THE presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has referred to his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as his “respected elder brother.”
According to Obi: “Tinubu is my respected elder brother. The only thing I’m saying is where we are today. It is a job that requires physical and mental energy, because the country is in a mess. It’s a 24-hour job.”
He made this revelation during an interview on #WithChude, which Chude Jideonwo, the host publicised on Monday on his Twitter page.
Obi further said, “They have contributed one way or the other in the past and they have to be respected and recognised in due time, but I just tried to explain that because they contributed in the past and everything doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to stay forever and ever.”
In a viral footage which was an excerpt of the interaction between Njenje Media TV and the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Obi reacted to a WhatsApp message he claimed was sent to him by a Tinubu support group, urging Yoruba people not to vote for him based on ethnic sentiments.
“Yoruba shine your eyes o, if you vote for Peter Obi, it is automatically voting for seaports in South-South and South East. The Igbos will stop coming to Lagos State to invest, rather they will go to Delta and Rivers states, they may even stop building houses in Lagos. It will affect a lot of Yorubas. Yoruba ro nu o,” the message read.
Peter Obi in the viral video made some remarks about the WhatsApp message.
“He doesn’t see the value of let’s have something better, he leads on with confusion and that’s it.
“Somebody said to me that this candidate fought the Abacha regime to stand still. That he even lost everything. I said, but he has two planes now. Where is his company?
“Once he comes here and gives you money, you will say Jagaban is the best candidate even when the man is not well. That’s the problem of the country.
“My brother, we are in a crisis. That’s why I’m pleading to all of us. Let us go and take back our country and run it like any other country where the leader is responsible to the people. The people can question the rascality and the behaviour of their leader. Bad behaviour has become a measure of success in our system,” he said.
However, the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) attacked the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, over his comment on the health of its candidate, Bola Tinubu.
The council, in a statement by one of its spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga, last week Tuesday, said Mr Obi lacks the qualification to comment on Mr Tinubu’s health.
“We find these statements unbecoming of a man who nurses the ambition to be Nigeria’s next president.
“Since he is not Asiwaju’s doctor and is not privy to his medical record, Obi, the poor philosophy graduate, has again disgracefully elevated what has for long been a beer parlour gossip and social media lie being propagated by his IPOB supporters. Obi in his characteristic manner is amplifying falsehood which should not have a place in a decent political campaign,” Onanuga said.
But Obi said that he was taken out of context.
“Quite frankly, so many people took me out of context. I was just trying to explain to people the type of messages people send. Why would people be sending a message that if I become president nobody would invest in Lagos again? I’ll close the ports of Lagos. Everybody knows that Lagos today as it is, the ports are congested. We need to develop new ports, new areas, we need to expand the business. Lagos is still our financial center.
“People have abandoned their properties in Apapa because it has become a mess. Apapa that used to be a reference place of living. people have abandoned it. So you need to open up all those things. And opening them up trying to decongest the port by opening new ports,” he said.
