Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has lashed out at 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi over his comments criticising President Bola Tinubu’s foreign trips.
Tinubu is expected to embark on a two-nation tour to Japan and Brazil on Thursday, a trip Omokri says is crucial for attracting foreign capital and strengthening Nigeria’s economy.
He likened the president’s travels to similar diplomatic efforts under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which he claimed delivered significant economic benefits.
According to Omokri, Tinubu’s international engagements have already produced a $14 billion trade surplus in the last fiscal year and driven a 3.4% GDP growth, which he noted was described by international media as Nigeria’s best economic performance in a decade.
He also cited a $2.5 billion investment from Brazilian meatpacker JBS as a direct outcome of Tinubu’s overseas diplomacy.
Omokri accused Obi of political desperation and a lack of understanding of statecraft, insisting that the former Anambra governor’s criticism was rooted in personal ambition rather than facts.
He said, “Criticising President Tinubu’s Foreign Travels Confirms That Peter Obi Is a Petty Trader Who Should Open a Stall At Onitsha Market And Do What He Does Best.
“Please fact-check me: In his first term as President of Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo travelled 103 times between 1999 and 2003. This was at a time Nigeria faced the Sharia crisis and the Niger-Delta militancy.
“President Bola Tinubu has not travelled even one-quarter of that, yet Peter Obi has been on record praising President Obasanjo as an ideal President.
“Peter Obi is just desperate to be President of Nigeria and will say anything as he grasps at straws in order to discredit the President and heat the polity.
“In any case, a President who travels out of Nigeria to bring foreign investment into Nigeria is better than a Presidential aspirant who, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in their Pandora Papers, illegally siphoned money out of Nigeria to hide it from the Code of Conduct Bureau.
“Why does President Tinubu have to travel periodically? Because for years before Asiwaju Tinubu became President, Nigeria’s population grew faster than our economy. And as a consequence of this Malthusian situation, Nigeria faced challenges.
“The only way we, as a nation, can effectively and consistently break that negative cycle is if Nigeria attracts foreign capital and reduces its dependence on imports.
“That is why President Tinubu implemented reforms that are bearing fruit. These have led to a record-breaking \$14 billion trade surplus in the last fiscal year and economic growth of 3.4%, which prompted CNN to declare that under Tinubu, Nigeria has achieved its best economy in a decade.
“Without attracting foreign capital, like the $2.5 billion investment by the Brazilian meatpacker JBS, after President Tinubu’s visit to Brazil last year, Nigeria would not currently have its best economy in a decade.
“Peter Obi is just a local trader who doesn’t understand statecraft, which is why he keeps criticising President Bola Tinubu for taking trips.
“He is not learned enough to understand the relationship between foreign travel and foreign investment because all he knows is how to import goods and sell them for a profit. Like I said, he is a petty trader who can never make a better leader. He should open a stall at Onitsha Market and do what he does best!”
