The Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, has stated that the only way to take Nigeria out of its current quagmire was to tackle insecurity and corruption head-on. 

Obi, while speaking in an interview with CNN’s Zain Asher Friday night, said his first plan of elected, is to put security in place for the safety of the people. 

He said that with security in place, farmers will be able to return to the farms and cultivate on the vast arable lands the country is blessed with, but which, unfortunately,  have been largely taken over by bandits and terrorists.

The former Anambra State governor explained that security was impacting negatively on the economy of the country and needs to be dealt with decisively if the country wants to rise above poverty.

He said: “One is that you have to deal decisively with insecurity. It is impacting negatively on our economy today. Because you have to get your farmers to go back to the farm, and start ensuring that the vast land of the North is invested and cultivated on. 

“You have to start pulling people out of poverty as quickly as possible.”

In the course of the interview, Asher, who described him as the most popular candidate among the young people, stated that, Nigerians are used to being disappointed by their leaders, asking, can all the problems of Nigeria which are corruption, oil theft, insecurity, physically be solved by one person?

Reacting to the question, Obi said: “If we have a leader that is competent, has the capacity, and commitment to deal with it, no one will solve it overnight, but there will be clear, visible, measurable attempts to deal with it. 

“And they are things that are solvable. There are things that can be dealt with decisively.”