Obi denies social media stories, explains trip to Egypt

The Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP) and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi has reiterated that his trip to Egypt was to understudy the country’s success in power generation, and not for any other reason.

Following the disclosure of his trip to Egypt, many commentators on social media had lampooned Obi over the trip, suggesting that he should rather have taken a trip to Ekiti State to show support for the party’s candidate over the governorship election in that state which comes up this Saturday..

Whilst some say the reason for the trip as given by Obi showed lack of preparedness, others argue that he traveled for a private reason he’s hiding.

One Jackson Ude on Twitter alleged that the former governor traveled to Egypt to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Afrexim Bank, but lied to Nigerians that he went to study power generation.

Reacting to the allegations and reproaches, the media aide to Obi, Valentine Obienyem, insisted that his principal had not gone to Egypt for any reason other than that which he had earlier given.

in a statement he shared on Thursday with pictures, the media aide said, “On Tuesday, the 14th of June, 2022, Mr. Peter Obi informed Nigerians via his twitter handle of his trip to Egypt, to understudy by what miracle the third biggest economy in Africa after South-Africa and Nigeria moved their power generation from 20,000 Megawatts to over 40,000 megawatts in four years. Ironically, Nigeria has remained fixated on 4,000 megawatts since Adam.

“Why would such a useful trip set tongues wagging? I read many comments on Mr. Peter Obi’s trip. Some of the comments, like that of Mr. Omoyele Sowore insinuated that going to Egypt to learn about governance or how some of their economic policies helped to turn their country around in 9 months to the election was a sign of unpreparedness.

“Our friend Mr. Jacson Ude swore that Obi is in Cairo for the AGM meeting of Afreximbank and not to “understudy Egypt’s education, power and Finance Sector.” He spoke with the assurance of one who was part of the preparation for that meeting and was sure that Obi’s name was on the protocol list of expected guests.

“Let me assure all commentators that we respect their opinions and comments, but they should also permit us to tell them that Obi actually travelled specifically for the reason he mentioned.

Read also: Doyin Okupe justifies Peter Obi’s trip to Egypt

“Any sedulous listener to Obi would have heard him say that learning and leadership are interwoven: a leader must be humble at all times to learn from the high and the low to the extent of studying or learning from existing templates or countries that have done correctly what one’s own is not able to do. This is the full essence of the Egyptian trip.

“The knowledge he has gained will be useful to Nigeria weather he becomes president or not.

“When I travelled with him to Bangladesh, Rwanda, Kenya, Benin Republic, China, India, among others, it was essentially to study aspects of their development. He has been availing the country of his findings in his quest to see a better governed Nigeria”.

ObienyemI shared pictures and videos of Obi in Egypt, meeting with electricity experts in the country.

By Oluwatobi Odeyinka…

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