Former governor of Anambra state and vice presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019, Mr. Peter Obi, has criticised Nigerian politicians who move around in large convoys, saying that they are not responsible, while attributing the practice to the high level of insecurity in the country which these politicians have failed to tackle.
The former governor said this while speaking at the 8th Convocation of Veritas University in Abuja on Saturday where he was the keynote speaker.
The former governor recounted how during his tenure as governor, he moved with a convoy of 22 cars until he discovered that 13 carried no official.
He said, “We have to be innovative in politics. We have to get the right people who are prepared to save this country. We are in a bad situation. I am in a bad situation. Anybody who tells you that we are doing well is lying. I live in fear every day. “The insecurity is totally unacceptable. One of the greatest cures for insecurity is to get people employed. Let us shut down the cost of governance. “You see big people going round with 15 or 20 vehicles and causing confusion all over the place and disturbing public peace and everybody with his own big title.”
“If I was coming here with 20 policemen, to Nigerians, that shows I am ‘Your Excellency’. That is irresponsibility; it doesn’t happen anywhere in the world.
“There is no place in the world that I have seen where one man moves around with 22 vehicles. It is madness. I used it as a governor. You will not believe it. I used it as a governor until I asked to find out one day how many of the cars people were occupying, and about 13 of the cars were empty.”