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PETER OBI IS A WISE MAN, SAM AMADI
Mr. Peter Obi is a wise man. Wisdom is known by its ‘children’, as the Bible says. Peter Obi is perhaps Nigeria’s highest donor in terms of frequency to health and education, two critical drivers of human capital development. By some count, he has donated close to a billion to education and healthcare since the 2023 presidential election. This is remarkable. From some old videos and newspaper reports, he was doing so even long before the 2023 elections.
What I like most about Mr. Peter Obi’s philantrophy is that it both prudent and useful. Prudence is not part of our prevalent virtue. Everywhere you look you will see astonishing lack of prudence. Just think about the latest rain of dollars for our sportswomen. Everyone is happy and proud of the scintillating performance of the Super Falcons. They won the 10th African Women Cup in great style. They deserve gratitude and commendation from Nigeria. But do we need to give each $100,000, a house and national honor? That is a moment of grave imprudence. What for? Who should we give 20year olds $100,000 to spend for winning an African cup. How much England give its girls who won the equivalent European women cup? Nothing.
The genius of Peter Obi’s philanthropy is that he does not give shish in other circumstances and gives million in situations of building human chapati. All the money Peter Obi spends to support schools of nursing, IDP camps, collages and hospitals are not close to what other politicians spend to win the support of political elites so they can win primary elections and competitive elections. May be the succeed or fail. But they are never as popular as Mr. Peter Obi despite their enormous spends. But Peter Obi saves such political expenditures and still remain perhaps the most popular and liked politician in Nigeria today. He still does extremely well in competitive elections. In fact, many believe that he did not just do well in the last presidential election but won it. it is arguable. But what is not arguable is that he achieve much political capital with little spending.
So, he now directs what he could have spent in the Nigerian tradition to developmental causes. He therefore achieves positive investing in human development and wins a lot of public support and love , still he spends less that the average Nigerian politician who on political business and still get far less results in terms of public support and love.
