Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has unleashed a stinging rebuttal against Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, accusing him of worsening poverty in Anambra State during his tenure as governor. This fiery response followed Obi’s recent remarks at Johns Hopkins University, where he harshly criticized President Bola Tinubu’s administration, claiming it was plunging more Nigerians into poverty.
Speaking in a statement titled “Factually Addressing Mr. Peter Obi’s Criticism of Nigeria at Johns Hopkins University,” Sanwo-Olu tore into Obi’s credibility, branding him unfit to lecture Nigerians about poverty alleviation. According to Sanwo-Olu, Obi’s own record in Anambra exposed a legacy of economic failure rather than the competence he frequently boasts about.
Sanwo-Olu pointedly reminded Nigerians that when Peter Obi assumed office in Anambra in June 2007, the state’s poverty rate was 41.4%. Shockingly, under Obi’s watch, that figure surged to 53.7% within just two years — a devastating climb that crippled many families across the state. Sanwo-Olu emphasized that Obi’s successor, Willie Obiano, was able to slash that poverty rate dramatically to 14.8% within a few years, a feat Obi had failed to even remotely achieve.
Rather than inspire hope, Sanwo-Olu argued, Obi left behind a battered economy, and thus, has no moral ground to accuse the Tinubu administration of economic mismanagement. He went further, accusing Obi of projecting negativity about Nigeria on global stages instead of promoting the country’s image abroad — a practice Sanwo-Olu described as unpatriotic and damaging.
While Obi lamented the growing poverty in Nigeria, Sanwo-Olu defended Tinubu’s track record, stating that as Governor of Lagos, Tinubu spearheaded transformative policies that lifted millions out of poverty. He cited Tinubu’s achievements: over 200 new schools built, the provision of student loans for thousands of undergraduates, and hundreds of millions of dollars channeled into credit facilities for small businesses.
Sanwo-Olu dismissed Obi’s criticisms as hypocritical, noting that Obi neither built a single standalone hospital nor a significant educational institution during his eight years in office. He stressed that the Tinubu administration, despite being barely two years in, had already laid foundations for long-term economic revival through strategic investments in education, healthcare, and small business support — areas Obi had sorely neglected in Anambra.
Wrapping up his remarks, Sanwo-Olu challenged Nigerians to judge leaders not by lofty speeches but by the hard facts of their governance records. In his view, Peter Obi “talks a good game” but failed to deliver meaningful change when given the opportunity, whereas President Tinubu’s past and current records speak for themselves.
In Sanwo-Olu’s blunt assessment, if anyone should be speaking about poverty reduction in Nigeria, it certainly isn’t Peter Obi.
