BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, on Friday thrilled students and staff of the University of Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory with facts and figures of where Nigeria is and where it would be if he is voted in as president on February 25, 2023.
Obi, who was a special guest in a Town Hall engagement organized by the University’s Leadership Center, said that the problems of the country, whether on the economy, education, health, politics, etc revolve around political leadership that has failed the country over the years.
The LP Presidential flag bearer, who spoke for over two hours while standing, said leadership failures over the years and refusal to do the right thing at the right time were responsible for the barrage of woes in the system.
He told the cheering students that the reason his manifesto centered on turning the country from consumption to production was to stop the country from recycling poverty.
“The only thing this country is manufacturing is poverty. And Datti and I are coming to change all that because no country grows by consumption, without production.”
Obi said that poverty is increasing in Nigeria because the country is not investing enough in education and health which is what makes the difference between a rich and a poor country.
Assuring the students that it will stop under his watch, Obi noted that “life expectancy globally should be about 72 years but it’s 55 years in Nigeria because of the growing level of poverty in Nigeria, our country that is so blessed.
“This country should not be poor given its abundant natural and human resources.”
The presidential hopeful remarked that he and Datti were coming to halt the drift and position the country as the giant of Africa that all Nigerians profess.
The former Anambra state governor said that securing the country remains their number one priority because nothing, no matter how laudable, can be achieved without a secured environment, reiterating that his presidency will negotiate with agitators who are amenable and deal with those who may be recalcitrant and uncooperative because there can only be one government at a time in a country.
He also spoke on a number of issues arising from questions from the staff and students at the well-attended Town Hall meeting, ranging from power, corruption, and subsidy removal.
On the allegation made by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, that fuel scarcity and redesigning of the naira was deliberately created to sabotage the forthcoming election, Obi said that he runs his campaigns on issues and does not delve into other candidates’ positions.
On removal of subsidy, he said that if given the opportunity, he will remove subsidy the first day in office because they have turned it into a huge racket of corruption which he and Datti will stop.
Obi told the jubilant students that the next election was about them and they must seize the opportunity to take back their country by insisting that character, competence, and antecedents guide their decision, not religion, tribe, and region, or my turn because in truth it’s the turn of the teeming Nigerian youths who are wasting away.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, explained the motive of the gathering saying that intellectual engagement is the basis of political leadership.
The Vice-Chancellor said that those aspiring to govern must be scrutinized, made to answer questions and wondered why Nigeria is where it is if not for poor political leadership which is everything.
