2027 Election Campaign Must Be Based On Issues Of Good Governance, Not Name-Calling — Peter Obi

 

2027 Election Campaign Must Be Based On Issues Of Good Governance, Not Name-Calling — Peter Obi

He charged the media to assume the role of policeman over politicians ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, has warned that the escalating resort to character assassination and name-calling in Nigerian politics will destroy whatever remains of the country’s political system.

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He charged the media to assume the role of policeman over politicians ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Obi, who spoke on Friday at the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Enugu, said the media — as managers of information — must force politicians into issue-based campaigns or risk presiding over the collapse of credible elections.

“And for me today, as we approach election, I have only one thing I will plead that you include in your discussion,” Obi told the gathering.

“We made a choice to be a democratic country, and that choice is a choice that can help our country to grow. And it is important that you help us, the politicians, to ensure that as we approach election, number one, that our discussions, our campaigns, everything we do, is strictly based on issues that will bring good governance, that will bring unity, security, and prosperity for the country.”

He was blunt about the media’s gatekeeping duty.

“You can guide us. If anybody steps out of it and goes into name-calling, or anything, you say, ‘No, no, no, no! That’s not the issue. You shouldn’t go there.’ That you ensure that we have free, fair, and credible election. If anybody stops anybody from campaigning, you say, ‘No.'”

Obi, who governed Anambra State from 2006 to 2014, drew on his own record to illustrate what he called a “conducive environment” for opposition politics — a pointed contrast to the situation in several states today where opposition candidates are reportedly denied venues and harassed.

“I said, in my second tenure, Fashola came to Anambra State to campaign for Ngige who was in ACN. It was me who gave Fashola my convoy,” Obi recalled. “And because I don’t have two convoys, I didn’t go out of my office that day. I gave him everything, and stayed back in my office. He even said to me, ‘Where are we going to meet?’ I said, ‘Unless you drive past my office, because I don’t have two sets of cars. So, that’s why, the one you have is the only one I have. So, as you’re using it, I’m in one place.’ Fashola is still there. You can go and ask him.”

He continued: “Obasanjo came to campaign for Andy Uba, I followed him. Everybody who is in Anambra was there. Some of you are there. He raised Andy Uba’s hand and said, ‘He’s the one, he’s incoming, I’m the outgoing.’ No problem, and I’m contesting the same — we didn’t quarrel. Orji Uzor Kalu came for Uche Ekwunife, we did not quarrel, I gave them lunch. When they finished, he said, ‘Uche will take over from me,’ no quarrel. It is the people.”

The former governor said the country needed that kind of environment to make democracy work. “So we need that conducive environment to campaign as a country, to make it work. There’s no issue between,” he said.

On his much-speculated relationship with Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo, Obi insisted there was no rift.

“Me and Soludo are close. As a banker, he was my customer. And we have not changed. If I see him, I greet him, I respect his office — he’s the governor,” Obi said.

“People see me and say… if you watch the same interview, they say, ‘Oh, what is between you and Soludo? Whether you’re owing or not owing.’ I said, Soludo is my respected elder brother. Any day, anytime! People might not know, I and my wife are godparents to Soludo’s children. Yes, we’re that close. So we’re not quarrelling! And we will never quarrel! If I see him any day, me and him will hug and everything.”

Obi returned to the debt controversy that has trailed his administration, insisting that he left Anambra State with $150 million in savings rather than the $123.77 million in “loans” the current government claims.

“If they say anything, I’ll answer them. Like I said yesterday, I did not leave debt in Anambra State. If you like, go and see that interview. The day I left office, thank God, Oti confirmed it this morning while on Arise, I left $150 million in savings. No other governor has left dollars. If you see one, tell me. I left $150 million,” he said.

He contrasted that with what he met in 2006. “The day I came in, I explained it to them, what I met was $18 million debt. When I left, it was $30 million. I left $150 million.

Obi said the money he left was generating $10 million annually for the state. “So even if you say all the money they said Anambra is owing, $120 million, and it was created by me, which is wrong public accounting — I said it yesterday — the money I left was giving Anambra State $10 million every year. So if you have been paying it 10-10 million, you would have finished paying it now, and the capital will still be remaining.”

He added: “If they decide to keep it without touching it, as at today, that money would have been $360-something million. Out of which, if they take 130 and pay, they have 230 to play with. So, it’s a case of a father who allowed his children to inherit N100 million, but they said he’s owing N10 million, and they’re saying he’s owing debt. When they should have just paid it, and take their change, and be celebrating the man for making them rich.”

He stressed he had no personal quarrel with any governor. “So for me, and I didn’t do it… I didn’t do it calling any of their names. I have no reason to do that. They are governors, they need peace, they need time.”