Anambra state Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, may not think that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, is good enough for Nigeria and will not win the presidential election in 2023; but his son, Ozonna, has a different opinion.
In a Facebook post, the 28 years old UK-based artiste, voiced his own opinion. His words:“I am not an extension of anybody. I have my own opinions and have always said I think Peter is the best candidate. All this has nothing to do with me.”
His comments come as another Obi supporter from Imo State described Soludo’s criticism of the economic gains by Peter Obi, including his investments and savings, as sour prapes.
“Some years ago, he advised people I know to buy shares because it was profitable to do so. Do we blame him if those persons retained the shares until they became worthless in their hands. To be fair to him, it was a beautiful financial advice he gave at the time; but he couldn’t be held responsible for the crash of stock prices months and years later.
“In the same way, Peter Obi cannot be held responsible if several years down the line, economic decisions he took, which were sound and profitable at the time, were mismanaged by a successor,” the source, who does not want to be named, stated.
But from Anambra State, another supporter, Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, in comments believed to be directed at the occupant of the Government House, took him to the cleaners, berating him for his lacerating comments on the LP candidate.
Said FCC Jones, “Mr Peter Obi and his official communication team are not interested in joining issues with him, nor any other person or group who is or are on a mercenary mission to distract the team from their focus of rescuing Nigeria from the shackles of bad governance brought about by years of incompetence, insensibility and corruption, which characters like …, who has strove all these years to portray himself as an intellectual or even a technocrat, contributed more than a lot to.
“Those who know him closely have held strongly to the convinction that he is a “well packaged …” and a clay-brained intellectual, who was driven to the top by a combination of good fortunes, deceptive loyalty, inveigle, and a dangerous willingness to do dirty jobs for money or for power.
“Many of us, especially, those of my age who were undergraduate activists at the onset of the Fourth Republic, when his likes were packaged as saints and geniuses and given a lot more credit than they deserve, have a comrade, who was apparently taken over by the media creation of a sterling, brilliant image of the now better unveiled invidious Isuofia local chief. ..”
According to Mr Onwuasoanya, “We have all since seen the real stars of that Obasanjo era move on to higher callings in the international community, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is actually the star of that administration now holding sway at the World Trade Organisation after many other notable international appointments. But, in what should be the clearest evidence of his intellectual inefficiency, … has rather been shuttling from Aso Rock to Agu Awka, with bowl in hand seeking anointing to be governor or to be settled with one appointment or the other by the federal government.
“For a man who would want us to recognise and probably prostrate before him as an economic egghead, yet, his advice and recommendations are partly responsible for the economic disaster we are confronted with in the current Buhari administration, as he is one of the few men appointed into the Buhari Economic Advisory Board. How can a man who advised Nigeria into an unprecedented crash in the value of the Naira, lowest ever GDP in recent history, highest ever inflation since 1999, worse cost of living crisis in the history of Nigeria and of course, the most negative economic outlook in recent Nigerian history, consider himself qualified to pontificate on the right economic practices?
“Apparently when (he) took up his tablet or any device he wrote with, he probably thought very lowly of Nigerians, if he thought anyone would take him seriously, giving his self-glorifying panegyric. Let me try to interrogate paragraph by paragraph, this ignominious drivel into historical infamy.
“It is obvious from the first paragraph of the long-winded venom, that our Isuofia brother was out for a dirty paid job. Not for himself, nor for his party, but for his employers; the Abuja cabal and the bat. If an executive governor could sit down and personally author a piece of humorless comedy in response to what he aptly described as social media trolling of his by individuals he couldn’t identify by name or their official positions, then there is no better way to describe such a governor, but as an insecure miscast in power. If (he) was not a miscast in Agu Awka, he should have known that he would only need to respond to statements made from official quarters or those that come directly from his “peers”. “Unfortunately, like every intellectual error, like a village cat who would always shout to roar his tigritude, “(he) only wanted to remind people that he is a Professor and that he can write. Expectedly, he wrote gibberish.
“I do not agree with him that he reads “The Man in the Arena” regularly, because if he did, he wouldn’t have gone ahead in a later paragraph to categorically dismiss the chances of the real man in the arena as long as the 2023 election is concerned. He would have taken to heart a stanza in that epigram which reads;
“…who at the best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
“If (he) got his training right, he would have known that there is nowhere in Igbo custom or belief system where it is assumed or affirmed that saying the truth is suicidal or dangerous. We say in Igbo that “Eziokwu bu ndu” and we are always encouraged to say the truth always. Mischievous elders like (him) are the ones who consider saying the truth a dangerous act, hence, speak equivocally and tell us it is being diplomatic. Like it is obvious in his long and misdirected recrimination, (he) has nothing to say but to pour out his bitterness and deliver on a dirty job for which he was deployed by his Abuja bosses. So, it is nonsensical for him to say he would refrain from saying certain things. That was a subtle appeal for ceasefire from the Obidients. He wants us to become afraid that he might spill the beans, hence, leave him alone. That’s an overused blackmailing strategy which doesn’t work on people like us.
“No matter how stringently he tries to deny it, (he) is clearly envious of Peter Obi, and I will give you five reasons why he is; 1. Peter Obi is a multibillionaire with clear evidences of how he made his every Kobo, and who, even though has never been indicted by any anti-graft agency in this country. If Soludo claims that he is a billionaire today, we will subject him to thorough investigation because he has been a salary earner all his life, and with what we know about his legitimate earnings, he would be a thief to be a billionaire.
2. Peter Obi is the most popular and masses-oriented Nigerian politician alive. (He) would be ready to sacrifice everything he has to enjoy 10% of the love Peter Obi enjoys from Nigerians.
3. Peter Obi has kept a clean record throughout his stay in public office. Had (the chief) not been desperately romancing with every government in power, he would probably had been in jail now for the multibillion Naira scam he is being investigated for by the EFCC. 4. Peter Obi’s first political outing was on his own terms, when he won the governorship of Anambra State, (He, on the other hand), may be one obscure and probably frustrated lecturer in some not too Ivy League University somewhere, if Obasanjo hadn’t been sold a dummy that he was hiring a firebrand economist, who turned out to be the shlockiest appointee in Obasanjo’s economic and who would have wrecked our economy had Obasanjo not had an Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the helm of the economic team.
5. Peter Obi governed Anambra for eight years without using the power of a governor or the resources of Ndi Anambra to fund his children’s career. (But) in less than one year as (he) has used (public) resources and his powers to organise a fashion show for his daughter and to launch an album for his son. It is clear enough that without (his position), these children of his might have as well not got any mention in the industry they are trying to play in.
“You do not say that someone is your friend, you show that you are someone’s friend. Yours is certainly not the kind of friendship anyone would want to keep, because you are a dangerous friend. No true friend takes to the public to sing about purported private discussions he had with a friend.
“Assuming you actually offered Peter Obi the option of joining APGA to run for presidency, it is because Peter Obi has seen through your treachery and knows that APGA would not provide the platform for him to run an effective and successful presidential campaign, that he turned down that poisoned chalice of a gift. And you cannot claim to be a true democrat in one breath and in another boast about how you planned to impose someone as your party’s candidate without following the laid down democratic principles of election. Peter Obi joined Labour Party because no single individual would decide what happens to him and what doesn’t. The APGA ticket was a setup to extinguish the fire of his campaign. And, would he have been joining the Victor Oye illegal executive or the authentic executive led by Edozie Njoku?”