10th January, 2023
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has fired back at Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, by vowing to retire them.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Asaba, Delta State, on Monday, Obi said the 2023 election is about character and people Nigerians can trust.
The former Anambra governor pledged to revitalize the Warri refinery, which had been in disrepair, as well as to complete the East-West road.
Obi urged Nigerians not to elect persons who were known to have looted the treasury of the nation in the past.
He said, “We will make Warri Port work again. We will complete the East-West road. They have been building the road for 24 years but we will complete it.
“If you put my age and Datti’s age and divide it into two, we are in our fifties. The other people if you put their own they are in their seventies. You know that there is a retirement age. The PDP chairman is 70 years, APC chairman is 70 years. The Labour Party chairman is 52 years old. So it is our turn. We will retire them, we will pay them compensation.
“Our government will be one for youth and women. That is why I told you our average age, not these other people we don’t know their age, we don’t know where they were born, we don’t know which school they attended.
“I know you heard when they said Peter is stingy. I agree, Nigeria doesn’t want people who will steal their money again. We want to use our money for our people.
“This election is about character and people we can trust. Everybody knows the schools I attended. When I was the governor in Anambra everybody knows what I did, all the work I did. When I left government, everybody knows where I live, go and verify.”
Tinubu had labelled Obi a stingy man.
While campaigning in Ondo, Tinubu said Obi had a chance to show how progressive he could be when he was governor of Anambra State.
“All he could do was boast that he saved money. But I tell you it is a wicked parent that holds money in his hand yet allows his children to starve.
“Likewise, it is a heartless governor who holds back money when people go hungry, and schools, roads and clinics go into disrepair. Neither the city-dweller nor the farmer prospered under him.
“In the end, he refused to save the people because he preferred to save the money.
“And he claims to be in the party of labour. You will have to be labouring under a terrible delusion if you think he will do better for the nation than he did for Anambra State. Buyers beware of salesmen selling fake merchandise.
“The truth of the difference between my leadership and that of Mr. Obi lies in one observation. Although Lagos is crowded and Anambra has ample space, more people left Obi’s Anambra seeking a better life in Tinubu’s Lagos than left Lagos, believing Obi had established a blueprint for growth in Anambra.
“My people, you cannot entrust your future or that of our nation to Mr. Sell Everything, Atiku, or Mr. Stingy, Obi. But you can trust Mr. Progressive Good Governance Tinubu!” Tinubu added.