‘I’ll change the North, our greatest asset is there,’ says Obi
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Peter Obi, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential hopeful, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s government of working round the clock to destroy other political parties in an attempt to clear the coast for a coronation instead of an election.
Obi made the allegation on Monday when he appeared as a guest on Arise News Prime Time.
The allegation came after the government allegedly denied the ADC a venue for its national convention scheduled for April 14.
Obi said that despite the government’s attempt to cripple the convention, the party would still hold it.
He said: “If you’re denied simple things like a venue and everything else, it shows where the country is drifting to. We’re a party that believes in freedom of association and everything that is right in our constitution. And yet the party that is supposed to be the main opposition is not allowed to exist.”
According to Obi, the government does not want other parties to exist.
He contrasted the situation with the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007.
He said: “Governments in other places protect the opposition. I’ve been in party disputes in the past, under President Yar’Adua. I recall him calling the INEC chairman and saying, ‘I don’t want any problem in any of the parties. I want the parties to be stable and function very well.’
“Look at what is happening to our democracy. It is being destroyed by those who yesterday were victims of the same thing — people who were shouting to the world and threatening to bring down everything if the right things were not done. And now, when given the opportunity, they fail dramatically. Nobody would have believed that today we would be where we are in this democratic process, considering the actors who are involved in governance here.”
Obi questioned why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would interfere in the internal affairs of the ADC despite several court rulings to that effect.
He said: “There are so many decided cases, which ordinarily would have been enough. But because the present government is bent on destroying the entire system, that is why they are working round the clock to achieve it.”
He regretted that the judiciary had been dragged into the matter and has become part of the mess.
Responding to accusations that he quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because he realised the primaries at the time would not favour him, Obi said: “I cannot be part of transactional politics. I cannot be paying people to go and serve them.”
He said those accusing him of leaving the Labour Party instead of staying to fix its problems were the same people who had set the party on fire. “They were shocked that I was able to escape. So they thought I would be there for the fire to burn me.”
Obi said all of them in the ADC are going through the same process. He warned that if the process is compromised, he would speak up.
He stressed that the emerging coalition was not about him. “For me, what I believe Nigeria requires now is a coalition of people who are willing to sacrifice everything. It’s a coalition of competencies, a coalition of capacity, a coalition of people who are compassionate enough to tackle the issues that Nigeria needs urgent attention. That is what I see in this coalition. We are no longer going to be a coalition of people who are going to share democratic dividends or transactional coalitions, because there is nothing left to share.”
Obi spoke about his meetings with former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, saying they were aimed at the greater unity of Nigeria.
He said: “One of the things affecting us today in this country is the lack of unity. We need to be united as a country.
“We have to learn and show that religion and tribe do not exist when building the future we want. We need a united, secure Nigeria where we can start conversing and discussing issues that will help us build a better future.”
According to Obi, no one else will do what he intends to do in the north. “I’ll change the north. Our greatest asset is in the north. The vast cultivable land is our future. We can make more money as a country from agriculture than we make from oil.”
