By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, has described Nigerian politicians as heartless and valueless people.
The former Governor of Anambra State made the assertion while appearing as a guest on the Arise Television programme, The Morning Show, anchored by Dr. Reuben Abati, former spokesman to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the programme which was monitored by TheNiche, Obi said it was worrisome seeing President Muhammadu Buhari having photo sessions with politicians who defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While insisting that he has nothing against anyone jumping from one party to the other, Obi said taking such defectors to have a photo session with the President creates a negative perception for the country.
The governor also denied a post which has been trending in the social media quoting him as saying he would never leave the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on which platform he won the governorship and served two terms for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) claiming that the later was a curse to the Southeast.
Obi has since defected from APGA to the PDP.
The post started trending in the wake of the defection of the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, from the PDP to the APC last week.
Fani-Kayode had said in the past that he would rather die than join the APC.
Other political leaders including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, made similar vows in the past.
While Atiku vowed never to go back to the PDP, Amaechi and Matawalle were said to have sworn never to join the APC.
They have since swallowed their vomit.
But Obi said he never made such a vow.
“I don’t know why people leave from one party to the other,” he said.
“I can only comment on my own because it is mentioned there.
“I want somebody to show me a tape where I made that comment. Every other person that has been quoted has been shown on tape. Mine is something that was orchestrated for the purpose.
“They said I said PDP was a curse to the Southeast. I was the chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum for eight years, that is, throughout the years I was in office.
“We we supposed to be rotating it yearly but every other governor said to me, continue and the other four governors were PDP governors. There was no way I would have said that and they kept me in office.
“Reuben (Abati), I am lucky that you are here because you were a very close aide to President Goodluck Jonathan and you can’t think of any governor close to Jonathan than I was.
“I was his financial adviser while still serving as governor. I was in his economic management team. How then would I have said that about PDP and he kept me?
“So, what is happening is that everyone is looking for how to damage everybody.”
Obi said he only made a promise to the late APGA leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, that he will never leave him and kept the promise.
“There was a time my revered leader, I call him the Peoples General, late Ojukwu, had a serious worry about my closeness to PDP and we were just discussing and he said, Peter, I hope you are not joining the PDP and I said, ‘I will never leave you till the end.’
“That was it and everybody saw that I was with him till the end. When he got sick, I took him abroad. Thank God his wife, Bianca, is still alive. Nobody ever gave me one penny. I paid his bills.
“When he died, we came back here. Go and ask Senator Ben Obi and the people who were in the committee that buried Ojukwu. So, it is not the same.”
But Obi, who said the defections do not bother him, however, said he is worried by the manner the presidency is going about it.
“Let me tell you what worries me about the defections of today.
“I don’t do the politics of asking people why did you defect from here to here.
“What I find worrisome is seeing people daily and weekly being led to go and take photoshoots with the President. I am worried about it.
“I want to see the President taking pictures at the funerals of our fallen soldiers, police or their families.
“I want to see him taking pictures with young boys and girls who are doing so many innovative things in the tech industry.
“I want to see him taking pictures with people who are making a lot of impact.
“Taking picture with those of us – politicians – because I can now define politicians as heartless, valueless, is very worrisome.
“I am pleading with those who are close to him, yes if you want to join a party, please do, but those pictures are not helping our country because perception is sending a wrong signal that you can be anything and be elevated to something.
“That is why the country is collapsing.”