The candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25th presidential election, Peter Obi has recounted the conversation he had with a man at Asaba airport. Speaking about reducing the high cost of governance during an interaction hosted by Parallel Facts on Twitter, the former Anambra governor said a man he met at the airport while waiting for his flight told him that it is okay for states to own private jets and for state governors to fly in private jets.
He said he told the man that California which is a state in the United States of America has a higher Per Capita Income (PCI) than Nigeria and it also has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is worth more than that of Nigeria, yet a governor of the state can not fly in private jet to Washington because he would be sacked. He also said the governor can not sleep in a hotel room that costs more than 2000 dollars a night else he would be removed from office.
According to Peter Obi, “I was talking with somebody yesterday who wanted to convince me because we had an argument at an airport while we were waiting for flight at Asaba airport. He was able to tell me how it is not huge a cost for states to own planes and for state governors to fly private jets, and when he finished I asked him a simple question: what is the GDP of Nigeria and he said it is about 400-500 billion dollars. I said what is per capita of Nigeria, he said about 2000. I said fine, you have a GDP of about 400 billion that is your entire country. I said are you aware that there is a state in America called California that is about 3.6 trillion GDP
That state has a per-capita that is about 60 thousand dollars. And I can tell you that if governor of California decides to go to Washington and he goes with a private jet, he will not land in Washington before he will be removed from office. He does not have a lodge in Washington. He stays in a hotel and he can not stay in a hotel where he will pay 2000 dollars a night, he will not wake up in the morning before they remove him. He will not be seen in the streets of LA with 10 vehicle convoy, else he will go the next day”.
(Watch the video from 1:23:58)
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