The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has his reasons for going to the markets to campaign.
According to him, aside enlightening traders on why they should to continue to stay aloof, playing football along the streets during elections, he considered them as essential stakeholder in his campaign mantra of returning Nigeria from a consumption to a production country, stressing that functional markets are the tools to making that happen.
Obi disclosed these during a one-on-one interview qith Seun Okinbaloye on Channels TV on Monday night.
The LP presidential candidate speaking on the economic ideas and implementation strategies of his campaign stated, “my reason for going to markets is simple. I’m also a trader myself.
“I have always said we need to be able to go back from consumption to production, and you can’t talk about doing that without roots to functional markets.
“I need to interact with traders and business people, and visit industrialists, agriculturalists, hearing what is their problem and be able to promise them of better times”.
Speaking on his agenda on the economy especially for the small-scale businesses, if elected President, the LP presidential candidate said, “the greatest employer of labour, the greatest productive area in any economy is Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
“From China to India and Indonesia, they are all driven by the same indices and these are anchored on people”.
Providing statistics on world working economies, the former Anambra state governor pointed out that “in a country like Indonesia, almost over 90 per cent of the businesses are in this sector; in terms of employment, they are creating over 70 per cent of the employment; in China, over 60 per cent; a similar situation exists in Vietnam.
“These are countries that are doing very well today and a very productive and oriented.
“I believe that you need to study and listen to these people because they will propel what we went to achieve. For me, the commitment to pull people out of poverty is immeasurable.
“What governments in Nigeria have not done in the past is to look at where they are coming from and where they are standing at the moment and then decide on where they should be.
“For example, in 2012, unemployment was about 10 to 12 per cent, but today, it has risen to about 33 per cent.
“Our monetary poverty was 55 million, and at 33 per cent today, it is about 95 million, and of course, multi-dimensional poverty has increased it to 133 million.
“These are things that need to be addressed by a new government,” he noted.
Oni pointed out that it is the physical support of the government that makes it possible for these micro Small businesses to be able to have faith again.
He added: “We will ensure first that we deal with the issue of security of life and property by securing the country.
“That way, we will be able to let our farmers return to farming and increase agricultural production”.
