Sopuruchi Onwuka

Nigerian’s share common fate in the country’s socio-economy but the elite which seeks to capture power play up differences in religion and tribe just to continue lording themselves on the poor masses, says the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi.

Mr Obi who spoke the Zain Asher on a live interview on the Cable News Network (CNN) stated that exploitative Nigerian politicians whose only message is division have pushed the country to the edge where urgent action is required to steer the country from the precipice.

The interview coulbe watched here: (20) #PeterObi – Twitter Search / Twitter

Mr Obi who pools the most diverse followership in the forthcoming presidential election and who leads pre-election choice polls by over 100 percent ahead of others said the traditional political elite in the country have used religion and ethnicity to keep the people poor and subservient to their wills and caprices.

“All you hear about ethnicity, religion, connection, my turn is elite conspiracy to keep Nigeria underdeveloped; but now we have reached the edge. We can no longer continue this way,” he pointed out.

The interview anchor, Ms Zain Asher, had recognized Mr Obi as a phenomenal step change in Nigetria’s politics with so much momentum from young people. She however noted that the systemic problems of corruption, insecurity and brazen resource theft, prevailing fiscal hole sinking the country as huge responsibilities associated with the massive support for the former Anambra State governor.

But Mr Obi stated that any leadership with competency, requisite capacity and commitment will deliver a clear, visible, and measurable effort at decisively dealing with the country’s daunting problems.

“They are things that could be dealt with decisively,” Mr Obi declared.

“If you have a leader that is competent, has the capacity, and commitment to start dealing with them, you are not going to solve the problems overnight. But there will be a clear, visible, measurable attempt to dealing with them. And they are things that are solvable,” he said.

Mr Obi declared that he has the performance pedigree for transformation while he was the governor of Anambra State.

While acknowledging that the problems facing Nigeria are not ones that can be solved overnight, Obi stressed the need for a leader who is competent and has the commitment to solve the problems.

Replying, Obi said, “If you have a leader that is competent, has the capacity, and commitment to start dealing with it, you are not going to solve the problems overnight. But there will be a clear, visible, measurable attempt to dealing with it. And they are things that are solvable. They are things that can be dealt with decisively. But we haven’t had a leader that if you look at what he has been able to do in the past, you can say yes, we have an economic problem.”

On his plans to get Nigeria out of its current economic woes, Mr Obi said: “One is that you have to deal decisively with the issue of security. Insecurity is impacting on the economy negatively today and you have to deal with it head-on because you have to get your farmers to go back to the farm, and start ensuring that the vast land of the north is cultivated.”

He also said Nigeria must deal with security in order to attract investments. He maintained that the security architecture of the county needs to be overhauled to ensure multilevel policing with well mobilized and adequately equipped and well populated police force.

Asher observed that the current administration has beaten the Nigeria’s debt ridden economy into life-support, and Mr Obi stated that the nation’s security problem must be urgently addressed to enable farmers return to work and pull people out of poverty.

“You have to reduce aggressively the cost of governance and deal with the issue if corruption,” he added.

He noted that there is no reason why the nation’s local fuel market would rely o importation when refineries are moribund. He also added that private sector should have been encouraged for long time now to lead investments in local refining of petroleum.

He said that refinery building and operation are not rocket science, and could be done as quickly as possible in the shortest possible time to arrest the high cost of fuel in the economy.

He pointed at elections in the past which were based on divisive considerations including religion, ethnicity and privilege, adding that the new generation of Nigerians must dismantle the structure of criminality in politics.

Mr Obi said the next election must be based on character of candidates, capacity, competence and commitment to addressing problems in the country.

He made it clear that the current economic mess in the country does not respect tribal and religious divides.

With Buhari in office, he pointed out, “the people in the North does not have a secure place,  they do not have good roads, they don’t buy bread cheaper than people in the South.”

He pointed out that the political catch phrases on ethnicity, religion, connection and “my turn” are elite conspiracy to manipulate the poor and ignorant masses.