In an interview on Arise TV on Monday night, Obi also described the honorary citizenship he was conferred with as worthless, just as Sowore had said.
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, has agreed with his counterpart in the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, that his honorary citizenship of Dallas in the United States, is useless.
In an interview on Arise TV on Monday night, Obi also described the honorary citizenship he was conferred with as worthless, just as Sowore had said.
According to Sowore, the honorary citizenship conferred on Obi “is not worth the paper on which it was printed on”.
In October 2022, Obi was conferred with the honorary citizenship of Dallas, in the US by the Mayor of Dallas, Eric Johnson.
Johnson conferred the honour on Obi after a meeting with his team.
Obi swiftly disclosed this via a statement alongside a photograph of the event on his official Facebook page, saying, “Today in Dallas Texas United States, I met with the Mayor of Dallas and his team. I had the privilege of being conferred with the honorary citizenship of Dallas.”
“I also met with a select group of Texas Judges,” the LP flagbearer added.
Reacting to the post, Sowore tweeted, “No wonder Peter Obi stated he’s got no ideology different from Atiku and the rest, for him to be celebrating the conferment of ‘honorary citizenship’ of Dallas show he’s got no clue that the award is not even worth the paper it was printed on. Someone scammed him!”
Sowore @YeleSowore tweeted that the Dallas "honorary citizen" that @PeterObi and #Obidients were celebrating wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Obidents abused Sowore; even some, out of ignorance, said Sowore was jealous of Obi. The same Sowore, who refused American… pic.twitter.com/gGqcPH3GtN
— Iβrahim Showa (@TheIOShowa) May 3, 2023
However, some supporters of Obi, popularly known as Obidients, attacked Sowore online, saying he was ignorant and jealous of the Labour Party candidate.
But when asked if he had dual citizenship and to offer clarification on the honorary citizenship award, Obi in the Arise TV interview said, “You know what that means, it means nothing. Even one of the presidential candidates said it that it means nothing. It just shows that if you come into this city, you are welcome. If you go to apply for visa, it can’t even help you for your visa application. It means nothing.
“I’ve never applied and I will never apply for citizenship of any other country. I’m a Nigerian and I believe in Nigeria. I lived in the UK for a period of about 12 years. I had permanent stay. I had indefinite stay which means I can stay there for the rest of my life. But when I left the UK, I went back to them and said take your stay. I now go to the UK with visa.”
Also, a tax consultant and member of the AAC, Ibrahim Showa, who weighed in the matter on Wednesday tweeted, “Sowore @YeleSowore tweeted that the Dallas "honorary citizen" that @PeterObi and #Obidients were celebrating wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Obidents abused Sowore; even some, out of ignorance, said Sowore was jealous of Obi. The same Sowore, who refused American citizenship, would be jealous of an honorary citizenship? Well, yesterday Obi confirmed that the honorary citizen he was given is useless.
“So why are people offended by the truth? They are offended because the truth touched their preferred lesser evil; if it touches other evils they hate, Sowore will be a true patriot to them.
“Imagine if the Guniean passport of ThiefTinubu was for Obi; they would have celebrated and seen nothing wrong.
“Obi, Atiku, and Tinubu promised to remove fuel subsidies. Obidients supported the policy, but now that their messiah was not (s)elected, they have made a 360° turn and started condemning the removal of subsidies. HYPOCRITES
“APC-PDP-LP and all the their LITES are the same. #WeCantContinueLikeThis #RevolutionNow.”