Tolu Ogunlesi, a media aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, has tackled Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, over his statement on Ukraine food donation to Nigeria. Ogunlesi said it is “disheartening that Obi wants to make himself a disinformation agent by all means.”
Obi had earlier on Monday said that it is shameful that Nigeria now relies on war-torn Ukraine for food assistance.
“It is disheartening that our once economically confident nation, blessed with vast arable land and abundant natural resources, now relies on a war-torn Ukraine for food assistance,” he said.
Reacting to Obi’s statement on X, Ogunlesi clarified that the food donation is a humanitarian intervention by the United Nations World Food Programme specifically for the Northeast region of Nigeria.
He added that the grain is going directly to the most vulnerable people in the Northeast, which has been suffering from insurgency for years.
The ex-presidential aide said the donation is not new as the UN has made similar in the past, highlighting that the substantial assistance was made to Anambra State after the devastating 2012 flooding during Obi’s tenure as governor.
Ogunlesi urged Obi to verify information before speaking about it on social media to avoid disinformation.
He said, “1. Disheartening that @PeterObi wants to make himself a disinformation agent by all means. Distorting narratives, omitting crucial info, ignoring solutions.
“2. The WFP statement clearly says it’s a UN humanitarian intervention specifically for North East Nigeria. (SCREENSHOT 1), which as you might know, is slowly emerging from a devastating insurgency (Thank you to the Nigerian Armed Forces etc for degrading BH and ISWAP).
“3. So, that grain is going directly to the most vulnerable people IN THE NORTH EAST. And the UN has been involved in humanitarian assistance in that region for many years now. It’s not new.
“4. The same UN and other parties provided substantial assistance to Anambra State after the devastating 2012 flooding – so I’m sure you, Mr Peter Obi, know what “humanitarian intervention” means. You were Governor then. (SCREENSHOTS 2 and 3)
“5. Have a sit down with your Twitter handlers, endeavor to Google before posting, and stop playing ignorant politics with everything.
“6. At the same time as this donation is happening, Nigeria is getting set to harvest dry season wheat that was farmed in Nov 2023, in a program supported by the AfDB. (SCREENSHOT 4)
“7. It’s still early days, and there’s a long way to go, but if you want to talk about food security in Nigeria, and you cannot acknowledge the increasing focus on domestic wheat (and other grains) cultivation, then you’re merely a malicious political actor, seeking cheap attention on social media.
“8. Also, Google “Grain from Ukraine” Initiative to better educate yourself. mfa.gov.ua/en/grain-ukrai… Ukraine has historically been one of the world’s biggest grain exporters, and this thankfully manages to defy the Russian invasion. Are there lessons Nigeria can learn? Most definitely! Is Nigeria making efforts to grow more grain? Most definitely! Thank you AfDB and other partners.”
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