“You Built No Schools, No Standalone Hospital, Increased Poverty as Governor – You Have No Right to Criticize Nigeria,” Sanwo-Olu Slams Peter Obi

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has launched a scathing attack on Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, accusing him of lacking the moral authority to comment on Nigeria’s poverty crisis. In a hard-hitting statement personally signed and titled “Factually Addressing Mr. Peter Obi’s Criticism of Nigeria at Johns Hopkins University,” Sanwo-Olu tore into Obi’s record as former governor of Anambra State.

Sanwo-Olu alleged that during Obi’s eight years in office, he failed to build a single school or a stand-alone hospital and presided over a sharp rise in poverty in Anambra. He said Obi’s recent comments at Johns Hopkins University, where he criticized Nigeria’s leadership and poverty levels compared to China and Vietnam, were not only hypocritical but disgraceful.

“When prominent Nigerians go overseas, they ought to project Nigeria positively,” Sanwo-Olu wrote. “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.”

He accused Obi of contributing directly to the country’s poverty woes rather than solving them. “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,” Sanwo-Olu stated.

Highlighting President Bola Tinubu’s achievements, Sanwo-Olu said that as former Lagos governor and now as president, Tinubu has built over 200 schools, provided student loans to more than 200,000 undergraduates, and released over half a billion dollars in credit facilities to small and medium-sized businesses.

Sanwo-Olu further attacked Obi’s legacy in Anambra, pointing to statistics that showed the poverty rate under Obi’s administration rose from 41.4 percent to 53.7 percent. In contrast, Obi’s successor, Willie Obiano, slashed the poverty rate to 14.8 percent.

“Mr. Obi talks a good game. But was he able to reduce poverty while he governed Anambra? The facts say otherwise,” Sanwo-Olu wrote. “Mr. Obi contributed to the increase in poverty in Nigeria. Governor Tinubu, as he then was, lifted millions out of it. Being that that is the case, who should criticise who?”