By James Orji
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP has denied receiving $150 million in funding from Nigerians living abroad. Obi spoke on the background of a claim that he received diaspora funding in contravention of the Electoral Act.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has recently said the government will go after any political party and candidates that receive funding from the diaspora.
The justice minister said doing so will contravene the country’s extant laws. But legal analysts have disagreed with him, saying the Act did not prevent individual candidates from receiving financial support for their political aspirations from their supporters living abroad.
On Monday, Professor Pat Utomi, a chieftain of the Labour Party said the party will soon release dedicated accounts for his party supporters to send their financial support.
Obi however said he has not received ‘anything’ so far, describing the claim that he collected $150 million as speculation.
According to him, “Nobody has given me anything. That is speculation. What I need is not what they would give me. But what they would give Nigeria, because we need them to turn around Nigeria.
“This is the energy, the capacity that we need to turn around Nigeria. Every country that was turned around, was done by the diaspora. Even in the Bible, Joseph who left later came back to feed his people.
“I am consulting Nigeria diasporans to know why they should be involved in the Nigerian electoral process. And you can see from my conversation and everything that what I am doing is saying let’s get involved.
“They are the most critical components of turning around Nigeria. The investment Nigeria needs to turn around is diasporans. If they believe in Nigeria and bring their resources, both in terms of their material, talent, and energy, we will turn around the country,” the LP presidential candidate said.
