*As Obi shines with antecedents and fact-check confirmation
*Kwankwaso, Abiola harp on redefining the economy
The first in the series of Presidential TownHall Meetings organized by the Arise Television, Center for Development and Democracy and other partners, in Abuja, on Sunday, almost ended in fracas, as protests erupted over the representation of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, by his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
The presidential candidates of Labour Party, Peter Obi; Rabiu Kwakwaso, of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP); Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), all attended the Townhall Meeting, while the ruling APC flag bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was conspicuously absent with no reason adduced and not represented.
Shortly before the meeting started, supporters of other Presidential candidates insisted that Governor Okowa must step down, since the meeting was for presidential candidates only.
It took several appeals to calm frayed nerves and bring the angry supporters to agreement, for Governor Okowa to stay on at the meeting.
During the question and answer session LP candidate, Obi, stole the show with his consistent verifiable figures which were confirmed by fact-check team powered by the Premium Times newspaper team.
Obi, speaking on security challenges, reiterated his earlier position that pulling people out of poverty is the surest way to reduce criminality.
Obi blamed failure of intelligence processing for the March Kaduna-Abuja train abduction., arguing that if the earlier warning on the impending attack was acted upon, the terrorists would not have had their way.
He said that Nigerians must in 2023, avoid electing persons who could not in their past, account for resources entrusted in their official care, stressing that halting the ravaging insecurity in the country would require the populace recognising that those in leadership do not encourage fraud or permitting their family members dip their hands into governance or the public till.
Responding to a question on the oneness of the Office of the President and the Vice-President, Obi said the buck stops on the desk of the President, who is the single Commander-in-Chief, even though he should work as a team member with the Vice-President, elected in a joint ticket, and permitting the Vice-President to perform the constitutiinally-allowed roles without the president shirking from accepting overall responsibility.
“However interchangeability is not automatic, hence the President is required to formally hand over, in writing to his vice if travelling overseas for an extended period,” Obi stressed.
Obi was emphatic on the issue of subsidy, saying that he will remove it, but would invest the saved revenue properly, even as he insisted that oil theft is an organized crime which very much involves the regulators and top people in government.
On borrowing, Peter Obi said he has never been against borrowing, but that it must be for solely production, not for consumption and wastages in government,l must be blocked to boost revenue and hedge spiralling the exchange rate.
Speaking on diversification of the economy, Obi said the economy was already diversified but not enough attention had been made to boost production, which he would pay great attention to if elected president.
Obi countered people who hold the notion that military experience is a prerequisite in tackling security challenges, stressing that what was required was a good understanding of the problems and the ability to apply the right human and material resources to their urgent eradication, and cited countries enjoying stability which have no president with military background, including the UK.
On devolution of power, Obi said women and youth will be the engine of his administration if elected president, throwing up his record in Anambra state where he stated that women occupied critical positions in his administration as governor, such as Deputy Governor, Chief of Staff, Commissioners for Finance, Education, etc.
On food security, he noted that Borno State has low agricultural produce in relation to it’s large mass of land, promising to scare away insecurity through constructive engagement and making the utilisation of the vast arable land in the country available for food production and other productive uses a priority.
On Power, Obi said althiugh the nation’s production capacity is 12,000 megawatts, but not effectively transmitted, because the transmission capacity is not beyond 6,000 megawatts, promising to increase the transmission infrastructure, by declaring war on the power sector.
He cited example of South Africa with over 50,000 megawatts production in the sector, yet declared an emergency, emphasising the need to declare war in the Nigerian power sector to ramp it up to acceptable level.
On flood control, Obi said it was not impossible to effectively check it, pointing out that if Egypt had made so much progress in flood control, with much bigger flood potential, the solution to Nigeria’s flooding, he emphasised, lies in the reappraisal of dredging, channeling and damming, which had been articulated in the past, but the funds wasted due to corruption.
Obi described himself as a wealth creator in his private life, and his public record, promising to apply the same principle, if elected President.
On his part, the standard bearer of the NNPP, Kwankwaso and the SDP, Abiola, shared similar opinions with Obi on issues of fighting criminality and borrowing, stressing that the profligacy and corruption of the ruling APC was largely responsible for the economic disaster facing the country.
Kwankwaso in particular promised to dialogue with all agitators in the country, instead of clamping down on them, stressing that with inclusive governance and reduced corruption, all the agitations would disappear.
He particularly gave the example of the mining of solid mineral deposits by unscrupulous persons aided by the state, which have fuelled insecurity, promising to tackle those headlong if elected.
Kola Abiola, who described Nigeria as a sinking ship badly managed by people with the tendency to line their pockets with public funds, promised to reverse all those and tap from his experiences in the private sector to move the country forward.
He advised Nigerians not to rely on over-recycled politicians to pilot their affairs of the country in the next dispensation, warning that they have all acquired the tendency to pilfer the nation’s till and should be avoided.
Abiola located the driver of banditry to failure of governance, pledging to run a government of equal opportunities for all.
He promised to wedge war on insecurity, reverse youth unemployment and restore confidence in the Naira through engaging in productive ventures and wedging serious and verifiable war on corruption.
On his part, Okowa, pledged the commitment of his principal, Atiku Abubakar towards fixing the battered Nigerian economy.
He also said that with his vast experiences, Atiku would lay the foundation for a prosperous Nigeria anchored on equity, fairness and justice.
He attributed youth restiveness to the neglect of the APC administration to wealth creation, promising that the Atiku administration will tackle all issues that get people recycled into the system when they should have been on retirement.
He also promised that the PDP government would grow the economy and work towards not just paying off the accumulated primitive debt by the APC government, but secure a possible debt relief from the international donor agencies, stressing that the PDP would never borrow for consumption as the APC government is doing.
Though he refrained from blaming the President on the Kaduna train attack, given that he did not know the intelligence at his disposal, the governor, stressed the need for coordinated intelligence, recruitment of more security personnel and motivation of those in service.
The Town Hall meeting lasted for over four hours from 8pm to 11.50pm.
