In a series of tweets on April 18, Labor Party presidential candidate Peter Obi said, among other things, that he was “committed to lifting people out of poverty and I remain committed to transforming Nigeria starting from the North to every part of the nation.” This predictably rankled many northerners, particularly northern Muslims, who understood the tweet as a backhanded, stereotypical vilification of their region.

Why did Obi isolate the North for special focus in a tweet about poverty and the transformation of Nigeria? Why wasn’t he region-agnostic, i.e., not single out any specific region of Nigeria for negative attention?

Why did he come across as articulating a local and economic version of the nineteenth-century racist European doctrine known as the “white man’s burden,” which basically asserted that the unexampled civilizational superiority of the white race imposed on them the moral duty to enlighten the backward and benighted nonwhite populations of the world?

Obi’s spotlight on the North is, of course, balanced on a thick thread of irrefutably solid statistical evidence. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), of the 133 million Nigerians who writhe in unspeakably stifling multidimensional poverty as of the end of last year, 86 million (which represents 65 percent) live in the North.

The North constitutes 54 percent of Nigeria’s population (and 70 percent of its landmass), so if the region makes up 65 percent of the nation’s poorest population there’s clearly an imbalance. Given that context, it’s reasonable that Obi chose to call attention to the poverty in the North, as he had done many times in the past, and to invoke it as the launching pad of his commitment to transform Nigeria. (Had he spotlighted the South, he might also have been accused of regional self-centeredness!)

But to expect all northerners to process Obi’s message the way I’ve done is to have a limited understanding of human behaviors and motivations. You see, every region in Nigeria, as I’ve pointed out in the past, has its stereotypical vulnerabilities about which it is sensitive.

From religious extremism to endemic child abandonment, from 419 email scams to “baby factories,” from child trafficking and prostitution in foreign lands to disabling alcoholism, from credit card scams to kidnapping, etc. Nigerians can, and often do, easily territorialize crimes and negative traits within their national space.

These stereotypical territorializations of crimes and negative stereotypes are often considered offensive when they are uttered by “outsiders” but tolerated, sometimes praised even, when they are uttered by “insiders.”

Many northerners have called attention to the endemic poverty in the North and got praises for it. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for instance, has been brutal and unsparing when he calls attention to poverty in the region and the culture that conduces to it.

When he spoke at the fourth Kaduna Investment Summit on April 3, 2019, Aliko Dangote, the world's richest Black person who is incidentally a northern Nigerian, also said way worse things about poverty in the North than Obi could ever say.

“Nigeria is ranked at 157th out of 189 countries on the human development index. While the overall socio-economic condition in the country is a cause for concern, the regional disparities are in fact very alarming,” he said. “In the Northwestern and Northeastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty.”

No northerner had a problem with Dangote for what he said. In fact, many northerners lauded his forthrightness. Northerners are resentful of Obi’s oblique references to the poverty in the North because he is an “outsider” who is in addition resented for asking the “Church” to “take back” its “country” and for characterizing the 2023 election as a “religious war” between Muslims and Christians.

[b]But southerners are also hypersensitive to even the mildest references by “outsiders” to negative indices that are exclusive to them. For instance, in March 2015, Mrs. Aisha Buhari stirred up a hornet’s nest when, during a campaign speech in Benin City, she said the biggest problems confronting Nigeria’s deep south were girl child trafficking and the mistreatment of widows.

“In each zone of the country, we have peculiar problems. Our problems differ,” she said. “For me, in this zone, girl child trafficking should be considered one of our problems, though I know there is unemployment…. There must be a design, a cultural design, that can accommodate the widow, and then a design that will make a girl child feel comfortable wherever she is in this country. She doesn't need to leave her country to go and prostitute elsewhere. It is not her potion; her potion is to have a highly standard moral society for her to live, get married, have children, train them, and to support them to become the future of our leaders.”

Many southern Nigerians seethed with raw rage in the aftermath of Aisha’s speech. They reviled, ridiculed, and besmirched the North in retaliation. They told her to first take the plank out of the North’s eye so she would see clearly enough to remove the speck from the South’s eye.

Well, many northerners are returning the favor to Obi. There is nothing in Obi’s eight-year record as governor of Anambra State to suggest that he can help people exit poverty. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics, which Charles Soludo referenced in a 2015 article, showed that Obi took Anambra from the most prosperous state in Nigeria to one of its poorest.

In 2004, according to the NBS, poverty in Anambra was 20 percent, which was the lowest in the country at the time. By the end of Obi’s first term as governor of Anambra in 2010, poverty rose to 68 percent. His post-gubernatorial social media deodorization campaigns conceal this sordid fact.

It is easy to see why he impoverished the people of Anambra. He was by far one of Nigeria’s most virulently anti-worker governors, which makes his being a candidate of the Labor Party one of the biggest paradoxes of the 2023 election.

He merged the school fees of three terms into one and required that they be paid at once, which forced children from poor homes to drop out of school, refused to pay the minimum wage and fired workers who went on strike, caused patients to die in hospitals because doctors went on strike for 13 months over a demand for a 60 percent raise in their take-home pay, caused ASUU at the then Anambra State University to go on strike for 6 months and fired the Vice Chancellor for supporting them, etc.

So, if he couldn’t transform Anambra, if he actually took the state from the least poor state in the country to one of its poorest until his successor reversed it, how could he possibly save the North from poverty? I think that’s a legitimate query.

Obi’s other claim to machismo in governance is that he saved and left N75 billion in the coffers of Anambra State. However, his handpicked successor, Willie Obiano, said the claim was a “hoax.” The secretary to the Anambra state government who served in Obiano’s administration also said, “The N75 billion was not there; it was not handed over to anybody.”
Let’s, for the sake of argument, accept that Obi’s claims were genuine, but what’s the sense in depriving workers of their just dues while “saving” money? Money has no value except what you make of it. There is no wisdom in being parsimonious while real living people starve and sink to depths of poverty.

Well, even if Obi has the capacity to lift northerners out of poverty, he could do with more tact and discretion in saying this [/b] because people tend to take exceptions to being told home truths about themselves by outsiders. That’s why, for instance, Black American hip-hop youth call themselves “nigga” but will go to war if a white person as much as says “nig.”

I had an interesting conversation about this with my American students some years back. A white student wondered why American Blacks call themselves the derogatory name “nigga” and tolerate being told unpleasant things about their culture by Black celebrities but take offense when a white person does the same.

A Black student in the class gave a perfect analogy in response. He asked the white student if she ever fights with and insults her siblings, and she answered in the affirmative. He then asked her if she thought it would be OK for another person to fight with and insult her siblings just because she does the same. His point sank in.

Read more at: [https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2023/04/obi-seems-to-be-poverty-shaming-north.html](https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2023/04/obi-seems-to-be-poverty-shaming-north.html)

This boy called Farooq and his likes should just be careful after 29 May with their utterances.

Obi is now a cerebral name

sajlo:
Obi is now a cerebral name

Especially in United Kingdom.

Obi is the biggest political figure in Nigeria at the moment

Ofunaofu:
Obi is the biggest political figure in Nigeria at the moment

That is because they know he won the election is the incoming executive president of the new Nigeria.

Meaningless article. Obi will lift Nigerians out of poverty starting from the North. Period!

I guess Buhari was also shaming the North when he told the World Bank to focus their developmental strides in the North. A bigot is always a bigot. They only just hate Peter Obi that is why bigots like the OP is always vallifying every statement Obi makes.

Yes daddy

Just like he did in Anambra for 8 years.

Cock and bull story....dey play

There's more poverty in the north, period

abobote:
Nobody is telling northerners the truth, they have been keeping the power since independence, without any tangible thing to show for it

The political class is our problem, not the people. Unfortunately, the people keep falling into their trap.

Well, I don't care about what statistics tells me because begging is the worst state of lack. NE and NW have more beggars than any other part of the country. I truly believe that the only Nigerian leader who can end poverty in the north is a northerner. A southerner cannot do it because the politicians will use religious and tribal hypocrisy against the person.

If we truly wish to reduce or eliminate abject penury in this country, we must empower northerners by teaching them that Western education empowers people but Islamic education doesn't. You cannot say that Western education is evil and not expect to be poor.

Isn't the north filled with the highest percentage of people with poverty?

A region where a jobless man will marry upto 4wives and will give birth to tons of children and according to what he was told, that Allah will take care of the children and not him. Allah will protect the children and not him.

These children will grow without little or nothing to eat...then resort to begging to survive and to bring remnants of their begging to their parents who are jobless.

Obi's interest to revive the north by bringing good tidings isn't a shame! Let's face it!

DMerciful:
Meaningless article. Obi will lift Nigerians out of poverty starting from the North. Period!

It is people like you that make the world mock the black man as dullards with no interest in reading. "If you want to hide anything from a black man keep it on a book".

Obviously you and your Obi messiah worshippers did not read the article. Is what is shown below testimony to Obi's ability to do anything other than take Nigeria backwards?

Abi they are lying about your messiah below? You guys are shameless bigots.

In 2004, according to the NBS, poverty in Anambra was 20 percent, which was the lowest in the country at the time. By the end of Obi’s first term as governor of Anambra in 2010, poverty rose to 68 percent. His post-gubernatorial social media deodorization campaigns conceal this sordid fact.

It is easy to see why he impoverished the people of Anambra. He was by far one of Nigeria’s most virulently anti-worker governors, which makes his being a candidate of the Labor Party one of the biggest paradoxes of the 2023 election.

He merged the school fees of three terms into one and required that they be paid at once, which forced children from poor homes to drop out of school, refused to pay the minimum wage and fired workers who went on strike, caused patients to die in hospitals because doctors went on strike for 13 months over a demand for a 60 percent raise in their take-home pay, caused ASUU at the then Anambra State University to go on strike for 6 months and fired the Vice Chancellor for supporting them, etc.

So, if he couldn’t transform Anambra, if he actually took the state from the least poor state in the country to one of its poorest until his successor reversed it, how could he possibly save the North from poverty? I think that’s a legitimate query.

Obi stated FACTS!
The North have been poverty-shaming themselves since the beginning of times.
Obi is only stating the obvious.

Truth has always been bitter to the ignorant, simple.

Obi’s other claim to machismo in governance is that he saved and left N75 billion in the coffers of Anambra State. However, his handpicked successor, Willie Obiano, said the claim was a “hoax.” The secretary to the Anambra state government who served in Obiano’s administration also said, “The N75 billion was not there; it was not handed over to anybody.”
Let’s, for the sake of argument, accept that Obi’s claims were genuine, but what’s the sense in depriving workers of their just dues while “saving” money? Money has no value except what you make of it. There is no wisdom in being parsimonious while real living people starve and sink to depths of poverty.


This same non sense allegations without proof....

You believe Obiano and Soludo story but refused to believe the fact from the Horses (Peter Obi) mouth?
Poverty rate can statistically and theoretically increase under Obj Leadership in Anambra but definitely not practically as most of us on ground then know how far prosperity was enjoyed by the people

The fruit of labour of Mr Peter Obi is what Obiano enjoyed.

JASONjnr:
Isn't the north filled with the highest percentage of people with poverty?

A region where a jobless man will marry upto 4wives and will give birth to tons of children and according to what he was told, that Allah will take care of the children and not him. Allah will protect the children and not him.

These children will grow without little or nothing to eat...then resort to begging to survive and to bring remnants of their begging to their parents who are jobless.

Obi's interest to revive the north by bringing good tidings isn't a shame! Let's face it!

You people are insufferable messiah worshippers walahi. No wonder Kanu and Ekpa are using you all to drink Akamu. Did you read the article where it confirms Obi worsened the poverty rating of Anambra from 20% to 68%?

It is you people's messiah worship and clannishness that will see you lag behind after all regions of Nigeria have overcome their problems to be on an upward trajectory.

Choose technocrats and achievers you reject that. Instead you all start killing for Kanu and Ekpa like brainwashed zombies. At worst you make Ikpeazu, Ekweremadu, Kalu and co your leaders for life in different political offices.

Many replies here show you people to be blind hero worshipper who cannot even read with how you praise Obi when the article illustrates he is a failure.

You are beyond salvation because a man who cannot see what he is doing wrong will never move forward.

When sharing of resources is involved, we all know the region that proudly accepts the poverty tag in order to secure a net inflow of other people's resources.

Ofunaofu:
Obi is the biggest political figure in Nigeria at the moment

The votes do not reflect that...

They hate obi because he is a Christian.....

That's all...

God bless the good people of Southsouth and Southwest

It's not about Anambra poverty percentage in Soludo's NBS data, but which position is it occupying in national ranking. In that same data, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Ogun etc had higher poverty than Anambra. That particular data Soludo was quoting had unusually high percentage for all states

This Farooq Kperogi is not different from an average politician, but in his view writings, he believe that he has provided a balanced opinion.
It is incredible to believe that Anambra have an increased poverty prevalence. Granted that some people would always quote Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the question is, how did NBS arrive at it's data? What study was it basing it references? Have the NBS data be peer reviewed? And what is the record of accuracy of NBS?
I believe that NBS could be one agency that needs to be checked very well, because government data or data, is important for policy formulation.

A region that has produced most presidents of Nigeria is the headquarters of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and kidnapping. If they see it as poverty shaming, that's their wahala.

Secondly, Farooq Kperogi actually goofed here when he was concentrating on poverty level of Anambra in 2010.

Who was the governor of Anambra between 2012-2013?



Why did he not tell us the poverty level of Anambra published in 2013 when Peter Obi was still governor?

Below is poverty rates in Nigeria states ranked according to data collected between 2004 and 2014 by United Nation’s Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index.




www.databod.com/nigeria-poverty-rate/



Peter Obi left office in 2014.

The problem with Farooq sometimes is that he always want to have an opinion on everything. Like when he admitted he doesn't watch Channels TV and Arise TV but he went ahead to compare both channels.
Here again, he focused on 2010 to crucify Peter Obi but he failed to tell us the poverty rates for the rest of the years Peter Obi was in charge.

The North is a lot more poor than the south, thats a fact.

So if Obi says he will lift Nigeria out of porverty starting with the North, he is order

MasterJayJay:
A region that has produced most presidents of Nigeria is the headquarters of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and kidnapping.

Very unfortunate

Obi, the biggest fraud they wanted to shove down the throats of Nigerians...

EmeeNaka:
This Farooq Kperogi is not different from an average politician, but in his view writings, he believe that he has provided a balanced opinion.
It is incredible to believe that Anambra have an increased poverty prevalence. Granted that some people would always quote Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the question is, how did NBS arrive at it's data? What study was it basing it references? Have the NBS data be peer reviewed? And what is the record of accuracy of NBS?
I believe that NBS could be one agency that needs to be checked very well, because government data or data, is important for policy formulation.

You have to be naive to believe that the poverty rate of any place, absent war or natural disaster or some systemic crisis, can change from 20% to 60% within 6 years. It's sad seeing the level of discourse in Nigerian politics and the pseudo-intellectualism of Nigerians like Kperogi.

After early morning masturbation, the next is to write articles about Obi.......