Yorubas and Hausa-Fulanis to please use their majority vote at the national Assembly to expel Southeast from Nigeria so that we can exit Nigeria peacefully and start from scratch to build our dream country even if it takes us a century because from the look of things, trib alism and nep otism will never allow Nigeria do things rightly.

If you read up on the original post, you can see that Lee Kuan Yew changed things from being gotten by privilege to merit, that's how to build a nation not by appointing government officials by first considering their tribe and religion before competence

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Basic123: 10:43am On Sep 06, 2025

fitinwell:
See, don't blame the Nigerian leadership... Blame the electorate, blame the people who sold their conscience and that of there children's future...

President Tinubu never had a promising manifesto during is campaign... He copied what ever PeterObi had on his manifesto..

He was called the Lagos Boy..

Where Nigerians found themselves today... Disunity brought us here.. fraudulent activity, dishonesty, greediness, love of money over dignity in Labor, and many others..

We know the truth, but not ready to abide by the truth... And only the truth can set us free..

Bye

You people will tell big lies to sell your OBI.

Tinubu manifesto came out before OBI own....people had to beg and yank OBI before he released one

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Lithiumite: 10:44am On Sep 06, 2025

franchasng:
Very very inspiring.

Nigerians should give Peter Obi a chance to become our own Lee Kuan Yew for our collective good

Tinubu have tried his best, he has done his bit, but unfortunately his best is not good enough to get Nigeria out of the woods it was pushed into since 2016

We need to try something new and compare till we get things right, Nigeria need to enter the right path to future prosperity before things get completely out of hand

Not obi not tinubu not atiku!!

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by madridguy(m): 10:45am On Sep 06, 2025

You can continue to lie to yourself but you know the truth.

Biafla today, presidency tomorrow cheesy

Racoon:
Meanwhile, when Biafra wants to go away from the federation, una go they blab rubbish. Here the Malaysian parliament voted unanimously to ensure the country became a federation of its own.

"3.2 Basis of the Federation: "(1) Every Ethnic Nationality and People in Nigeria has an unconditional right to self-determination within here delineated territories.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Basic123: 10:47am On Sep 06, 2025

benardtotti:
He launched sweeping reforms in housing, education, defense, and urban hygiene. The Housing Development Board (HDB) rolled out the world’s most ambitious public housing program. He famously banned chewing gum, not out of pettiness, but as part of a broader campaign for cleanliness and order. Strikes, riots, and public disorder were clamped down on with uncompromising resolve

If BAT does half of this, same OP will be up in arms crying democracy is dead.

This is the honest truth i have observed about Africa and why we are under developed:
African leaders who try to change the status quo especially in a democratic setting end up failing as most Africans are only after what they can eat today and not future plans, any African leader who tries to do hard reforms will get called out so most of them chicken out and just keep pleasing the masses just to stay in power , the few successful African countries are those with either dictators or long term democratic terms, reason I'm an advocate of 5 to 7 year tenure for presidents .

Jerry rawlings ruled Ghana both as military and civilian for over 20 years and set a template for Ghana, Lagos has been the most consistent state in Nigeria for decades cos its a one party state, Rwanda has come up from its genocide past cos the president has been in power since 1996.

For africa to move forward all these 4 year nonsense won't work .

God bless you.....You can't be a radical leader in Africa...you got to be a populist.Just be making masses happy by subsidizing foods heavily for them when they remain underdeveloped with debts

Because loans are being used to subsidize their momentary happiness.

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Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by Guestmale: 10:48am On Sep 06, 2025

Brendaniel:
He reduced our GDP, so you have lied

It seems you're not current but AI and google are there for you.

Re: “From Third World To First.” How Lee Kuan Yew Transformed Singapore by franchasng: 10:48am On Sep 06, 2025

Basic123:
Why was he not lee kuan yun of ANAMBRA??

He is and that's based on where Anambra state was coming from. Anambra state was completely controlled by godfathers who siphoned state fund and installed Governors, Assembly members, etc like Tinubu does in Lagos.

They held Anambra state in captivity like a captured territory....insecurity ravaged Anambra state.....nothing was working as a young state....Peter Obi defeated and ended godfatherism politics in Anambra.....and liberated Anambra for future Governors.....he ended the mad insecurity there....refaced Upper Iweka.....did massive road network creation in rural areas....revamped Anambra schools and handed them back to Missionary for effective management. Upon all these, he still saved billions for Anambra and also invested for the future....no other Governor in the history of Nigeria has ever done such. He also rejected all forms of retirement benefits as ex Governor....no other ex Governor, not even Tinubu as rich as he is did it.

So if you consider how meager Anambra's IGR and federal allocation was then, Peter Obi is the Lee Kuan Yew of Anambra state....so if you give him a bigger stage with larger resources and power, he would do wonders for Nigeria no jokes.

And remember, he has even improved and become more refined, exposed......and wiser than he was when he governed Anambra as Governor being a very young trader.

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