- Safiu Kehinde
The 2023 Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has revealed his shortfall during his tenure as Anambra state governor.
Obi made the disclosure while speaking in an exclusive interview with Arise TV’s presenter, Oseni Rufai, on Monday.
Reacting to claims of plunging Anambra into poverty during his tenure which spanned from 2007 to 2014, the former governor, attributed the allegation to his failure to engage in promotion of his accomplishment on the media.
Obi recounted his achievements during his tenure which, according him, saw the state emerged as the number one state on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) performance ranking by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“I started effective governance from 2007 after I came back from impeachment.
“By the time we ended in 2014, Anambra state under me was number one. This is not me who measured it. It was UNDP. I was even invited to the United Nations to come and give a speech of what we did.
“I was number one in education, health and everything.
“I can go on and on. So when you now have a distorted view, go and look at the Nigerian competitive index. Go and ask people who were involved in fighting poverty in Nigeria then.
“Ask all the donor agencies who is the first to pay its counterpart funding. Ask everybody.
“The only thing I didn’t do well Rufai is that I wasn’t in the media. I wasn’t going about paying media people, advertising myself and everything. Maybe because I have a little bit of concern about giving people money because it was public money.” Obi said.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party presidential candidate claimed the Anambra’s current source of revenue majorly comes from the brewery he created during his tenure.
“The biggest revenue source for Anambra today is that brewery. That brewery is employing at least, directly, 500 Anambra people.
“That brewery is at least giving food to over 5000 Anambrarians- those who use it as business, distributors, truck drivers, all of that” He said.