Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in the 2023 presidential election, was on Tuesday the target of backlash over his call for a new Nigeria.
In a statement on his Verified X page on Tuesday, Obi called for optimum utilisation of the arable lands in the North so Nigeria will be sufficient in food production.
His statement reads, “The vast arable lands in the North if put into productive use, will not only give us sufficient food for local consumption but even the surplus for export. A New Nigeria is Possible.”
The statement, which has since gone viral, has attracted backlash from a cross-section of Nigerians.
Responding to the statement by the former governor of Anambra State, Olayemi Samuel said, “You commented jagons and said a new Nigeria is possible.”
Berating the Labour Party chieftain, an X user simply identified as Davidson, noted that Obi drew his conclusions without taking into cognisance the insecurity in the North.
“The problem is, do we have enough food in Nigeria now? People are dying of starvation every day.
“Please, if you can’t help, now allow people who are willing and ready to help us,” Davidson said.
“You are talking about the land in the north where farmers can’t go and cultivate anything due to fear of bandits and Boko Haram.
“What you are talking about is long-term planning, while Nigerians need immediate help, please. Bring your contribution of food now,” he added.
For Emeka Gift, he noted that the idea of a “New Nigeria is an illusion.”
Gift also noted that “those projecting it (new Nigeria) are under strong hallucinations.”
Furthermore, Gift noted that the Labour Party chieftain and his supporters, popularly called Obidients, “are the worst set of people on earth.
He said, “For record purposes, the set of people referred to as “Obidients” are the worst set of people and the reason Bob Marley talked about “emancipation from mental slavery.
“They are in self-denial and always believe that, somehow, a great God will do for them what he has given them the power to do for themselves.
“These people were warned before, during, and even now after the election, yet they believe that a new Nigeria is possible. If you ask them. How?
“Surprisingly, they will start lecturing you about how 2027 is going to be different because they will make sure Professor Yakubu doesn’t rig.
“That is their only plan. Now, when I tell them that they are mad, they resort to name-calling. Isn’t the above exchange a depiction of madness?
“Albert Einstein described madness as doing the same thing every time and expecting a different result. That is pure insanity.”
Berating Obi over his loss in the 2023 presidential election, Gift states, “I never thought that these Obidients, after the national disgrace they got in the recent Nigeria presidential election, would stoop so low, dreaming of a New Nigeria that can never come true.”
Opining that a new Nigeria is impossible to attain, he stated that, “the only thing that will work in Nigeria right now is division because the method through which we became Nigerians was illegal.
“It shouldn’t have been, but Britain, out of selfish interests, made it possible. That alone has enthroned hatred and ethnic division among Nigerians.
“How would you Obidients be thinking of a New Nigeria when the Hausas don’t want you as an Igbo person to belong?
“How would you be thinking of a new Nigeria when the Yorubas are busy looting your shops in Lagos and demolishing your houses?
“A New Nigeria starts with a new mentality amongst the citizens towards unification and the shunning of ethnicity syndrome.
“As of now, it is only the minority Igbos that are promoting oneness in Nigeria. How would a new Nigeria be possible when the majority of Hausas and Yorubas do not want it to be?
“You guys should stop hallucinating because a new Nigeria is a dream that can never come true; rather, a divided Nigeria is highly possible and it will happen soon,” Gift argued.
