ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The Vice Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Yusuf Datti-Baba Ahmed says his principal, Peter Obi, ranks among the best businessmen in Nigeria.
Datti-Baba who spoke during an interview with the Channel Television on Sunday, noted that committing huge amount of resources to the media to create impressions is not part of their activities, adding that though they are aspiring to lead Nigeria, when they say they don’t give “shishi”, it’s like a slogan they want to be identified with.
Speaking on his principal, he said Peter Obi ranks among the best businessmen in Nigeria, explaining that Obi joined politics because of his love for the country and he wants to put it into practice.
“Peter obi has a number of foundations. I have a foundation. I give the account. Its Islamic. You must do that. I have corporate social responsibility, he does too. We have people we take care of but we don’t announce it at all. Scholarships, medicals, many many things I don’t just have to say.
“We have corperate social responsibility. It depends on what you define as shishi.
“Look, Peter obi is a very successful businessman though he doesn’t say it, but I can as his vice, subordinate, respectfully, say he ranks among the best in Nigeria in terms of everything you call it.
“Peter Obi ranks among the best. He used to sit in the same front row with the likes of Dangote Jim Ovia and Tony Elumelu and others. Then he said he was going to join politics. Why didn’t the others join politics? It’s not that they dont love Nigerians as much as he does. But he is putting it into practice. The same thing with me. I have my social responsibilities which I’m living up to.
“But what we don’t do is for example, we don’t go about compromising public servants, compromising citizens during their civic responsibilities, committing huge amount of resources to the media to give a good person a bad name, to give a bad person a good name, we don’t do all those kind of things. We don’t spend money to confuse Nigerians.
“We don’t spend money to call white black, black white, day light night time, night time day light. We don’t do all those kind of things,” Datti-Baba explained.
Speaking further, he noted that the Labour Party has enough structure to win the election even if the opposition party believes that it is small.
He said that there was a time when he and Peter Obi visited a book launch event and Peter Obi donated 5 million naira, he donated 4 million naira, an arrogant man who came late donated 100 million, and someone represented by another donated 50 million.
Datti-Baba revealed further that after the donation, they (him and Obi), were more appreciated than the other people who donated huge amounts of money.
According to him: “We have always been resourceful. Believe me, we have never lacked anything to do what we’re supposed to do. Anything that the APC can do, we can do, but ours is within our means, and we can prove how we got everything that we’re spending. The only thing is that we will not spend hundreds of millions compromising.
“We went to a book launch; Peter Obi donated N5 million genuinely, and he has another five million to donate. “I sweated and donated 4 million naira. Somebody walked in late and arrogantly donated 100 million naira, and he walked out of the event.
“Somebody is represented, and he donated $50 million. You can see that it is 20 times more and 10 times more. At the end of the day, we achieved greater applause and appreciation from that family.”