Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, compared leadership in Nigeria and the US, criticising Nigerian officials for flashy displays of power despite having much smaller budgets.
In a post on X on Thursday, Obi recounted his ongoing three-day trip to the US, which took him to Atlanta, Washington, and Chicago.
He noted that Atlanta, with a city budget of around $3 billion, generates more revenue than Nigeria’s national budget, yet its mayor, Andre Dickens, maintains a modest public profile.
Obi revealed that he travelled with Mayor Dickens on the same flight from Atlanta to Washington and observed no special treatment for the mayor.
“He boarded and disembarked like every other passenger, without aides carrying bags, announcements, sirens, or entourages,” Obi said.
He further contrasted this with Nigeria, stating: “In Nigeria, governors—most of whom oversee budgets smaller than Atlanta’s—and even local government chairmen, whose allocations are less than 1% of Atlanta’s, would have constituted a public nuisance with sirens, protocol officers, endless announcements, large entourages, and posters everywhere.”
Obi argued that Nigerian leaders must change their public conduct and focus on service delivery, pointing to Dickens’ priorities of crime reduction, youth empowerment, and a minimum wage of $15 per hour for council workers as examples of effective, humble leadership.
Chances are that Mr Peter Obi has seen God and the almighty has told him that not until he contests wins and becomes the president of Nigeria he Peter Obi will never taste death. This will be the worst punishment for any being. This explains why Mr Obi will stop at nothing in this wild ambition. As Shakespeare said lowliness is young ambitions ladder. That is why Obi is showcasing this needles populism. If he is offered half or even quarter term Obi will readily jump at it and receive with thanks. Obi is likely going down in history as the most desperate politician in Nigeria. Should such opportunity offer itself Obi will become swollen headed. He will turn storyteller harping on how things were irredeemably bad. Afterwards blame game all the way. What M K O Abiola was not to Obasanjo is what Mr Peter Obi has suddenly become namely Messiah. Anybody who has Obasanjo as his backer is nursing political ambition that is dead not even on arrival but before departure.
@EKPEFON WILLIE… you are 100% right about Mr Peter obi, jumping here and there to make needles comment about how governance run in particular state or certain country is naive political stunt from a person who want to brand himself as awaiting messiah Nigerian needed at this point in time. Obi cat style is a dangerous precedents to trapped citizens of this country to it’s deceitful act to climb into power by surprise….Mr Peter obi is No 1 419 of modern politics of this country.
More and more hunger-driven individuals continue to swell the ranks of those under recruitment to be against Peter Obi in anything he does or says. Omokri started it, and more people have now joined this inglorious trade or business, and the competition is getting stiffer, to have negative things to say about Peter Obi. Little wonder they now turn anything Peter Obi says, upside down, just to earn a living, while at the sametime, making them look stupid in the eye of most Nigerians. Omokri is now more of a nuisance to most people. We learn and grow by example. We are practicing American style presidential system, Peter Obi is visiting the U.S and telling us how those we are copying, do things, as against our loud, ostentatious and wasteful style, and yet, the shameless, hungry, errand boys are making noise and talking nonsense. Who created the hunger that drove them into this pitiable and unfortunate vocation. Is it not this very government they’re ridiculously working for, as a fools, and enemies of a new Nigeria many people are yearning for. Omokri is now like a dirty rag in the eye of people, yet others are joining him. Hunger don scatter everywhere. I’ve not heard from the other one lately, Adeyanju.