By Muhammad Mamman
Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised Nigerian leaders for ostentatious public displays despite managing budgets far smaller than their counterparts abroad.
In a post on X on Thursday, Obi reflected on his ongoing three-day tour of the United States, which has taken him to Atlanta, Washington and Chicago.
He noted that Atlanta’s city budget, at about $3 billion, exceeds Nigeria’s national budget, yet the city’s mayor, Andre Dickens, maintains a low-key public profile.
Obi revealed he flew on the same commercial flight as Dickens from Atlanta to Washington, observing that the mayor boarded and disembarked like every other passenger, without aides, announcements, or sirens.
By contrast, he said Nigerian governors—and even local government chairmen with budgets amounting to less than one per cent of Atlanta’s—would typically travel with sirens, entourages, protocol officers and publicity posters.
Obi urged Nigerian leaders to emulate Dickens by prioritising service delivery over pageantry, citing the mayor’s focus on crime reduction, youth empowerment and a $15 hourly minimum wage for council workers as examples of modest but effective governance.
