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Peter Obi sparks reactions with appearance at Makinde’s campaign office

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Former Anambra State Governor and presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has sparked mixed reactions online following his appearance at the inauguration of the Abuja campaign office of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) presidential candidate, Seyi Makinde.

The event, held on Monday in the Federal Capital Territory, was attended by Makinde’s supporters, Obi and other members of the APM.

Videos of the event shared online showed Obi expressing solidarity with Makinde and describing him as a qualified candidate for the presidency.

Obi said his presence at the inauguration was aimed at promoting cooperation among political leaders and allowing Nigerians to freely choose their preferred candidate.

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“You have a candidate who is contesting for President today. My dear brother, Seyi Makinde, is he qualified to be President? Yes. He’s qualified,” Obi said.

He added that whoever emerged victorious through a free and credible election should be supported by others to work towards addressing the country’s challenges.

“Whoever wins, genuinely, from a free, fair, credible election, all of us want to work together to save this country from collapse. That is why I’m here, to show solidarity, to assure you that we are changing the people,” he said.

“We don’t want policies of quarrel, policies of disagreement. Let our quarrel be to feed our people,” he added.

He further expressed his desire for a country where citizens could achieve their aspirations regardless of their background or connections.

“We want Nigeria where a child of nobody can be somebody without knowing anybody. That’s what we want,” Obi added.

The speech, however, triggered varied reactions online, with some social media users praising Obi’s position, while others questioned the decision of a presidential candidate to appear at the campaign event of another presidential contender.

Omo_asunmogejo wrote: “Is Peter Obi not a ‘gbewudani’ by joining the campaign of another presidential candidate in an election that he himself is a candidate. If he is serious about his own campaign he won’t have time to be campaigning for another presidential candidate.”

Deximal simply reacted: “Lol. Presidential candidate at the inauguration of another presidential candidate.”

Segun Benson suggested that there could be more to the development, writing: “Something is cooking underneath. Well, once done, we will all see it, whether to eat it or trash it.”

Paul Bushman criticised Obi’s approach, describing it as “naive politics.” He wrote: “Can you see a democrat or republican at another party’s function endorsing their candidate while also contesting for the same position? Nothing like politics without bitterness. Obi lacks ideological faithfulness. No wonder he changes parties easily.”

Tripsoflife also questioned the development, writing “Obidients are supporting and marketing @PeterObi an NDC presidential candidate, in return Obi is marketing @seyimakinde of the APM. Stop Obi from attending places you guys think it was a joke, soon baba go campaign for Atiku and Tinubu. Obi(MTN) everywhere you go.”

However, some users defended Obi, arguing that his appearance demonstrated a willingness to put national interest above personal political ambition.

Odyssey wrote: “This man only cares about Nigerians. He’s not desperate to be president. He just wants to save Nigerians, so let’s try our best to support his goal for us all. Nigerians Wake up.”

Jeremial Olaposi described Obi’s approach as “the more you look, the less you see style of politics.”

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Tinubu says 21 MSME hubs support 650,000 jobs across Nigeria

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President Bola Tinubu has said 21 shared facilities established across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory are supporting businesses and an estimated 650,000 jobs.

The facilities, established under the Federal Government’s National MSME Clinics initiative, provide entrepreneurs with access to equipment, electricity and production infrastructure without requiring them to bear the full cost of setting up such facilities themselves.

President Tinubu disclosed this in a statement on Monday while highlighting the government’s efforts to address infrastructure and equipment challenges facing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

According to the President, many small businesses have the skills and ideas to expand but struggle to access the equipment and infrastructure needed to increase production.

He said the shared MSME hubs were designed to reduce some of those barriers by allowing entrepreneurs to use modern production facilities without making large upfront investments.

He cited tailors and food processors as examples of businesses that could benefit from the model.

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“A tailor should not need millions of naira to buy industrial machinery before she can grow her business. A food processor should not have to build a factory before producing at scale,” he said.

The President said access to shared facilities could allow businesses to increase production while reducing their operating costs.

“When small businesses can produce more, at lower cost, they become more competitive. They grow. They employ more people. They create income and opportunity for Nigerian families.”

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The initiative comes as the Federal Government expands programmes aimed at improving access to finance, equipment, skills and markets for small businesses.

READ ALSO: Sowore’s AAC sues Tinubu, others over failure to transfer power to Shettima

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), which implements several government MSME support programmes, has previously identified access to finance, infrastructure and markets among the challenges confronting small businesses.

The government has also introduced other interventions aimed at improving access to credit. These include the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC), which provides guarantees to encourage financial institutions to lend to businesses and other eligible borrowers.

President Tinubu noted that the government’s approach was focused on removing barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from turning their skills and ideas into sustainable businesses.

“Our job is to remove those barriers,” he said.

He added that strengthening small businesses would help create employment, increase household incomes and expand economic activity.

“Giving Nigerian enterprise the tools to succeed is how we build prosperity from the ground up,” President Tinubu said.


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Anthropic’s prospectus details losses, growth, and, yes, a warning that its AI could end humanity

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Anthropic devoted nearly a third of its hotly anticipated IPO prospectus to risk factors, according to the Financial Times, which says it has reviewed the filing in recent days. The filing details specific, worrisome behaviors that Anthropic says its models have already shown or could show, including attempts to “resist shutdown,” to “conceal or manipulate information,” and behavior “resembling blackmail,” according to Reuters.

The disclosures are decidedly grim for a company whose own backers believe it could list above $2 trillion, more than double its $965 billion valuation from May, in potentially the biggest IPO ever. It’s a strange position for any company to be in — warning that its product could end humanity, while making some of its earliest investors and employees extraordinarily wealthy in the process.

Reuters was first to report on the financial details within the prospectus on Monday, saying Anthropic recorded an operating loss of more than $8 billion in 2025 as spending on computing power surged, and that its revenue jumped twelvefold to nearly $4.6 billion, though rising infrastructure costs last year pushed total operating expenses to almost $13 billion.

Also per Reuters, Anthropic’s prospectus further reveals plans to spend a whopping $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure in the coming years. (Anthropic has already inked compute deals this year with Google, SpaceX, and Nscale, among others toward that end.)

The FT meanwhile reports that Anthropic’s numbers have moved even faster in 2026. Its second-quarter revenue alone reached $11.5 billion, and the company is on track for its second straight quarter of operating profit on an adjusted basis.

According to the FT, the prospectus also flagged customer concentration, with nearly a quarter of last year’s revenue coming from just two clients. (No word yet on who these are.)

The disclosures, which reportedly include “existential risks to humanity” — a first, judging by a quick scan of the SEC’s database — comes as hand-wringing quickly grows over AI safety.

CEO Dario Amodei has spent the month publicly calling to “pace the frontier” of AI development, telling the UN Security Council last week that AI could threaten humankind and calling it “the most important global security issue facing the world today.” Rivals Sam Altman and Elon Musk have backed him up, too, in a rare moment of solidarity for competitors who’ve seemingly relished opportunities to disparage each other publicly.

Another rival, Mark Zuckerberg, has meanwhile swatted away concerns, telling NBC News last week that he doesn’t “think that we need some kind of industrywide coordination.”

The warnings follow a string of security incidents in which AI agents have breached outside systems. In fact, OpenAI disclosed last week that its tools have hacked “dozens” of external sites, including government one, including the SEC’s site itself. Earlier on Monday, it said it had scrapped plans to release its newest model owing to safety concerns.

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