In a fiery exchange of words, President Tinubu’s Special Adviser for Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has accused Labour Party’s Peter Obi of painting Nigeria’s future in bleak colors to score political points.
While Nigerians welcomed 2025 with optimism, Obi’s New Year message highlighted worsening poverty and insecurity, sparking sharp criticism from the presidency.
Onanuga dismissed Obi’s remarks as “misleading” and labeled him a “prophet of doom,” arguing that economic and political indicators point to recovery, not decline. However, Obi insisted that over 100 million Nigerians remain trapped in poverty, with the nation’s fortunes in reverse.
Onanuga accused Obi of name-calling and a campaign of calumny against Tinubu’s government, adding his New Year’s message where he claimed Nigeria’s political, economic, and security situation is worsening daily, was misleading.
On Thursday, Obi claimed that the government had not done enough to address the country’s “worsening” economic, political, and security challenges for nearly two years.
Obi said Nigerians were losing hope and insisted that Nigeria remained one of the poverty capitals of the world, with over 100 million people living in extreme poverty and more than 150 million in multidimensional poverty.
According to the Labour Party chieftain, Nigeria’s challenges are visibly worsening with its fortunes in clear reverse, pointing out that current indices are indications of the country’s decline.
But Onanuga maintained that Obi’s comment is geared toward scoring cheap political points.
“Obi’s New Year message, in which he claimed that our dear country’s political, economic, and security situation is worsening daily, is misleading and appears intended to score cheap political points,” Onanuga said.
“This claim, at a time when all indicators show that our country is rebounding in significant measure across all sectors, casts Obi, squarely, as Nigeria’s leading doomsayer.”