You Can’t Embark On Private Visit, You’Re Public Asset- Obi Tells Tinubu

Former candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi has faulted President Bola Tinubu private visit to France, and said he can’t embark on public funded private visit as Nigerian president.

Obi on his X platform, also decried the dilapidation of elevator at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, which he noted have been nonfunctional for three months now.

He described as disturbing, the “sight of a physically challenged traveler in a wheelchair being carried up the stairs by four men, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport, Abuja because neither the elevator nor the escalator had been functional, for the past 3 months.

“This was the same airport and the same day that our dear president flew out on a private visit.”

Obi reminded Tinubu that he is a public asset, and wondered how a sitting president who is not on vacation, could embark on a publicly funded ‘private’ visit.

He told Tinubu that all his movements now should be public knowledge, adding, “Even when he needs a private visit like a holiday, family gathering, etc, he should state so, which is graciously allowed, but private visits, like the one he has embarked on now, should be done at his expense and not at public cost.

“That is part of the cost-cutting measures desperately needed by the nation now.

“We now require savings of sorts to deal with every little issue that requires attention, like the maintenance of small public assets.

“Otherwise, how do we explain as a country, that for the past three months both the escalator and elevator at the domestic wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, have remained dysfunctional?”

Obi who is also former governor of Anambra State, wondered how the leaders feel traveling in sophisticated manners while the majority of the nation’s infrastructure being used by the majority, including foreign investors, is left dilapidated.

According to him, the situation the nation finds itself in calls for drastic cut in the cost of governance, and attendant savings, to be appropriately used for every minor public good.

He however acknowledged some efforts by President Tinubu “to cut costs like his recent 60 percent cost on travel,” but said that is still insignificant given the quantum of problems waiting to be tackled like the elevator issue in the airport.