“…despite being a self-acclaimed billionaire, he and his likes continue importing all manner of junks, including toothpicks to sell to Nigerians…”
ARISE NEWS
Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima has condemned comments made by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Mr Peter Obi, for questioning the motive behind the proposed N15.5 billion budgeted by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to construct a new official residence for the him.
FCT Minister, Nysom Wike, had recently revealed that the government planned to use the funds for a “befitting residence” for the nation’s Vice President.
However, Obi attacked the idea in a series of tweets on his X handle on Monday, calling it “shocking and disheartening.”
Reacting to the criticism, Shettima in a release issued on Tuesday by his media aide, Stanley Nkwocha, accused Obi of dancing “naked in the public square, trying to curry the attention of those who care to listen to his falsehood and warped opinions about waste.”
It further stated that Obi was merely embarking on armchair criticism of the Tinubu administration after his colossal loss at the presidential poll.
According to Shettima: “For good 24 hours, Obi danced naked in the public square, trying to curry the attention of those who care to listen to his falsehood and warped opinions about waste.
“On Sunday, he accused the current administration of sponsoring over 1,400 delegates to Dubai for COP28. The next day, being Monday, the subject of his new found passion – armchair criticism – after his colossal loss at the presidential poll was the proposed N15.5billion budgeted by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to renovate the house of the Vice President, which he claimed would pay the annual salary of 3,000 University Professors.”
The statement further clarified that the proposed plan for the construction of the Vice President’s official residence, for which 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. This, Mr Obi, knows but chose to play dumb all in a bid to inflamate a targeted group of Nigerians and, as usual, score cheap political goals, accolades and praises.
“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have bothered to gratify Peter Obi with a response, especially when it is obvious that the Labour Party candidate is an unhealthy subject to post-election trauma. But it has become necessary to put the records straight.
“In his recent tirade against President Tinubu and his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Obi started another series of self-aggrandizement aimed at convincing Nigerians that he is the only person who has their interest at heart. But a clear shift of the veil will reveal deeply a man who is still sobbing after his woeful loss in the 2023 presidential election.
“For the records, unlike the ‘most brilliant, all knowing and Nigeria’s mirific but never-had President,’ Mr Peter Obi, both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, have never claimed to know it all or exhibit anything close to perfection in their dealings. If anything, they have always submitted to their human nature, leaving perfection to the Almighty God only.
“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 was now 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 residences of the Senate President and the Speaker.
