You’re only after cheap political points, Presidency lambasts Obi over VP’s residence comments

The Nigerian Presidency has lambasted the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, for criticising plans by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to use N15.5 billion to complete the official residence of Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Reacting to comments credited to Obi on Tuesday, the Presidency said the former Abambra State Governor was attempting to whip up public sentiments against the President Bola Tinubu administration over the budgetary provision for the completion of the VP’s residence.

Obi had, in a post on X, described as shocking and disheartening plans by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to earmark the N15.5 billion for the renovation of the VP”s official residence.

However, in a statement in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, the Presidency said the quest to give the Vice President a befitting residence did not start with the Tinubu administration as it actually started in 2007 under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Giving the reactions and invocations generated by Mr. Obi’s comments, however, it is necessary, for the sake of history, to clarify that the proposed plan for the construction of the Vice President’s official residence, for which a budgetary allocation was made in the 2024 budget by the FCT Administration, was awarded by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. It was not originated by the present administration,” the statement said.

“This, Mr. Obi knows but chose to play dumb, all in a bid to inflame a targeted group of Nigerians and, as usual, score cheap political goals, accolades and praises.

“The project, which was reinitiated in 2010 and was funded by the Jonathan administration, was abandoned.

“Appalled by the sorry state of the uncompleted building that has now been overtaken by weeds and reptiles over a decade after construction started about 13 years ago, the current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, felt it would be a waste to allow such a project started with public funds to continue to lie fallow.

“Thus, in his wisdom and without the prompting of the Vice President, decided to resuscitate the building.

“We invite more cerebral Nigerians to crosscheck properly, which should be considered a waste between Obi’s tantrums because the project has attracted government’s attention, given the decision by the current administration to complete vital abandoned projects.

“What is more wasteful and reckless than abandoning an edifice to rot and depreciate, despite the amount that has been sunk into it over the years?

“We recall that while Obi was governor of Anambra State, he had insisted that contractors should return to site to complete abandoned projects, which he then never considered as a waste.

“If he did this while deploying ‘entailed wisdom and leadership’ to Ndi Anambra as a governor, the question now is: why should the same action by the Tinubu administration now be termed blue murder?

“Nigerians know that the issue of a befitting residence for the Vice President had been a recurring decimal in the budget of Nigeria since 2007. It did not start today; same for the residences of the Senate President and the House Speaker.

“The array of abandoned Federal Government projects littered all over the country is a national embarrassment that the current administration has taken a bold step to save the country from.

“This is why it has made it a priority that all abandoned projects must be completed before new ones are initiated, save for some on exceptional basis, either because of the need for strategic alignment or economic significance.”

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