Obi also spoke on a number of issues arising from the questions from the staff and students of UNIABUJA at the well-attended town hall meeting, ranging from power, corruption and subsidy removal.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Friday told students and staff of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) that all the problems of the country, whether on economy, education, health, and politics among others revolve around political leadership that has failed the country over the years.
Obi thrilled them with his facts and figures of where Nigeria is and where it should be if he is voted in as President on February 25, 2023.
Speaking for over two hours as a special guest in a town hall engagement organised by the university’s Leadership Center, he said leadership failures over the years and refusing to do the right thing at the right time is responsible for the barrage of woes in the system.
He told the cheering students that the reason his manifesto is centred on turning the country from consumption to production is to stop the country from recycling poverty.
“The only thing this country is manufacturing is poverty. And Datti and I are coming to change all that because no country grows my consumption, without production,” he said.
Obi noted that poverty is increasing in Nigeria because we are not investing enough in education and health which is what makes the difference between a rich and a poor country.
Assuring the students of UNIABUJA that all that will stop under his watch, Obi noted that “life expectancy globally should be about 72 years but it’s 55 years in Nigeria because of the growing level of poverty in Nigeria, our country that is so blessed. This country should not be poor given its abundant natural and human resources.”
The presidential frontrunner remarked that he and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, will halt the drift and position the country as the giant of Africa.
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The former Anambra State governor said that securing the country remains his number one priority because nothing, no matter how laudable, can be achieved without a secured environment, pointing out that his Presidency will negotiate with agitators who are amenable and deal with those who may be recalcitrant and uncooperative because there can only be one government at a time in a country.
Obi also spoke on a number of issues arising from the questions from the staff and students of UNIABUJA at the well-attended town hall meeting, ranging from power, corruption and subsidy removal.
On the allegation made by one of the candidates that fuel scarcity and redesigning of the naira are deliberately created to sabotage the forthcoming election, Obi said that he runs his campaigns on issues and not on a candidate’s position on matters.
On the removal of fuel subsidy, he said that if given the opportunity, he will remove it on the first day in office because it has been turned into a huge racket of corruption.
Obi told the jubilant students that the next election is about the youths and they must seize the opportunity to take back their country by insisting that character, competence and antecedents guide their decision, not religion, tribe and region or turn because in truth it is the turn of the teeming Nigerian youths.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, explained the motive of the gathering, saying that intellectual engagement is the basis of political leadership.
The Vice-Chancellor said that those aspiring to govern us must be scrutinised and made to answer questions.