Obi vows to end elite gang up that keeps 63% of Nigerians in abject poverty
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Peter Obi has vowed to end the elite gang up that has held Nigeria down since independence with the alarming result that 63 per cent of the population are now officially reckoned as living in severe poverty.
The “alarming insecurity” in the most populous Black nation has caused loss of many lives and properties, he said in his presentation at Chatham House in London, noting the consequences of decline in food and economic output.
Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), decried the “immense trauma” that has compromised “the mental health of communities and caused disaffection with the Nigerian project.
“The economy is in crisis with a troubling debt profile worsened by oil theft of a proportion hard to imagine.
“Two economic recession in six years and a lamentable power sector significantly constrain manufacturing and social life.”
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Rentier economy
“The Nigerian state is captive to an elite gang up and a rentier economy that concentrated power in the hands of those who came to influence mainly through their contrivances rather than affirmation of the people,” Obi added, per Daily Post.
He stressed such leaders do not have the incentive to serve the masses and also accused politicians of exploiting ethnic and religious sentiments to ascend to positions of authority.
“The people on whose sentiments they grab power often become the primary victims of such political fall that has rendered Nigeria a failing state with worsening leadership crisis.”
Nigeria has overtaken India as “home for the biggest pool of absolute poor in the world though they are seven times our population”, Obi lamented
The poverty rate in India is 16 per cent and that of Nigeria is 63 per cent, he said, adding 133 million Nigeria are classified multidimensionally poor, an “unacceptable” situation which must change.
