Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has responded to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike’s criticism of his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party.
While criticizing Wike for questioning his loyalty and integrity to the PDP, Obi stated that integrity was about prudent management of public resources, not political party membership.
Wike slammed Obi on Thursday for leaving the PDP just days before the opposition party’s presidential primary.
Wike, who is running for president on the PDP platform, where Obi is also running, claimed that the former Anambra governor had not won an election since leaving the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
Wike had said, “It is not surprising to me. Peter Obi leaving the party is not surprising to me. I know and he knows that there was no way he would have won the presidential primary. The issue is that there must be integrity, there must be character.
How can a man who had gone to all the states to tell them how he had been a trader, how his family has been trading, how everybody should support him, how he wore one (pair of) shoe(s), how he did not allow anybody to carry his bag, and all those things…three days to the primaries, he said he had left the party. Integrity…character is very important in whatever you are doing.”
On the same program on Friday, Obi, who had earlier dodged a question seeking his reaction, said no one could question his loyalty to the PDP while he was a member.
“I don’t know how that one came in but I think when we talk about integrity, we are talking about integrity in management of public resources. That is what we should be talking about in this country. And when such things are mentioned about me, I feel maybe there is something missing somehow. Go and check my records as a governor.”
“I have moved on to where the process might allow me,” he added.
Peter Obi: Integrity Is About Public Funds Management – Politics – Nigeria (nairaland.com)