Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, has emphasized the importance of transparency in President Bola Tinubu’s movements.
This statement comes in response to Tinubu’s recent trip to Paris, where the presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, cited it as a “private visit.”
Ngelale assured the public that Tinubu would return to the country in the first week of February 2024. However, Peter Obi, expressing his concerns through his X handle, questioned why the sitting president should undertake a privately funded visit using public resources.
NN News Media reported that during the campaign, Tinubu had departed the country, remaining absent for nearly a month before the presidential election, with no disclosed information about his whereabouts. Additionally, he went missing for several weeks in the United States during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Obi in his statement, emphasized that as a public national asset, all of Tinubu’s movements should be made public for the citizens to be aware of the reasons behind his trips. He argued that private visits, especially those funded by public resources, should be avoided, and if necessary, should be at the expense of the individual involved.
“I have been wondering what is private for a sitting President who is not on vacation to embark on a publicly funded ‘private’ visit,” Obi stated. “May I humbly remind the President that he is now a public national asset. Therefore, all his movements now should be public knowledge and matters of public interest.”
The former governor of Anambra stressed the need for cost-cutting measures in governance, urging leaders to be mindful of the financial implications of their actions. Obi highlighted the dilapidation of essential infrastructure used by the majority, including foreign investors, and called for a change in the current approach.
“The situation we find ourselves in calls for such drastic cuts in the cost of governance, and attendant savings, to be appropriately used for every minor public good. That is the spirit of the New Nigeria we are clamoring for,” Obi concluded.
