Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2023 general election, recently revealed the depth of his commitment to public service, stating that he would “rather die than fail” if he had won the presidency.
Obi expressed a strong sense of duty to the Nigerian people, explaining that the citizens would have entrusted their future to him, and he would have done everything in his power to honour that trust.
In a recent appearance on The Honest Bunch podcast, Obi reflected on his time as the governor of Anambra State, sharing stories about his cost-saving measures and financial discipline.
In his words, “I would rather prefer to die than fail if I had succeeded in being president of Nigeria. No way! God, you cannot allow me to come here because these people were not voting for me. They entrusted their future to me, and I would have stayed here. It was theirs.
“When I told somebody, ‘Here, I will be here, not going anywhere. We will see. We will make it work,’ because I knew it could work. And that was my approach in Anambra.
“So when I started, people told us, ‘This is the supposed money. It must be used for them.’ They burned the lodge belonging to Anambra, the governor’s office, and other facilities. But these items were in the budget.
“To refurbish my office, the approved budget was 298 million. But I did everything with 43 million, 200 thousand. Everything new. The only thing we didn’t buy new was a table.
“To refurbish the lodge and do everything, the budget was 486 million. I did it all with 81 million. They wanted designer furniture, but I said, ‘Listen, we’re in Awka. There must be somebody here who can make a bed. A bed is a bed. If you have a reason to sleep, you can sleep here. And we must cut this cost.’ So it became a quarter,” Obi explained.
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