The Labor Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has lamented that the country is currently sowing poverty, hunger and insecurity because of bad leadership.
He said this at his presidential campaign rally held on Thursday at the Abubakar Tafawa Bewa Stadium Hockey Field, Bauchi State.
He recalled the efforts of former Nigerian Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe to unite the country and ensure justice, peace and equity during their leadership.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra state, lamented the country’s huge debt burden and vowed that things would be different under his leadership.
“Every time I am in Bauchi, I am reminded that once upon a time there was a united and peaceful Nigeria. Nigeria was on the path to greatness for a revered Bauchi leader and that is Tafawa Balewa. I come from Anambra State and I live in Onitsha, where he was from a man who believed in the unity of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
“Nigeria is creating poverty, people are poor in Nigeria, people are hungry, people are insecure. All the money we have borrowed, if we had used it the way Tafawa Balewa used the money he borrowed, Nigeria would have been paradise today.
“On June 19, 1974, Tafawa Balewa applied to the World Bank for $82 million to build the Kainji Dam to generate power. Today, the Kainji Dam is still there, it was supposed to generate 750 megawatts. Today, the equivalent of that money is supposed to be about $1.25 billion. Today, Nigeria owes N77 billion. If you divide that by the value of what Tafawa Balewa borrowed then, we would have had 150 Kainji dams and Nigeria would have been exporting power to other countries today.
“This is a city (Bauchi) where someone came from who wanted to build a new Nigeria and we are here saying that we want to build a Nigeria. A new Nigeria is possible, a Nigeria where there is work, a Nigeria with economic growth, a peaceful Nigeria, a secure Nigeria, that is what we want to build,” he said.
He urged Nigerian voters not to vote for ethnic or religious reasons, noting that people in all parts of the country are currently living in hunger.
“They have told you lies, you voted for them, today you are hungry. Elections coming up, don’t let anyone tell you to vote by tribe or religion because people north and south are hungry, they didn’t feed you. The people of the north do not go to school because they did not give schools, ”he said.
He promised to teach almajiri and all students and pupils in Islamiyya schools who are learning the Quran skills as a way to empower them to be self-sufficient.
Obi, who also vowed to create jobs for Nigeria’s unemployed youth, assured the Bauchi people that newly found oil in the state would be used to develop the state.
He said: “I’ll make sure they have jobs, I’ll make sure they’re safe, that’s what Datti and I will do. Vote for us because all the people who come here to campaign for you; You voted for the APC and the broom dragged you into hunger. You voted for the PPD but your umbrella leaked and today you are hungry. But we want you to vote for man, woman and child.
“We want the oil that has been discovered in Bauchi to be used to develop Bauchi and the north, to provide jobs and make sure things work, not for people to steal money and everyone to go hungry.”
Also speaking, vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed said 18 political parties fielded candidates, but 15 weakened and backed down, while the remaining three did not position themselves or organize themselves in a way that they could win the election, “to that one stays and that is Peter Obi of the Labor Party”.
He claimed that he and Obi had done it before and were not afraid, like the other candidates, to tell people to go and check what they did before and it was said about their integrity.
“Peter Obi was governor of Anambra for eight years and he did not borrow money in his state. When he left office, he left 75 billion naira in the state account for his successor.
“When the PPD announced its vice-presidential candidate, the party split. When the APC announced its vice presidential candidate, the entire country was divided. The day Peter Obi made the announcement of him, everyone hailed his choice as good. Obi is a lover of Muslims and also of the north. Those who know me know that corruption has never been planned with me and never will.
“The day you hear that Peter Obi is the president of Nigeria, from that day on, the end of insecurity has begun and the healing has begun. Since that day, the economy has returned to the path of prosperity. Since that day, the corruption has begun to end. I assure you that under us there will be peace and happiness on earth; mutual respect on earth, there are only a few days left, ”he promised.
