Valentine Obienyem, the media adviser to Peter Obi, says the Labour Party presidential candidate’s trip to Egypt will benefit Nigerians.
He said this in a statement issued on Thursday, a few days after the former Anambra governor explained that he embarked on the trip to understudy the North African country’s power sector. The move generated heated debates among Nigerians with critics faulting the trip.
But Obienyem says “the knowledge he (Obi) has gained will be useful to Nigeria weather he becomes president or not”.
The media aide noted that while Obi respects the opinion of others, “they should also permit us to tell them that Obi actually travelled specifically for the reason he mentioned”.
I just departed for Egypt on a 3-day visit as part of my detailed study of comparable countries to Nigeria. In Egypt, I am expected to understudy, among others, the Egyptian Power Sector, Education, Planning and Finance Sectors. -PO pic.twitter.com/GzH8Gl7977
— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) June 14, 2022
He re-echoed the former governor’s reason for the trip, wondering why such a decision triggered criticisms.
“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,” the statement added.
“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.”
“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,” he added.
