Former candidate to the Labour in the 2023 presidential election Peter Obi, described as laughable the effort by the presidency to link him with the United States of America (USA) Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump, as an attempt to curry favour from the Democrats.
Obi in a statement by spokesperson of Peter Obi Media office (POMR) Ibrahim Umar, said he was aware of the motive behind these ridiculous comparisons.
“Nigerians who mused about the derisory and facetious comparison have tried to ask: ‘Will your calling Peter Obi a Trump’, translate to or mean that Tinubu is Harris?’” he asked.
He called on Nigerians to compare Obi and Tinubu and attempted to equate them with the two American Presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Accroding to him, such similarities and parallels should be in terms of morality, transparency, good-standing antecedents and people-focused policies.
“The presidency by indulging in such clever-by-half comparisons, which are intended to discredit Obi, merely brings to the fore the glaring weaknesses of the incumbent administration and their crassness and inability to discern the realities and especially the pains and pangs their actions and policies foisted on the nation in the past year. Nigerians are not so gullible to be fooled by such empty propaganda,” he said.
The former Anambra State governor described it as ironic that Tinubu’s spin doctors who since the early campaign days into over a year as president have remained disturbingly aloof and seemingly incapable of presenting himself and his policies to the Nigerians through the media.
Obi noted that President Bola Tinubu has continued to evade public accountability, and accused him of trying to malign Obi “who has easily emerged in all ramifications as the most visible, focused and articulate political personality in this dispensation.
“Obi remains a man who has not only become the conscience of the people but also their hope for a new and egalitarian democracy.”
He stated that rather than strive to market and justify President Tinubu and “rusty and anti-people deleterious policies that have put Nigeria and Nigerians in the most horrendous, conditions,” his handlers have resorted to conveying misleading accounts of his (Obi’s) activities to distract the Nigerian public.
Obi added that while he understands the frustration of selling a bad product in a competitive market, “the FairPlay rule demands that you don’t de-market the good product by forcefully associating it with the ugly product.”
According to him, the intention of the spin doctors was to provoke his supporters across the country and diaspora by twisting his recent media interview to insinuate that he is ready to be vice president to anyone.
“But that fallacy could not be true of a man who has repeatedly stated in various fora that he is not desperate to be president but desperate to see Nigeria work.
“Such plebian conduct that is utterly devoid of integrity remains the height of mischief from propagandists, who are envious of the rising profile of our principal,” the statement added.
He appealed to Nigerians especially the Obidients within and outside the country and across all the political parties to remain undistracted in their aspiration and desire to see a new Nigeria that is Possible.
