The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has been criticized for attending the book launch of former Military President of Nigeria, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), which held on Thursday, 20th February 2025, in Abuja.
TheNewsGuru reports that Peter Obi, who was present at the event, via his X account, praised IBB’s contributions to Nigeria’s economy, noting that his strong support for entrepreneurship and private sector growth remains immeasurable.
According to the former Anambra State Governor, Nigeria is worse off than during IBB’s era, pointing out that countries that were all in the low Human Development Index (HDI) category, like Nigeria at the time, have advanced to medium and high HDI levels.
Reacting to the LP presidential candidate’s remarks, Nigerians, particularly young people expressed disappointment, noting that Obi should have not, in the first place, dined with ‘Nigerian people’s enemies’.
The former Anambra governor was further criticised for lacking principles and failing to distingusih himself from ‘persons who have systematically raped the country.’
Noble Eyisi wrote: “This post is one of the myriad reasons why Peter Obi will struggle to be President.
“He lacks the ability to define who his enemies are and who the Nigerian people’s enemies are. Rather than see IBB for the thief and morally decrepit person he is, he chose to attend his book launch. By attending, he failed to distinguish himself from every other person in attendance who has systematically raped this country.
“It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Peter Obi lacks principles. There’s no hill that he is willing to stick his flag on and is willing to die on. Because of this, he goes wherever the wind blows.
“It’s quite sad because he leads a movement of well intentioned Nigerians who want to see Nigeria excel but the leader of the movement is engaged in a psychological war against himself.”
Similarly, Omoyele Sowore condemned the former presidential candidate for attending the book launch, calling him a packaged fraud:
He wrote: “You don’t need to worry about @PeterObi; he is what he is, #Gbajue! He was a packaged fraud; those who packaged him knew what they did, and they’ve all mostly jumped ship- hustlers, opportunists, bigots, dissemblers, gamblers, gerrymanders, and carpet baggers. Those still left couldn’t believe they had fallen into this trap and couldn’t detour; they had fallen into a ditch and, instead of getting out, had ordered more diggers. You can’t help them.”