Sanwo-Olu Slams Peter Obi Over “Disparaging” Remarks About Nigeria

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has criticised former Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, for what he described as “disparaging comments” about Nigeria during a recent event in the United States.

In a post shared on his X handle on Monday, Sanwo-Olu accused Obi of making “unflattering remarks” about Nigeria and President Bola Tinubu’s administration while speaking at Johns Hopkins University.

Obi, in a post on his own X handle dated April 25, had attributed the failure of nations largely to poor political leadership. He emphasised that sustainable growth and development could only be achieved with “competent, capable and compassionate political leadership, with integrity.”

Speaking about poverty levels, Obi compared Nigeria unfavourably with countries like China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“In the area of poverty, Nigeria with about 50 million poor people, had the least number of people in poverty in 1990 than any of the three countries. While China had about 750 million people living in poverty, Indonesia and Vietnam had 85 million and 60 million poor people, respectively. China alone had about 15 times the number of poor people than Nigeria. Today, however, Nigeria has more poor people than these three countries combined,” Obi said.
He added, “The question then is, what exactly did these countries do to be able to achieve the desired growth and development? That is where political leadership comes in.”

In response, Sanwo-Olu said he found Obi’s “pattern of behaviour disturbing.”
“I also find Mr. Obi’s pattern of behaviour disturbing. When prominent Nigerians go overseas, they ought to project Nigeria positively. They do not have to do that for the government. But we all owe a duty to market Nigeria on the global stage rather than de-market her. That is what true patriotism is about,” the governor stated.

Sanwo-Olu went further to accuse Obi of contributing to poverty in Nigeria during his tenure as Governor of Anambra State.

“Because Mr. Obi focused on poverty and said that the current administration’s policies are making Nigerians poorer, I will concentrate on that,” he said.
“Now, I find it somewhat ironic that a man like Mr. Obi, who did not build a single school or a stand-alone hospital throughout his eight-year tenure as Governor of Anambra or sustainably provide credit facilities, would criticise the Government of Nigeria, which is actively doing that. Under Peter Obi as a two-term Anambra Governor, poverty in Anambra increased. It did not reduce.”

Citing statistics, Sanwo-Olu claimed that the poverty rate in Anambra rose during Obi’s administration.
“The poverty rate in Anambra jumped from 41.4% to 53.7% after Obi’s two years in office as a governor,” he stated.

He further argued that the situation improved significantly after Obi left office.
“But the interesting thing is that five years after Peter Obi left office, his successor, Willie Obiano, reduced the poverty rate in Anambra from almost 60% to 14.8%. As such, I am not sure that Mr. Obi is morally well placed to make the alarming claims he made about Nigeria at Johns Hopkins. Being that that is the case, who should criticise who?” Sanwo-Olu concluded.