Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has slammed the Presidency for what he termed a useless attempt to paint him in a negative light by leveraging the American presidential election.
Obi, speaking through his media office in a statement titled “Why desperate OBI traducers are kissing the dust?” signed by his spokesman, Ibrahim Umar, in Abuja yesterday, claimed that desperate propagandists, along with their presidential enablers, were distorting facts in order to destroy his impeccable image.
The statement read: “For these traducers, it would be a huge omission for a day to pass without finding something to negatively link Obi within the media space.
”If he and his family members are not being arrested imaginarily (a kite being flown to test waters?), he is being wickedly accused of sponsoring violence or twisting his public appearances in a manner to suit their dubious motives.
“Perhaps the most laughable of such delusions is the Presidency’s effort to ridicule Obi by dragging his name into the United States of America, USA, electioneering process by scandalously linking him with the Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump.
“We are very much aware of the motive behind these ridiculous comparisons, which is their uncanny way of currying favour so undeserved from the Democrats.
“Nigerians, who mused about the derisory and facetious comparison, have tried to ask, ‘Will your calling Peter Obi ‘a Trump’ translate to or mean that Tinubu is Harris’?
“Every discerning mind who wants to compare Obi and Tinubu and attempts to equate them with the two American presidential candidates, Trump and Harris, knows too well the similarities and parallels in terms of morality, transparency, good-standing antecedents, and people-focused policies.
“The Presidency, by indulging in such clever-by-half comparisons, which are intended to discredit Obi, merely brings to the fore the glaring weaknesses of the incumbent administration and their crassness and inability to discern the realities and especially the pains and pangs their actions and policies foisted on the nation in the past year.
“Nigerians are not so gullible to be fooled by such empty propaganda. It’s even ironic that the spin doctors of a leader who since the early campaign days into over a year as President has remained disturbingly aloof and seemingly incapable of presenting himself and his policies to Nigerians through the media and who has continued to evade public accountability are trying to malign Obi, who has easily emerged in all ramifications as the most visible, focused, and articulate political personality in this dispensation.
“Obi remains a man who has not only become the conscience of the people but also their hope for a new and egalitarian democracy.
“Rather than strive to market and justify their rusty and anti-people deleterious policies that have put Nigeria and Nigerians in the most horrendous conditions, they have resolved to convey misleading accounts of our principal’s activities just to distract the credulous public.
“While we understand the frustration of selling a bad product in a competitive market, the fairplay rule demands that you don’t de-market the good product by forcibly associating it with the ugly product.
“We know the intention of these trolls and spin doctors who have also gone ahead to provoke our principal’s massive supporters across the country and diaspora by twisting his recent media interview to insinuate that he is ready to be vice president to anyone.
“But that fallacy could not be true of a man who has repeatedly stated in various forums that he is not desperate to be president but desperate to see Nigeria work.
“Such plebian conduct that is utterly devoid of integrity remains the height of mischief from propagandists, who are envious of the rising profile of our principal.
“Finally, POMR wishes to plead with Nigerians, especially the Obidients within and outside the country and across all the political parties, to remain undistracted in their aspiration and desire to see a new Nigeria that is possible.”
