Sanwo-Oell to Peter Obi: you contributed to the increase in poverty in Nigeria, Tinubu raised millions of people from poverty

*In reality, identify the criticisms of Mr. Peter Obi at Nigeria at Johns Hopkins University

Thursday 24 April 2025, former governor Peter Obi, candidate for the presidency of the Labor Party for the 2023 elections, was at the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore, Maryland, where he made several denigration comments on Nigeria.

He made the unsustainted observations not only on the Nigerian government in office, but also on Nigeria.

I also find the behavior model of Mr. Obi disturbing. When the prominent Nigerians go abroad, they should positively project Nigeria. They don’t have to do it for the government. But we must all duty to market Nigeria on the global phase rather than discoard it. This is true patriotism.

Since Mr. Obi focused on poverty and said that the current administration’s policies are making the Nigerians poorer, I will focus on this.

Any leader can fight poverty in general by promoting education, improving health care, providing credit and giving access to the earth.

Now, I find somehow ironic that a man like Mr. Obi, who has not built a single school or an autonomous hospital during his eight -year mandate as a governor of Anambra or provides supporters in a sustainable way, criticizing the government of Nigeria, who is doing it actively.

I say this because the president of Nigeria, the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is my predecessor and as a governor of Lagos and now president of Nigeria, has built over 200 schools and provided student loans to over 200,000 university students of Nigerian tertiary institutions.

In less than two years, he has provided over half a billion dollars in credit lines to small and medium -sized enterprises.

While he was governor of the state of Lagos between 1999 and 2007, the president reduced poverty of over 46%. There is all the reasons to believe that, based on what has done as a governor of Lagos, he will repeat the same company at the federal level. After all, the best predictor of the future is the past.

But we examine the messenger, not only the message, and look at the issuer and the problems.

Mr. Obi speaks a good game. But was it able to reduce poverty while ruled anmber? Maybe we can let the facts speak for themselves.

Under Peter Obi as a two -term governor Anambra, Anambra poverty increased. It has not reduced. Before Peter Obi became governor of Anambra on Thursday 14 June 2007, the poverty rate in Anambra was 41.4%.

But after only two years in charge, the poverty rate in Anambra climbed to 53.7%.

But the interesting thing is that five years after Peter Obi left his position, his successor, Willie Obiano, reduced the poverty rate to Anambra from almost 60% to 14.8%.

As such, I am not sure that Mr. Obi is morally well positioned to make the alarming statements he made on the Nigeria to Johns Hopkins.

Mr. Obi contributed to the increase in poverty in Nigeria. Governor Tinubu, as then, was responsible for lifting millions of poverty.

Being so, who should criticize who?

*Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Elimo is the Governor of the State of Lagos.