Page Nav

HIDE

Grid

GRID_STYLE

Foodstuffs bearing Obi's name and the LP emblem appear online.

  Foodstuffs bearing Obi's name and the LP emblem appear online. Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party's nominee for president, has been...

 

Foodstuffs bearing Obi's name and the LP emblem appear online.

Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party's nominee for president, has been charged with attempting to bribe Nigerians to support him in the next elections by offering them food and other foodstuffs.

This was because sacks of rice and groundnut oil had his name, the name of his vice-presidential candidate, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, and the party's insignia glued on them, along with the phrases "Vote Obi/Datti 2023," "Obi/Datti 2023," and other similar foodstuffs.

The development drew criticism from all quarters, with several Nigerians accusing Obi of being hypocritical.

According to Saturday PUNCH, Obi is known for being frugal and has a phrase to the effect that he does not give "shi-shi" (money) to anyone in order to fulfill his political desire to become president.

The slogan "We no dey give shi shi!"—loosely translated as "We don't give bribe for votes"—is often used by Obi's fans, known as OBIdients, to make fun of political rivals who are accused of vote-buying and other sorts of inducement.

Many Twitter users reacted negatively to this after seeing the now-viral photographs, pointing out how similar Obi appeared to the "old politicians" he claimed to be there to unseat.

One of them is the Twitter user @StFreakingKezy, who tweeted, "Labour Party sharing rice?" while attaching a picture of a sizable collection of rice bags bearing the LP logo.

People fooling people, wrote @Akeemfadare in response. They are false individuals. There is nothing real about them. "No be dem say dem wan enhance the standard of campaigns," tweeted @Elvisgolden3 in pidgin, another user of the microblogging website.

Tunde Musa-Ekene mocked the LP in his pidgin response to Elvis' tweet, "Rice no be shi shi naa!"

Critiques continued to come in despite an attempt by @Sarki12r, another Twitter user, to distance Obi from the guilt by pointing out that he (Obi) might not have been aware of the shipments.

Femi Adeyeye, a spokeswoman for the African Action Congress, also commented and informed our correspondent that Obi was just another "older and recycled politician."


No comments