I’ll Rather Lose Honourably Than Win Doing Wrong Thing — Peter Obi

A former governor of Anambra State and ex-presidential aspirant of the Peoples DemocraticParty, Peter Obi, has said that he would rather lose doing the right thing than win doing the wrong thing.

Obi made the observation when he appeared on Channel TV’s Politics Today on Friday.

Obi dumped the PDP and joined Labour Party on Friday.

He said, “I’m not desperate to be president; I’m desperate to see Nigeria work especially for the youth. I’ve moved to a party where I think the system will allow me to contribute.

“I’ll rather lose doing the right thing than win doing the wrong thing. My politics has been consistent in character and integrity throughout the time I started. You can go and check.

“This is not the first time I left PDP. In 2002 when I started this politics I was a member of PDP. I went to one meeting and I want to contribute and some people said no you cannot contribute.

“I quietly left and went to APGA. I went to APGA, campaigned and won election and somebody else was declared. I didn’t quarrel and I went to court. I became the first Nigerian to ever stayed in court for three years and I didn’t quarrel until I was declared winner.”

Peter Obi debunked the claim that he visited the presidential candidate of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, before he dumped PDP, adding that the NNPP was never a choice for him.

Obi was asked to respond to the claims put forward by Wike and the former Vice presidential candidate, said, “Wike mentioned the issue of integrity. He said that my leaving questioned my integrity. I don’t know how that one came about.

“But I think when you talk about integrity, you talk about the management of public resources. That is what we should be talking about in this country. And when such things are mentioned about me, I feel something is missing somehow.

“Go and check my record as a governor, I was impeached for three reasons: 1, my office was approved to be renovated for N298 million but I renovated everything with N43.3 million. 2. My lodge was approved to be renovated for N486m but I did everything with N81m.

“The number 3 item was that I was saving money without the authority of the House. From [my] day one[in office], we started saving money and went through the eight years that I was governor.

“Go and ask any contractor that served with me, to talk about what I’m entitled to, inflated any contract, any supplier, anybody. And when I left office, I left behind $500m at that time because it was public money. I was managing public trust.

“So for me, when you talk about integrity it questions your management of public trust and resources. Go to Anambra today, I have no land given to me by the State government.

“My managing Director of my Housing Authority, Mike Nwafor, gave me land and two houses and I told him, ‘I’m not entitled to it’. Nobody has ever seen me, in my political life, sharing money,” Obi said.