By Uche Amunike
The former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has condemned President Tinubu’s trip to St. Lucia, describing it as insensitive and badly timed, considering that the country is currently facing serious insecurity and hardship.
Speaking, through a post on X on Saturday, Obi explained that he was yet to understand the style of governance in Nigeria.
His words: ‘What I have seen and witnessed in the last two years has left me in shock about poor governance delivery and apparent channelling of energy into politics and satisfaction of the elites, while the masses in our midst are languishing in want.’
‘In the past two years, Nigeria has lost more people to all sorts of criminality than a country that is officially at war.’
‘Without any twilight, Nigeria ranks among the most insecure places in the world. Nigerians are hungrier, and most people do not know where their next meal will come from.’
He expressed his shock upon learning of the presidents departure to St. Lucia especially after he just had a holiday in Lagos, celebrating Sallah.
He also cited a press briefing by the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Philip J. Pierre, where it was specified that the visits included both official engagements and personal vacation.
His words: ‘According to the Prime Minister’s announcement, ‘two of these days, June 30 and July 1, will be dedicated to an official visit, with the remainder of the trip set aside as a personal vacation,’ he said.
Obi, who stated that he initially doubted the credibility of the report stated: ‘I told the person who drew my attention to the Caribbean story that it cannot be true and that the President is just coming back from a holiday in Lagos.’
‘I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President… would contemplate a leisure trip at this time.’
He also criticized the failure of President Bola Tinubu to visit disaster affected areas, including Minna in Niger state, where over 200 people were reportedly killed and 700 still missing due to flooding.
He also condemned the president’s recent visit to Makurdi which he described as politicized, stating: ‘The other state in crisis where over two hundred lives were murdered, the President yielded to public pressure and visited Makurdi… for what turned out to be a political jamboree than condolence as public holiday was declared and children made to line up to receive the President who couldn’t even reach the village, the scene of the brutal attack.’
He further drew sharp comparisons between the size and population of St. Lucia and the Nigerian cities neglected by the President.
Hear him: ‘Makurdi is 937.4 Km², which is over 59% bigger than St Lucia, which is 617 km², and Minna is 6789 square kilometres, which is ten times bigger than St Lucia. St Lucia, with a population of 180,000, is less than half of Makurdi’s 489,839 and Minna, with 532,000 is almost three times the population of St Lucia.’
Mr. Obi called for national reflection and redirection, emphasizing that Nigeria is blessed with God-given resources that belongs to the entire country Just a few it is time to stop the current drift before it consumes the citizenry, laying emphasis on the need to pull laying emphasis on the need to pull Nigerians out of poverty.
In their defence, the presidency described the president’s visit to Saint Lucia as strategic and historic, stating that it targeted the improvement of cultural ties between Nigeria and the Caribbean.
According to the Special Adviser To The President On Information And Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s visit to St. Lucia aligns with Nigeria’s foreign policy thrusts on the Four Ds, which are Democracy, Development, Diaspora Demography.
He also said that part of the engagements to be carried out by the president was the delivery of an address to a special joint session of the Saint Lucian Parliament at the Sandals Grand Saint Lucian Conference Hall.
He stated that this was a global realignment, which will afford the presidency to engage the Caribbeans strategically.
Hear him: ‘In an era of global uncertainty, deepening cooperation between the Global South, particularly between continental Africa and the Caribbean, has become imperative.’
