…Says he worsened poverty level in Anambra as governor
A former presidential aide, Mr. Reno Omokri, has said the Labour Party’s former presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, lacks the moral authority to criticise President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic policies.
Obi recently described the president’s performance as “below par,” saying his economic policies had left many Nigerians poorer than when he had met them, and advised the president to tour the states to experience first-hand the high poverty rate across the country.
However, Omokri, in a statement released Friday, said Obi did not have the moral high ground to make adverse comments on Tinubu’s economic policies because, as the governor of Anambra state, his people’s poverty level worsened.
The statement read in part, “Peter Obi, who worsened poverty in Anambra state, has no moral authority to accuse President Tinubu, who is reducing it.”
The former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan said further, “Mr. Obi’s recent blunder, in which he urged the president to travel to the states to see the poverty level faced by Nigerians, is just another reminder that the only New Year resolution he appears to have made is to continue to misrepresent statistics through propaganda.”
Omokri recalled that, under Tinubu’s watch, Lagos state experienced a reduction in poverty while Obi increased misery in his home state of Anambra.
“Before Peter Obi took over as governor of Anambra, poverty in that state was 41.4%. However, under Mr. Obi, it grew to 53.7%. This is partly because Peter Obi refused to use the state’s allocations to build infrastructure, preferring to deposit them in his bank to yield interest,” he said.
LG autonomy
He also said rather than building schools and improving the education of his people, the former governor of Anambra state chose to build breweries, which he claimed benefited his family’s interests.
Omokri said Obi’s persistent criticism of Tinubu’s economic policies was mischievous because it discountenanced its increasing gains in the last 18 months.
He said with the autonomy the president had secured for the local governments, the people at the grassroots level would witness poverty reduction as the Councils’ direct funding starts this month.
He pointed out that improved security and local refining of petroleum products would help the president’s efforts to tame inflation, adding that the former Labour Party presidential candidate was too fixated on president-bashing to see the gains of the on-going economic reforms.
“Obi is fixated on President Tinubu because he wants the president’s power and the ability to wield it well. Therefore, he is the wrong person to advise about fighting poverty. Obi is the problem. President Tinubu is the solution.
“Obi is blind to the progress happening in Nigeria. Before President Tinubu assumed office, no single refinery in Nigeria worked, and Nigeria depended on imports for our refined petroleum needs.
“However, within eighteen months of President Tinubu’s leadership, Nigeria had three major refineries working: the Dangote, Port Harcourt, and Warri Refineries. We are now a net exporter of Premium Motor Spirits, and this is the first Yuletide season when Nigerians enjoyed both fuel availability and a fuel price reduction.”
Foreign trips/investments
The former presidential aide also faulted the former governor’s critique of the president’s foreign trips, pointing out they were an investment drive.
“Mr. Obi talked about the president’s foreign travels. But they are to bring investments to Nigeria, and it is working. FDI has increased by 28% under Tinubu.”
Omokri dismissed Obi’s latest attack on Tinubu as another power grab by a political desperado.
“When asked about the so-called merger between his Labour Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, he said that, though there was not one yet, these parties must come together to ‘defeat the APC’.”
He said this statement showed that the emerging political alliance against the president and his party was not in the people’s interest.
Omokri said, “Just look at that. Not to uplift more Nigerians out of poverty, end insecurity, not to reduce out-of-school children, not to boost local manufacturing, increase foreign direct investment, widen the tax collection base, or even end the situation in the South-east.
“They just want to unite to defeat the APC. Power is their only goal, not people. No wonder Rabiu Kwankwaso rejected their so-called merger.
“They’re desperate politicians whose only agenda is to get power at any cost, even if the price is a ‘religious war’ against the Muslim Ummah! May God never let them achieve their nefarious plans for Nigeria.”
