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Pandora Papers: Premium Times report on Mr. Peter Obi sounds like a campaign stuff crafted by a desperate opponent — ADF

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Peter Obi says Nigerian politicians fighting over collapsed structure

STATEMENT BY THE ALAIGBO DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (ADF) ON THE PREMIUM TIMES REPORT ON THE PANDORAS PAPERS AND MR PETER OBI, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE.

Our Attention has been drawn to the publication of the Pandora Papers, a collection of about 22 million documents on the hidden wealth belonging to powerful individuals from across the world– including more than 330 politicians from 91 countries. 

Those involved include major world figures and leaders, including Presidents and leaders of some Super Powers, Prime Ministers, leading global Businessmen and Actors, male and female. The list includes the President of Russia and other world leaders, although the Russian authorities and many of the others have debunked the report.

According to the Report, these leaders set up businesses in tax havens, areas with least tax burden on investors, such as the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, as well as in countries like Switzerland and Singapore.

It is not that the world is unaware that there are global investment rules which differ from country to countryand that businessmen take advantage of these differences in pursuit of greater favorable returns to their investment.

 

Premium Times and Mr Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State 

One such politician and the only one for that matter among this lot and who has been the focus of Premium Times, a Nigerian publication is the former Governor of Anambra State, Governor Peter Obi. That is to say,that among all these global business moguls studied by Premium Times and the other members of the team, only Mr. Peter Obi, is the subject of extensive inquisition by the Premium Times. 

 

The Premium Times exclusive report on Mr. Peter Obi sounds like a campaign stuff crafted by a desperate opponent who is scared stiff by the profile and achievements of his opponent. Certainly there must be a reason for this undisguised prejudiced focus on Mr Peter Obi, probably economic or political.

 

Whatever it is, we are informed that Premium Times is a member of the Consortium involved in this global investigation. And if Nigeria is under-represented in this global family of frontline business men, our own Premium Times has some questions to answer, either for Negligence or Sheer Interest,

 

The recent publication of Premium Times with the title Inside Peter Obi’s Secret Businesses — And How He Broke The Law’ sounds indeed not only like an inquisition, but the kind of colonial inquisition reminiscent of the heydays of the early labor movement when the leaders of the Working class were hounded by the newspaper hirelings of the capitalists with the slogan HANG THEM FIRST AND TRY THEM LATER. Mr Peter Obi is being hanged by Premium Times without due trial.

We expect that Premium Times would provide us an intelligent press reportage that would enable us to relate to the historical development under question. We mean that the import of the Pandoras Papers have major global import for the match of human civilization. We wish Premium Times understands this. Sadly enough what we see is the Nigerian burg of brazen political witch-hunt.

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What is at stake in the Pandoras Papers is the challenge to humanity to have a radical rethink of present-day capitalist business culture. The Pandoras Papers is not a weapon for hounding political opponents. The fundamental question we should be concerned with based on the revelations from the Pandoras Papers is whether there should be a unified global business ethics binding all investors in all countries of the world as a matter of global code.

 

In the absence of such universal code, business remains what it is, namely, a gamble, sheer speculation in which one may win or lose at any instance.

 

With regard to the existing global business ethics, however, there are some fundamental issues we should never lose sight of with regard to the issues which the Pandoras Papers raise. These are such historical questions as,• The Mode of initial acquisition of one’s wealth -• The Method of multiplying the acquired wealth, and • The Use of the Wealth so acquired.

 

These are the parameters on the basis of which to assess Mr Obi’s wealth before, during and after his tenure as Governor of Anambra State. 

 

Those familiar with the objective biography of Mr Peter Obi attest that Mr Obi was already a very wealthy business man before he joined politics in 2006. And we believe that those who ask whether there has been traces of any missing government money to any company in which Mr Peter Obi has any interest are asking very pertinent questions.

 

ADF’s interest in Mr Peter Obi.

Mr Peter Obi, as former Governor of Anambra State, is already a candidate for 

ADF’s research Project on Good Governance in Alaigbo long before the emergence of the Pandoras Papers. And we have good reasons to focus on him and other major actors in Alaigbo such as Prof Barth Nnaji of Enugu State. Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, Mr Frank Nneji, Mr Godwin Ezeemo of Aguata in Anambra State, etc

 

 

ADF Industrial Tour of Anambara State.

 

In 2016, when nobody was thinking of election or nomination for the Vice Presidential Candidate of any party, or even about the Pandoras Papers, the Alaigbo Developnment Foundation (ADF), in further pursuit of her Akuruo Ulo (Invest-At-Home) Movementdecided to undertake an Industrial Tour of Alaigbo to see for ourselves the challenges facing Umuigbo in their desire to invest and develop Alaigbo. The Tour took ADF Team to Nnewi amd Onitsha Industrial axis.      

 

It was amazing the extensive industrial complex in Onitsha which many people do not know. This was largely, as we were informed, due to Mr. Obi’s Administration. 

 

At Nnewi, we visited the massive Innoson Motor Manufacturing Complex. Mr Innocent Chukwuma, the CEO of the Innoson Company, told us that everyone should thank Mr Peter Obi for what we were seeing of his Industry. According to him for a take-off, Gov. Obi gave him a contract to produce vehicles for schools and institutions in Anambra State and paid him N5b (five billion) naira up front. In return, Mr Chukwuma delivered the vehicles before the deadline given to him, and that encouraged Mr Peter Obi to give him further similar contracts.

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We were also informed that one of our Igbo business gurus had his goods seized at the International Airport in Lagos. Mr. Obi flew to Abuja and got President Jonathan’s intervention and had the goods released to its owner. 

 

What about Mr Obi’s care of the welfare of the veteran political leaders in Anambra State, such as the late world-renowned Mathematician and political leader, Prof. Chike Obi? 

 

At Amichi, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, the First Republic Minister, popularly referred to as The Boy is Good  showed us a car which Mr Peter Obi bought for him while he was Governor of Anambra State 

 

ADF still has the video of the Industrial Tour for anyone who cares to listen to it on our website. 

 

Mr Peter Obi’s performance as Governor of Anambra State endeared him not only to the people of Anambra State but to Ndigbo in general. 

Many people recall with some sense of nostalgia several landmark achievements during the time Mr. Peter Obi held sway as the Executive Governor of Anambra State. His projects and programs spanned through various life-touching initiatives which include innovative agricultural policies and programs, revamping of the educational sector, verifiable youth and women empowerment programs, power generation, improved health care services, industrial parks and business investments, security and community developments, empowering entrepreneurs, community development,  massive road-networks, security, partnership with the church and traditional institutions. 

And this was why Ndigbo voted massively for the Atiku-Obi Ticket in the 2016 `General Elections.  Ndigbo generally reasoned that given this character of the man, Mr Peter Obi, it is inconceivable if he would be in any regime that continues to hunt and willfully destroy Igbo businesses and Igbo businessmen – we mean, for example, the siege on Innoson, the Ibetos, the Ifeanyi Ubas, the Pascal Dozies, the Group Captain Ihenachos, etc. Nor could he be in any regime that will subject Ndigbo to a status worse than second class citizens or hound her citizens like out-casts or even seize the entire apparatuses of the State and treat Ndigbo like conquered peoples. 

 

Mr Obi is a pragmatic business man and we expect that he will be most sensitive to the basic interests of the development of Alaigbo either as a member or head of Government.

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Someone told us that Ndigbo massively voted for that Atiku-Obi ticket because of the credibility of Mr Pater Obi. The choice of Peter Obi is premised on his vast experiences in the areas of investment, economic and social development, an area Nigeria is scoring below par at the moment.

 

Finally, it is important to mention that sine the year, long before the emergence of the Pandoras Papers,  ADF had as early as October last year set up a Team of Researchers to do a strategic study of the ‘Eight-Year Tenure of Mr. Peter Gregory Obi as the Executive Governor of Anambra State (17th March 2006-17thMarch 2014) We chose him because of wide-spread interest in him as a symbol of good governance in Alaigbo, as one who tried to link the contemporary development of Alaigbo to the trajectory of the vision and achievements of the Okpara-Azikiwe era in the fifties and sixties of the last century. In this regard, Chief Sam Mbakwe and Chief Jim Nwaobodo have their own respectable places in that following trajectory.  

 

As said earlier, the on-going ADF research project is the child of the Good Governance Project the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) driven by our Committee on Good Governance headed by Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, a very versatile man in the areas of social and economic development of our Society.

 

The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) is not a social media creation but a living intellectual and social organ of our time, whose goal is the Rebuilding and Development of Alaigbo and the Restoration of the Spirit of her Culture and Civilization. 

In pursuit of these goals, ADF has birthed a number of historical documents which provide roadmaps to the future of the dream of our people. What is that dream? 

 

It is a future in which our people shall overcome the immense persistent Igbo predicament in Nigeria so that her citizens can live a life of dignity and self-confidence, co-exist and live at peace with their neighbors, capable of protecting their lives as well as their collective and individual interests, apply their God-given talents and endowments for the betterment of themselves and the entire human race, do honor to the spirit of their ancestors and serve their God without let or hindrance.

So help us Oh God!

 

It is important for us to state that for ADF Mr Peter Obi is not an angel, so the ADF research team shall equally examine what pitfalls and leadership challenges he and his government faced during his tenure, and how far he was able to meet those challenges for the sake of Good Governance in Alaigbo.

PROF. T. UZODINMA NWALA

ADF PRESIDENT


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