Obi Thinks He Can Bring Down Tinubu’s Govt –Morka

Felix Morka is the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on the New Year message of the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and the implication of the message on President Bola Tinubu’s administration, among other issue, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

You described the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, as a prophet of doom. What exactly did he say that is not right in his statement?

A whole lot of what Obi discussed in his press conference were just wrong, totally misled, and almost intentionally misleading, trying to get Nigerians to believe what is not.

Now, I am sure that even those who are listening to Obi, will disagree substantially with his assessment of the state of the country. Now, whatever sector you may wish to look at, the country is rebounding in significant measure.

There’s no question about that. Yes, things were rough at the beginning, but the roughness didn’t start with this administration. The reform that Obi was speaking about was initiated to correct and radically reposition Nigeria for prosperity.

When this government came in, things were just not right but the president took a very hard look at the state of affairs and decided to enunciate very bold policies to radically transform our economic life. Now, 18 months later, we are seeing the results of that. So, right now, I think the conversation shouldn’t be about whether or not those decisions were right or wrong.

We should be looking at what is now the obvious emerging impact of these policies. And they are pointing in the positive direction. So. when Obi says that everything is worse today than it was yesterday, I disagree. And I think many Nigerians will disagree with Obi because that’s not an accurate assessment.

He accused the President of not tying most of the borrowings to specific projects and investments, and advised that the President should stay more at home in 2025. Shouldn’t that be some of the standards that the APC should be setting, if indeed things are getting better?

The President was elected to govern. Governing includes interacting with other countries of the world, especially this President, who has made it a core objective to mobilize investments into Nigeria. You don’t simply do that by sitting in Aso Rock and hoping that the world will come to you.

We live in an age where competition for global resources is very fierce. Every country in the world is looking for the same investment that Nigeria is looking for.

You don’t expect the President, who has launched an ambitious project of economic transformation, to sit put in Aso Rock, so that Obi can be happy, while others are busy shuttling around trying to give reason to investors and other countries to make Nigeria an investment destination.

This president, more than any president in the history of our country, has laboured and has garnered commitments, some of which are beginning now to trickle in, for massive investment that will help transform all of the sectors of our national life.

So, Obi can sit and simply just, you know, I mean, localize his thinking, and because he’s not the president, he can prescribe, like a backseat driver, how best to drive a vehicle, but he’s not the president. And this president has the mandate to govern, and Mr. Obi is not going to dictate to him how he governs.

All I’m saying is that we can quibble with details and quibble with these little things, but we must look at the big picture and see where this President is headed. Now, look at what is going on. Look around you. Is it the refineries? Is it agriculture? Farmers have never had it so good, getting a fair value for their labour.

I mean, in my district of Delta, those who know me, come to me to say, look, you must thank Mr. President for us because my yam farm is producing yield and income that far exceeds what I have gotten in years combined before now. So, while the people who, you know, listen to Obi are screaming, the real Nigerians who are in the productive sectors who are producing and selling their products or services are fizzling out right now.

You’ve hit back at Obi with a volley of attacks, calling him a prophet of doom and a voodoo economist. Don’t you think that’s a slingshot that has gone beyond normal politicking?

No. He is the one throwing that. Obi is shooting from the hip. He is not, he’s not looking. He’s not aiming. He just shoots widely like what we used to see in movies back in the day, in the wild-wild-west.

President Tinubu has been in office for just 18 months… So, Obi should take a chill pill and allow this president to do what he couldn’t do in Anambra State

He is not being rational. It is irrational for a man who was governor for eight years, and who left nothing to remember in Anambra State by way of a legacy or transformation. He served as governor for eight years.

He didn’t have the wisdom or the smarts to change Anambra State and to make Anambra the beacon example of governance in the country.

But then, you know, he ran for president in 2023, and then now he didn’t win. He’s sulking rather than getting a perspective and figuring out what he did to lose, so he can do better in the future.

He thinks that he can bring down the government by simply being maliciously deceptive. That is wrong. I’m not somebody to go on that offensive in that manner, but Obi has crossed the line so many times. And I think that at this point he has come into him whatever he gets, he needs to manage it.

If you were the person who visited an IDP camp and you saw the number of Nigerians still out there who couldn’t celebrate Christmas and New Year in their homes, wouldn’t you feel concerned?

Don’t forget my background. I’m a civil rights lawyer. My entire professional career has been dedicated to working with the poorest of the poor. All of the slums in Nigeria, I have something to do with them and helping them to negotiate power with the government.

So, I’m all too familiar with the nature and the impact of extreme poverty. That’s been the core of my career, helping to do things right and get better deals for people who are in that category, unfortunately.

Anywhere in the world, when you visit IDP camps, it is depressing. It’s not funny. there’s nothing romantic about IDP camps, because when you are displaced, for whatever reason, whether by war or by internal strife or by even natural disaster, people live less than they do ordinarily in the normal course of things.

So, yes, I can hear Obi when he says, I went there and I was depressed and I was sad. Yes, it is sad but Mr. President is the president of everyone in Nigeria. He’s the president of everybody, the rich, the poor, the affluent, and the people in the IDP camps.

He’s the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And Mr. President is somebody who is known. I don’t need to make that point. He is universally acclaimed to be a man who is deeply compassionate, whose level of empathy is beyond Obi.

But we haven’t seen President Tinubu visiting an IDP camp or trying to see how the government can work more using governmental institutions…

I am not here to discuss the schedule of ministers and even the President as to when they will visit the IDP camps.

But what I’m saying is that this government is intentionally orchestrating policies and taking actions that ultimately will reset the reality for everyone, including those who unfortunately find themselves in IDP camps for whatever reason that they got there, whether it’s because of flooding or because of terrorism or because of war, whatever it is that has got them there.

This President has a global perspective and is mobilizing resources and positioning assets to help treat all of these circumstances.

The point I’m making is that whether the president himself has personally visited IDP camps at this time, does that mean he won’t do that? It doesn’t mean that. And I’m not here to tell you the President is going to go there tomorrow. But I’m just saying that we can’t always take today and think that the world ends today.

The world doesn’t end today. It may end today from the analysis that Obi is willing to make. But it doesn’t end today because the resident has the liberty to go anywhere and do things as he thinks. And he has ministers who work for him. He has other levels of authority who are delivering government policies and programs to ensure that people everywhere, wherever they are, get to feel the impact of government.

What I’m saying is that Mr Obi’s analysis is presented to make it sound as though this President has done something colossal in neglecting people who are in the IDP.

And I’m saying that that’s actually ridiculous because President Tinubu has been in office for just 18 months and he’s in office for he was elected to serve for four years. So, Obi should take a chill pill and allow this president to do what he couldn’t do in Anambra State.

Look at refineries, things, where is it, it’s insecurity. In every sector you look at, you see massive pointers of progress. And I know that the media, again, it’s understandable that sometimes we focus too much on the negatives. But I think that we need to, at this time, begin to move away from this focus on just reporting the tragedies in our country.

And look at the positive side. This is a new year for crying out loud. Let us begin to take stock of the good things that are happening while still keeping a focus on what is wrong and what needs to be done. Nobody, the president is not saying to everybody stop telling me about what needs to be done. Yes, we need to do that.

But we need to also take stock so that we can begin to see what we’re doing right and then replicate that. And then what we’re not doing right to begin to see how we can fix it. That is what governance does everywhere in the world, not just in our country, but everywhere in the world.

Related