*I’ll work with like-minded Nigerians who are in a hurry to save the country 

As Nigeria marks 25 years of unbroken democracy amidst President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office, harsh criticism has come from 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi who noted that Tinubu has been excellent in continuing Buhari’s legacy of failure.

He aired his opinion during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday.

Obi’s criticism of Tinubu’s reign so far, was laced with critical examination of economic indicators, noting that things have gone totally downhill, with prices of goods and services surging since the president came into power.

Although when asked about President Tinubu’s first year in office and if he has displayed the ability to tackle Nigeria’s many problems, Obi began with words that seemed like showers of praise. However, the sarcasm in his words proceeded to come to light.

He began, “I’ve never made comments about one year in office. The reason why is simple. I would say that president Tinubu has kept to his campaign promises. Throughout the campaign, he consistently maintained that he will continue from where Buhari stopped and he’s done very well. I would say excellent. I’ll give him an excellent pass mark.”

Obi then continued with a critical assessment of the economy saying, “Dollar was 460, it’s now 1,500. Fuel was 238, it’s now about 700. Diesel was 844, it’s now 1,415. A bag of rice was 30-35 thousand is now about 80 (thousand).

“A bag of beans was similar, 30-35 (thousand), it’s now about 90 (thousand). Garri was 27-28 (thousand), it’s now 49-50 (thousand). A tuber of yam was about 2,700 to 3,000, now it’s about 10,000.

“Tomato basket was about 40,000, now it’s over 150,000. Electricity that was 66 kilowatts is now over 200 (kw). You can go on and on.

“Our debt, even bread which is the basic thing other countries are subsidising, like Egypt, bread, small medium bread for 450 naira is now 900 naira.

“The big one was 900, it’s now 1,500. Our debt like I mentioned, was 87 (trillion). By the end of last year, it was actually 97 (trillion), the highest we’ve gone within that short period. Now it’s over 100 trillion.

“In fact, this year alone, the government, through the central Bank of Nigeria, had issued and taken from the system, over 16 trillion naira.

“You can imagine the interest at almost 20%. It’s about 3.2 trillion after 12 months.

“Add that last year, a period of nine months, we spent about 5.7 trillion servicing debt interest and payment, so add that. So, overall, we’ve done well.”

Lamenting the dire situation of the country’s economy, he continued, saying, “Let’s even go back to the overall economy.

“By the time he took over last year, we were still the biggest economy in Africa with $477 billion as our GDP, followed by South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

“Today, we are number 4. South Africa is number 1 now. I think about $373 billion. Egypt is second, $347 billion, followed by Algeria, 266 (billion) and we are now a 252 billion GDP economy.

“It’s even worse when you go to per capita. We are actually 1/4 of per capita of the list of these nations that I mentioned.

“South Africa is over 6,000 per capita, Egypt is 4,000 plus. So is Algeria and then Morocco, which among these is supposed to be the 5th, at 4,210 and we are 1,000 plus. So we actually have gone low. We are coming from a low of per capita of 10,000 plus in 2014.

“Every other thing has headed South. Is it insecurity? It has worsened. Corruption has worsened, adherence to the rule of law has worsened, nepotism is at the highest.”

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential Elections, Peter Obi, said he is hoping that the Labour Party will carry out a political merger with other “like-minded people” who are willing to take Nigeria out of its current difficulties.

Obi said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday night, where he also confirmed that the descriptions of the conflict within the Labour Party are exaggerated, and that the party is amicably resolving its issues in private.

When he was questioned about possible mergers or political deals between the Labour Party and other parties, Obi said, “There’s no deal, but I wish and hope there will be. We need to look for like minds who are now committed to saving this country.”

He went on to say that the party is “trying to put ourselves together and explore all those opportunities,” and though the party has not started this process officially, they are considering it.

Obi then said that at the moment, there is nothing to report as regards possible mergers, but went on to say, “I want the like minds and those who can see that we are in difficulty to come together and save this country for the future of our children.”

Obi then addressed what he called the exaggerated reports of division within the Labour Party as he said, “There’s no toxic division within the Labour Party, that I can tell you. And I’m intervening.

“When fathers intervene in their family, it is not a public affair. I’m a leader in Labour Party, and we are talking, and I assure you that whatever is the problem or crisis in the Labour Party is not up to 10% of what is happening in other parties, and we will resolve it and do so amicably.”

He was then asked whether he would be tempted to leave the party as it may be hard to manage the conflicts reported over time, to which he responded, “We don’t have that type of conflict that you are mentioning, people are just exaggerating what is there.

“I am a faithful member of Labour Party, I remain there, I am a member of Labour Party. If for any reason, like I said, if we’re going to move forward and there’s other groups that want to work with us, we’ll work with them.”