By Agunwa Uzendu, Abuja
Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has said that the insecurity, banditry, University strikes, economic meltdown and unemployment in the country has continued to fester because the electorate have continued to vote along ethnic and religious lines as against voting for competence.
Obi made the submission on Wednesday in Abuja when he appeared as a guest at the Morning Show on Arise Television.
While responding to a statement from the former Sokoto State governor and Presidential Candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) that the North will not vote for him, the former governor of Anambra State said,
“The comment by the elder brother Kwankwaso is the reason why we have 100 million Nigerians living in poverty, 18 million Nigerian children out of school and about 52% of Nigerians either unemployed or under employed, because rather than vote for competent leaders, we will rather vote for incompetence due to a primitive belief of religion and ethnicity.
“Tell me, today you can’t travel from Abuja to Kaduna by road or rail, is it because someone from the south east is in charge? You can’t travel to Minna by road, is because someone from the south east is in charge? Yesterday we had an attack by bandits on the presidential convoy, in Katsina, is it because someone from the south east is in charge? Show me where people are prospering in the north or south? What we have consistently done in this country is to hire vehicle drivers to fly airplanes as pilots instead of hiring qualified pilots.
“We have a huge problem and if you don’t know, this country will soon default on their debt servicing, schools are shut down, insecurity is everywhere, Nigeria is in coma and when you are in coma all you want is to survive, irrespective of where the surgeon who will keep you alive comes from”.
On the choice of running mate, he said that he that a lot of names are on the table but he prefers a young professional that has something to contribute toward the revival of the country rather than recycling old politician that are already spent forces.
“We’re talking to a quite number of people and Baba-Ahmed is a capable hand and I wish he is the one. But I wish I can work with somebody who is more younger.
“I prefer younger people with fresh ideas who have a lot to offer rather than recycling old hands. I want a competent person and I am building a formidable team.
“I want people who can look me in the eye and disagree with me during cabinet meetings. People who have their own minds and ideas. If you agree with me in three meetings then you are gone because that means you don’t have your own ideas. I want people and cabinet members who can say ‘Mr. President, you are wrong’.”
Obi went further to state than he would rather prefer to present to the people a practical achievement rather than hiring professors to come up with a manifesto that a candidate does not believe in not to talk of implement.
“How can I hire professors to write or draft policy documents for me that I don’t even believe in?
“I have replicated all that I am promising Nigerians before. It would be the same thing. What I did in Anambra and what I achieved is what we will replicate on a larger scale. We want Nigeria to become the engine of production,” the presidential candidate said.
On the campaign of calumny on social media, Obi alleged that his opponents had paid some people online to malign his campaign team by infiltrating his core supporters and spreading falsehoods online.
The former Peoples Democratic Party chieftain noted that despite the campaigns of calumny online and rumours that northerners won’t vote for him during the 2023 election, he believed that Nigerians and people from the north will vote for him based on competence.
“I am contesting to be Nigeria’s president to solve the country’s problem and not because I am from a part or region of the country.
“We need to do things that will bring people hope. Nigerians must be proud of this country and that is what I planned to do,” he added.
Obi has been generating attention in the social media since he got the ticket of the labour party.
There were indications that NNPP and Labour party were into merger talk but the arrangement could not advance since Kwankwaso did not cave in to become the running mate of Obi.