Nigeria Doesn’t Need ‘It Is My Turn’, Ethnic President – Peter Obi

Nigeria Doesn’t Need ‘It Is My Turn’, Ethnic President – Peter Obi

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi has opined that with the condition of Nigeria, the 2023 election should not be based on ethnic or personal greed for power, as shown in the catch-phrase ‘Emi L’okan’ of the All Progressive Party (APC)’s candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu has, days before his party’s Presidential Congress told an audience at Abeokuta in Ogun State that he made the wish of Muhammadu Buhari, to become President possible, while he also made some others governors in their States, therefore it was his turn to become the President of Nigeria.

Obi who said this while answering questions on a live interview programme on Arise Television on Wednesday lamented the current situation of Nigeria where he said with the current debt profile of Nigeria, the country might not be able to service the debts, as revenue continued dwindling.

“Nigeria is at the brink now, soon, we will not be able to service our debts, the country is at the verge of total fall, we do not need a candidate who thinks it is his turn or those that believe ethnicity should hold sway in the parameters to vote them.

“I don’t want people to vote for me because I am from the South-South or South-East, I want them to vote base on competence, Nigeria has problem because people are jobless and we need to lift the country out of poverty, it is economic problem and I have the capacity to lift the country out of its current quagmire, it is the turn of Nigerians, not one greedy politician.”

The former Anambra governor hinted that Nigeria had in the last eight years, paid about 40billion dollars on fuel subsidy while paying very less on education, health and power generation.

He claimed that poor funding of the three sectors has led to the collapse of the economy which has caused joblessness and poverty in the country as the last eight years has witnessed spending of ten trillion naira on education, power and the health sector.

“Nigeria has spent over 40billion dollars on subsidy payment, the total spent on education in eight years is eight trillion naira, spending on health, power and health is under ten billion dollars, how would you not experience poverty with such, the amount spent on subsidy alone would have solved problems of power, education, health and the rest if the reverse was adopted in the spending approach.”

When asked if he would remove petroleum subsidy if he becomes Nigerian President, Peter Obi said he would do so if he has the capacity to provide the needed benefits that suppose to follow such action, adding that Nigerians were against subsidy removal because they did not trust their government to provide the benefits that suppose to follow, like it happened after deregulation of the petroleum industry and the privatization policy.

“I will remove subsidy and give resources that will benefit the people from there, but if I cannot provide that, I will not remove it, I will continue to say subsidy is a scam and so is the cost of governance in the country.”

He spoke in favor of restructuring and would want the paraphernalia of the State security to be handled by the governors.