We Need to Learn from Kenya’s Recent Experience – Peter Obi

Oluwasegun SanusiJuly 7, 20242 Mins read256

Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s Labour Party, has shared concern over the prolonged power outages affecting large parts of Nigeria, particularly in Northern, Eastern, and South-South states.

In a recent post on X, Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, tasked political leaders in Nigeria to take lessons from Kenya’s recent approach to governance and fiscal responsibilities.

Obi emphasised how citizens’ needs should come first over personal or political interests, citing so many hard-hitting steps the Kenyan government had taken due to disappointments from the masses.

“When the Kenyan public realised that their government was not making sufficient sacrifices and prioritising resources effectively, they spoke out, demanded change, expressed their dissatisfaction, and protested. In response, the President demonstrated true leadership by listening to the people’s demands and acting accordingly, recognising that government should be driven by the needs of the citizens, not by our own consumption agenda,” Obi noted.

He lauded the President of Kenya for demonstrating true leadership by yielding to the demands made by the people to act, effectively ensuring that actions by the government are dictated by the interest of the people and not selfish interests.

He outlined some of the stringent measures the Kenyan leadership had taken to prune spending on nonessentials and demonstrate to the citizenry that it was a financially responsible administration.

Among them were abolishing the First Lady and Second Lady offices’ budgets, dissolving 47 state agencies, suspending all nonessential travels by government workers, freezing purchases of new cars for officials, and cutting down by half the number of advisers.

When the president was accused of chartering a jet to America, he did not wave the concerns aside but responded transparently to the issue head-on.

For Obi, that willingness to accept what people were demanding described responsive governance.

“In contrast, we, the Nigerian leaders, often arrogantly do the opposite to genuine grievances of our suffering citizens. Instead of addressing legitimate concerns and being accountable to the people,” Obi stated.

The erstwhile governor chastised the Nigerian government’s penchant for outright denial of legitimate concerns. He insisted that the government was in the habit of using public funds to pay media operatives to insult and abuse those speaking truth to power.

”Instead of addressing legitimate concerns, and being accountable to the people, we resort to using public funds to pay media thugs to insult and abuse those who speak truth to power. We, the Nigerian leaders, must abandon these detrimental habits, stop the feasting, and start making sacrifices for the greater good of our suffering masses.” he pointed.

Obi called for an end to these vicious habits and a start to sacrificing for the greater good of the suffering masses.