A claim that the College of Nursing Sciences, St Charles Borromeo Specialist Hospital, Onitsha, was executed by Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, during his tenure as Anambra state governor has surfaced online.
This follows a claim by Reno Omokri, a former Nigerian presidential aide, who said Obi did not build any school during his time as a governor and challenged Obi’s supporters popularly called ‘Obidients’ to mention one school built by Obi-led administration from 2007 to 2014.
He offered to give a $10,000 reward to whoever could come up with a response.
He threw the challenge in an interview on Channels TV’s ‘Mic On Podcast’ programme hosted by Seun Okinbaloye, on April 20, 2024.
In response, an X user, @Nnanyelogu13 posted:
“This school of nursing was started and finished by Peter Obi, I sent it to @renoomokri and he blocked me. @seunokin it’s time you stop bringing clowns to your shows. Tell your friend that he doesn’t have 10k USD to give.”
The claim has generated almost 300,000 views with over 1,700 reposts and more than 3,600 likes as of April 26, 2024.
CLAIM
St Charles Borromeo Specialist Hospital, Onitsha was executed by Peter Obi-led administration in Anambra state.
THE FINDINGS
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE, as Peter Obi admitted in a recent interview that he didn’t build any school when he was Anambra state governor.
When asked at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, Obi admitted to focusing on improving the quality of the infrastructure that were on ground then rather than building new ones.
He said that when he came to Anambra State, education was in shambles as schools were closed.
“I improved the quality, physical and mental well-being of the people, schools, had the basic things they needed and the people shone like stars and that was my manifesto.
“Building new schools when the old ones are moribund is just like building coastal lines when internal roads are impassable,” Obi said at the media event.
In addition, The FactCheckHub reviewed information on the college’s website among others, to verify the accuracy of the claim.
According to the information obtained from the college’s website, the idea to establish the College of Nursing Sciences, St. Charles Borromeo Specialist Hospital, Onitsha was conceived by Archbishop Valerian Maduka Okeke.
The Archbishop envisioned the college as part of the hospital’s expansion programme to address the nationwide shortage of nursing professionals, particularly due to emigration.
The college also mentioned the ‘kind support’ it received from the Anambra State government during the college’s planning stages, though it didn’t indicated any direct funding by the state government under Obi.
The college’s website stated that the project site was blessed in 2012 and the foundation stone laid by Governor Peter Obi. This showed Obi’s involvement in the initial stages.
However, the college building itself was blessed and commissioned in 2015 – a year after Obi left office. This falls outside the governorship period of Peter Obi, who left office in March 2014.
However, Obi has made personal donation to the college after he left the office. For instance, he donated N10 million to the school in April 2024.
The FactCheckHub contacted the college for official comment via its telephone line but an official who received our phone call asked that we sent a message instead.
The college is yet to respond, days after receiving the message sent to the mobile line by this fact-checker, as of the time of filing this report.
THE VERDICT
The claim that St Charles Borromeo Specialist Hospital, Onitsha was executed by Peter Obi-led administration in Anambra state is FALSE; the college is owned by Catholic missionaries while Obi also admitted that the state didn’t build any school during his governorship tenure.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
