Wilson Adekumola
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party , Peter Obi, has promised to put an end to the habit of sharing government money if elected in the forthcoming February 25 election.
Obi, who stated this in Abuja on Friday while speaking at a Leadership Town Hall, Organized by Abuja Leadership Centre of the University of Abuja.
He said that he will turn Nigeria into a productive nation where jobs will be created for the labour market.
Asked how he will tackle the insecurity and poverty ravaging the country, Obi said Nigeria can best be described as a failed state, noting that the current leaders are confused over what to do .
While attributing the challenges facing Nigeria, he said our current leaders have failed over the years saying they refused to do the right thing, noting that a new Nigeria was possible as his administration will change the country’s situation.
The Labour Party presidential candidate lamented the current the challenges said, “despite the enormous challenges, the country was not producing anything apart poverty.”
“A new Nigeria is possible. What are we going to do to bring that new Nigeria, I don’t want to bore you with crisis because I can talk about the crisis in Nigeria for the whole of today but starting, what is the difference between poor and rich nation? It is exemplified in human development index. Simply, health, education and per capital. If you fix these three items, people of your country will be out of difficulty.
“Let nobody make you believe that the enemy or the criminal is more formidable, it is not. What is lacking is leadership. What is still lacking is to have a governance security structure that addresses the problems. Datti and I will deal with that issue.
“We are not going to give any excuse. We want you to hold us responsible. There must be a government. One person must govern, we can’t share it with any person. Simultaneously as we are doing this, we must start taking people out of poverty. The only thing to do this is to remove Nigeria from consumption to production. Nigeria is not producing anything.
“It is a country that wasted every body’s time on sharing and we want to remove the sharing formula to production formula. We will tackle this country’s production based on our endowment.
“Out of the 10 poorest States in Nigeria, nine are in the North and those nine are States that can feed Nigeria, states that can make Nigeria a great nation because Nigeria can earn far more from agriculture than oil. God has blessed us with land but we can’t even feed ourselves. India is 1.4 billion people living on 3.2 million square kilometers of land but can feed themselves, Nigeria lives on one third of Indian land but we cannot feed ourselves. It is unacceptable, it cannot continue.”
He stated that safety ty and unity of Nigeria is paramount to hme among other things noting that his administration will first ensure safety and unity of the people.
“The only thing this country is manufacturing is poverty. What do we want to do? We will secure and unite the country, without securing the country, you can’t do anything. People must be secured. What we need is to have a governance structure that addresses these problem. Datti and I have said we will deal with that issue.
“Nigeria is not producing anything. It is a country that has been wasting everybody’s time on sharing and we want to remove the sharing formula. Sharing of money will stop under my administration.”