Political thugs earning more than professors – Peter Obi

Published March 4, 2021

Tony Okafor , Awka
A former governor of Anambra State and the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2019 general elections, Mr Peter Obi , has described Nigeria as a sad irony where political thugs earn more than professors .
Obi stated this on Wednesday during the presentation of a book authored by Prof Chinyere Okunna of the Department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State .
He said Nigeria would not make any progress if bandits were considered above intellectuals .
He said , “ Prof . Okunna ( the author) , who we are celebrating today; I can tell you earns less than a political thug . Nigeria prefers paying bandits and dialoguing with them paying or meeting with resourceful and hard -working intellectuals .
“ I never knew Okunna before I appointed her commissioner when I was governor , but I became interested in her when I saw her CV as a nominee.
“ Many people protested her appointment because she was not a member of our political party but I remained resolute to appoint her because I needed the right team to do the job.
“ People come to me to ask for advice on the kind of people they should give appointments to and I say to them , ‘ take people who can tell you the truth no matter how painful’ .
“ If you listen to the people who tell you the sweet things all the time , then you ’ll fail. If you have an exco where they do not argue and disagree with you , then you have a bunch of idiots and of course, we have a lot of idiots in Nigeria .”