Lead by example, Obi knocks Tinubu over large convoy

Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has urged leaders at every level in Nigeria to lead by example.

The call came against the background of the outrage being expressed by Nigerians over the “outlandish display of power” by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu during a recent visit to Lagos State.

The Head, Obi-Datti Media Office, Mr Diran Onifade, in a statement Thursday night said Tinubu during the visit was escorted by an unprecedented 124-vehicle convoy.

According to him, not since the creation of Nigeria by the British has such mindless and embarrassing exhibitionism been purveyed by a politician. Not even the military known for their brash and unbridled display of raw naked power dared to exhibit such recklessness.

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Responding to a question on the development on Thursday afternoon in Awka, the Anambra State capital, Obi said he had yet to see a video footage of the Tinubu 124-vehicle convoy, but leaders in Nigeria must lead by example.

“The present Nigeria requires that all those who serve and lead must do so by example. Their behaviour and their public conduct must be in consonance with what the society requires today. We cannot continue to preach for the people to sacrifice without sacrificing too. The sacrifice must now start from the leaders, visibly, measurably at all times because the people are suffering; and we must now be at the forefront of the suffering,” Obi said.

Onifade said the Obi-Datti Media like millions of Nigerians whose sense of decency have been affronted by Tinubu’s unbridled tendency to flaunt power and position, joins the presidential candidate in pointing the hypocrisy inherent in Tinubu’s action.

He said, “For a man who promised to cut the cost of governance to be moving around with an over-bloated convoy of security details and aides, surely speaks volumes of his ‘do what I say and not what I do’ attitude.”

Some supporters of the president have argued that the convoy of some dignitaries, including Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos was among the ones captured in the viral video.