The presidential candidate of the Labour party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, has enunciated reasons why President Bola Tinubu should be voted out of office in 2027.
He said the failure of the president to get his priorities right as well as his condonation of expenditure on non-productive items, is enough to get him out of office by the electorates.
The former Governor of Anambra State while fielding questions on Channels Television Politics Today on Sunday, stated that there is the need to change the security architecture and bring in every community to participate in the security of their communities, stressing that he would adopt same measures he adopted in Anambra State to halt criminality across the country.
Obi, described Tinubu’s administration as “a leadership without compassion, arguing that “people want to see a leadership with compassion, not one that doesn’t care about their welfare and interests”.
He described as uncaring President Tinubu’s inability to visit flashpoints of violence of carnage immediately such happens, stressing that if he were the president, he would not only guarantee safe and secure nation, but give priority to people’s security and welfare.
In December 18th, children died in their hundreds in Ibadan, on the 19th, the President flew to Lagos to do Christmas. I would have gone to Ibadan to your with the parents of the children.
In Benue, the President did not go there until several days after people were killed. I would have gone there the next day after the killing.
In Niger, people died, he didn’t not go there, but he is commissions bus stops roads. Is road more important than our people who were killed.
In Anambra yesterday, over 10 people were killed. In Sokoto, over 18 were killed, and our president is abroad. What is he doing there. If I were to be President, I won’t spend more than a day in that country. He even gave some children scholarship here while we have more than 1.2 million out of children here in Nigeria. That’s doesn’t show a president with compassion.
A leader must be competent and his character both in private and public must show he has what it takes to rule the country.
He denied ever working for Abacha of any government, stressing that he has always been a successful businessman.
He said the only time he decided to see the President was when the Abacha military government closed the boarders, and he and other 50 personalities met with him to discuss the implications, after which Abacha accepted to set up a committee to decongest the ports and airports.
“I have never know Abacha. I never worked in his government. Everything I have done is in public space.
He said it was wrong for the president to be buying jets when 80 per cent of the nation’s primary health care centers are non-functional, stressing that the reasons given for purchasing exotic vehicles arose due to lack of empathy.
“Let me tell you Seun, nobody will kill the President for doing the right thing. And I should add that if every other Nigerian is dying, the President should be ready to die,” he said.
He criticised the subsidy removal process by the administration, saying it was done in a hap-hazard manner without first ascertaining what actually government was subsidising.
He pointed out that Nigeria should make it a matter of policy to borrow only for investment, stressing that borrowing for consumption has kept the country in the dark.
When asked what his priorities would be if he should borrow, he said “I will borrow to fund education and power”.
He noted that the three counties that improved power: India, Vietnam and Egypt, adopted a methodical approach to improve their power situation, which is why he took time to identify the problems, stressing that with a determined leader, all the problems of the country will be resolved.
He also said he would rather promote strong opposition parties so he can listen and gain superior ideas from them when they come up with such.
It is only in this country you out incompetent people to be in office because they are your relations. I will not do that.
“I have an idea of the problems in the north, if I become president, I know what to do to transform our north to the economic bub of the country, rather than what it is today. We can make more money in agriculture than we are making in oil,” he said.
He said he would focus on every part of the country and develop the produce that provides it with comparative advantage, inviting the interview host to go to Anambra State and see the number of industries in Onitsha Industrial Layout which he invited Goodluck Jonathan to commission while he was governor of the state.
He dismissed the recourse to spending humongous amount of money to renovate non-economic ventures like the International Conference Centre, stressing that those were waste of public funds he would not condone if he were the president.
He lampooned the absence of good functional hospital or school, stressing that spending money on things that don’t have value or that can’t make returns to the country.
On insecurity, he insisted that it was wrong to allow non-state actors appear to be stronger than state actors, saying it was due to misplacement of priorities that have led us to the level of insecurity the nation is facing.
He stressed that if leaders do the right things, every form of criminality, agitations and strife will vanish, stressing that dialogue remains the best way to deal with the such situations.
