Peter Obi, former Anambra state governor and Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) was a guest on News Central TV where he spoke on his plans for Nigeria if elected as president in the 2023 general elections. TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI who monitored the session for Daily Independent presents the excerpts: 

The next president of Nigeria is entering at a time of high insecurity, high unemployment rate, slow growth, rising debt cost and a number of issues. We also have a ballooning fuel subsidy figure. So, people will probably ask, why running towards what looked like a burning building rather than running away from it? 

Well, for me people have to stop that fire from escalating because if you don’t stop it from a particular building, it might go on to other areas. It is difficult but it is not impossible. There are so many countries that have gone through what we are going through now, they have passed through it and they were able to come out of it through a careful, organised approach. We need to take the issues one after the other, and ask, ‘how do we deal with it?’ We have insecurity, we have a near-collapse situation in terms of the economy but it has to be handled. 

What comes first, economy or insecurity and how do we handle this? 

It is a combination of both. You can’t tackle one and leave the other, because in tackling both simultaneously particularly the economy, you’ve reduced criminality. Don’t forget that criminality worsened because of the collapse of the economy. We have 100 million people living in poverty. You have the highest unemployment rate in the world. It might not be the highest in percentage, but highest in number. So, the more you pull people out of poverty, the more you reduce criminality. So, as you are doing this, at the same time you are engaging, strengthening your security architecture to be able to tackle the criminal aspect of it. 

Is it time we seek outside help in tackling security challenges and in doing so, what type of help should we seek? 

For me, the first thing to do is to deal with it internally by reorganizing and strengthening our internal security architecture. We must also strengthen and deal with our economy in order to have a robust economy. If you have this, then you are going to seek support wherever you can get. But, it has to start with an internal position. 

How will you strengthen the internal security architecture, is it by state police creation or injecting funds? 

What I always tell people is that when it comes to issue of listening to politicians, it comes to issue of trust. All these people contesting, whom among them do we trust? On what I am going to do with the issue of insecurity, it will be decisive and immediate. If you are talking about state policing, for me, there is no reason why we shouldn’t even have local government police. There is nothing wrong in state police because for me, every state should be able to protect itself. It will not stop us from setting up the national police. Whatever we can do to secure the country, I will do it. It is non-negotiable. It is imperative in your clime to attract investment, there is an intangible asset of growing your GDP- security, rule of law, all these have to be in place. It is not negotiable at all. Whatever it takes to ensure that these two are there, I will do it. 

If you emerge the president, what will you do about states not contributing to the growth of the economy? 

Let me tell you, everything in Nigeria is viable. Nigeria is not a productive country. That is why I said we are going to move them from consumption to production. That is what Nigerian states are. Take Borno State for example. Borno State is on 70.9 square kilometres of land. Fertile land that can be used for anything. Even the Sambisa forest is about 60,000 kilometres of land, and you say we are poor. We are poor because we chose to make our states unproductive. The Netherlands is 33,000 square kilometers of land minus water. Total food export last year is $120b. That is agriculture alone. So, if Borno state decides to do one percent of what the Netherlands is doing, it is $1.2 billion. At 600, it is N700 billion, which is five times the budget of Borno State. 

We chose to make our states unproductive. If we are productive, Borno State is three times the size of Israel. Israel is 22,000 kilometres of land while Borno state is 70.9 land kilometres and I can go state after state like that. We have been unproductive and living on handouts. The greatest assets of a country is one, human beings. Human infrastructure delivers four times what physical infrastructure can contribute. Nigeria is a huge country of 200 million people that are not productive. That is why we have unemployment and that is what we are going to turn around. 

You will be working with the1999 Constitution; how will you carry out governance with people that are not pulling their weight? 

The Constitution might have its own problem but our constitution is not what is keeping us where we are today, it is bad leadership. Notwithstanding the constitution, you can drive everybody along and still make the country productive. Why do we have an Economic Council? The Economic Council  in the Constitution says the states and the federal government will meet once a month to decide the economic future of the place. The biggest asset of the country is the vast uncultivated lands we have in the North with the human beings that are there. We are just sharing the little money that is coming from a diminishing asset called oil. Oil is a diminishing asset. 

If you become president, how will you deal with the fuel subsidy issue? 

First and foremost, subsidy for me is a scam. It is one of the things that happens in Nigeria when people talk about stealing oil. It is organised criminality that people are participating in. Do you know how much fuel we are paying subsidy on? Nobody knows! Who is importing the fuel? Whom are we dealing with? These things have to be in the open. People ask me, will you remove it? My answer is that first, you need to show why you need to remove it and what are we replacing with the removal. The problem we are having is that the government has been operating in a situation where nobody can trust them. There is no trust between the Nigerian populace and the government. If you build trust and people can see that the things you are doing are transparent, you can be able to negotiate whether we can pay this level of subsidy and be able to use the excess, which we are not going to pay to invest in other things. But, we cannot have a situation where in a year, subsidy takes more than what we put in the most critical areas of developments. If you talk about development today, we talk about the Human Development Index. These three are life expectancy, which is Health, Education and per capita, which is pulling people out of poverty. If you put the Nigerian budget for these three items, fuel subsidy is more. So, what are you doing? How can you be throwing your people into poverty and be paying subsidies? It is unacceptable. 

https://independent.ng/bad-leadership-holding-nigeria-down-not-1999-constitution-peter-obi/?utm_source=&utm_medium=facebook

"the more you pull people out of poverty, the more you reduce criminality".


Obi energy is unmatched... Abeg when will 'Baba wey no well' grant an interview?

The "average Nigerian" knows this and probably more.
The question is, what are you going to do to change the narrative?

Follow who knows road. Peter Obi knows road.

Obidatti Issagoal!!!!!

Nothing but the truth

Linus Obi on the beat again!
In as much as we all knew that we have good leadership challenge, we cannot deny the clear fact that Nigeria constitution is defective.

Talk is cheap so I don't always buy into all these his concocted speech to sound clever.
Obi show us what you did spectacular in Anambra that is sustainable? Simple!

Sound, intelligent, pragmatic, decisive, healthy
& Fit, loved, ...

Whom God wants to use to better Nigeria, no man Born of a woman can curse

Allah be praised

The "E mi Lo'kan" slaves will soon land here with there negative mindset to thrash talk this fact but they will be disgraced

As e dey pain Dem, Na so E dey sweet us

Princess80:
The "average Nigerian" knows this and probably more.
The question is, what are you going to do to change the narrative?

This is the very thing

Peter Obi will never answer any question.. he always rigmarole the thing without saying anything ..

And his cretians will jump on it .. without any sense

OBi is pure scam.. huge scam

Sane Nigerians must be very very careful.. and woke ..
vote this criminal and see bag of rice 100k.. person wey leave 78billion after 8 years without single legacy in the state .. don’t have any answers or ideas .. not even sure of what he’s saying

Power to the people
Atiku/Okowa 2023

P

Odin13:


This is the very thing

Peter Obi will never answer any question.. he always rigmarole the thing without saying anything ..

And his cretians will jump on it .. without any sense

OBi is pure scam.. huge scam

Sane Nigerians must be very very careful.. and woke ..
vote this criminal and see bag of rice 100k.. person wey leave 78billion after 8 years without single legacy in the state .. don’t have any answers or ideas .. not even sure of what he’s saying

Power to the people
Atiku/Okowa 2023

P

Why is Tinubu running away from public debate with Peter Obi and Atiku ?

1999 constitution that favors some set of people, leaves room for looting, coupled with bad leadership

Like for Peter Obi

Share for Tinubu

NaijaRoyalty:

Why is Tinubu running away from public debate with Peter Obi and Atiku ?

OBi cretians are so high on Tinubu poo..

Wtf!

Dumb.

Sai Waziri!!

Power to the people
North 2023

No gainsaying the fact that 1999 constitution has several defects and has created a failed state, the crop of leaders managing the economy are worse.

Odin13:


This is the very thing

Peter Obi will never answer any question.. he always rigmarole the thing without saying anything ..

And his cretians will jump on it .. without any sense

OBi is pure scam.. huge scam

Sane Nigerians must be very very careful.. and woke ..
vote this criminal and see bag of rice 100k.. person wey leave 78billion after 8 years without single legacy in the state .. don’t have any answers or ideas .. not even sure of what he’s saying

Power to the people
Atiku/Okowa 2023

P

Unless you didn't read that article very well or you chose to play the devil's advocate, Peter Obi answered all the questions he was asked. His answers are in the explanation he gave. They are not yes or no questions.

SmartPolician:


Unless you didn't read that very well or you chose to play the devil's advocate, Peter Obi answered all the questions he was asked. His answers are in the explanation he gave. They are not yes or no questions.

Highlight one answer he gave to a question.

Aufbauh:
Linus Obi on the beat again!
In as much as we all knew that we have good leadership challenge, we cannot deny the clear fact that Nigeria constitution is defective.

Talk is cheap so I don't always buy into all these his concocted speech to sound clever.
Obi show us what you did spectacular in Anambra that is sustainable? Simple!

Incoherent as usual, earning your daily living.

Does constitution as a paper have the ability to govern Nigeria?
Who are those who change the constitution if it has an issue?
Is it not the leaders?

Who are those that recognise that a constitution is defective in the first place and work towards modification? Is it not leadership?

Who are those who implement a good constitution? Is it not the leaders?

If you change 1999 constitution and retain bad leaders, will things change?

So that means everything boils down to human beings; leadership. Not the paper constitution

The legislature exists to amend the constitution as needed from time to time but under a bad leadership, their job has become to approve rubber stand unnecessary loans requests and policies for the their co-corrupt executives. Nigeria needs a good president for the 1999 constitution to be amended as it should be.

Man’s got a point there

True

I keep wondering why they keep saying Peter Obi is incompetent. The hardest creature to manage in this universe is man. Even as wild as the lion is, you can still tame it. Peter Obi had managed man successfully for years before becoming governor. No wonder he left a clean slate in Anambra and paid salary without incurring what my people call gbese. He managed his bank, Fidelity very well, no wonder!

Can someone tell me what company did tinubu manage before becoming governor? What of Atiku before becoming vice president. Growing a successful company isn't when you use looted or politics money to build your business, which both the atiku and Tinubu did. They became what they are today with people's sweats and government money. Obi stands out.

My vote goes to him.

You support living in the past? We are centuries fr chrissake



Say Bihari 2.0

Very true my Love

D Constitution 2 is holding us down... D bad leaders are Nigerians.. If dat bad Nigerian leader leaves office another Nigerian takes over and continues the corrupt act.... But if Nigerians go to saner climes where things actually work, no matter how corrupt you're, you see us behaving ourselves.... The constitution needs to be edited and modified

You cannot build on a faulty foundation, even with the best intentions.

OK

U no those bad leaders still put the law in place

As if you were not a part of them

Anambra State is bad example of failure in leadership