Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has challenged Nigerians to vote him as President in 2023 and watch if the country’s economy would not rebound, stabilize and grow.
The former Anambra State Governor threw the challenge when he appeared with his running mate, Dr Yusuf Datti-Ahmed on a Kaftan TV programme, The Candidates, moderated by ace television journalist, Kadaria Ahmed, monitored in Abuja, on Monday.
Obi said that if voted into power, fixing the crashing Nigerian economy and rekindling the hope of millions of frustrated and dejected Nigerians, would be his top priority.
The LP presidential flag bearer said it was a time bomb waiting to explode for Nigeria to have over 130 million of her, estimated 200 million population living under abject poverty.
He argued that poor and hungry folks constitute serious security risk especially when the affected population is mainly the youths.
“When you have over 130 million people in poverty you are bound to have a crisis because when people don’t know when the next meal is coming, they become a security risk.
“To deal with this, we need to deal with the issue of food. We need to look at, how do we feed the country considering that the greatest physical asset we have in this country is the uncultivated land in the North.”
The former Anambra State Governor said he was replete with ideas of how to create wealth for Nigeria, a capacity he had proven in the past both in his private and public lives.
He equally noted that his running mate had also both in his private life and as a former senator shown capacity to create wealth and manage the economy.
Obi, therefore, urged Nigerians not to be carried away by empty promises by politicians who did not have their interest at heart at all but were only coming to steal public wealth and amass wealth that would not be exhausted even after their death.
He told Nigerians to place capacity, competence and antecedents of candidates above other considerations in the forthcoming elections.
Obi said that the agenda to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of a few greedy politicians and their allies was a project every progressive and patriotic Nigerian must key into.
He warned that if Nigeria failed to get it right in 2023, things could get worse.
Commenting on budget deficit and his administration’s plans to do things differently, Obi said: “The 2021 budget is about N21 trillion with a deficit of about N11trillion all these are estimates.
“Approximately N6 trillion is for subsidy. By the time you remove subsidy, you’ve reduced this by half. I believe subsidy must go.”
Obi regretted that having the wrong hands in places of authority had been the major setback of the country.
He expressed optimism that with the swelling support for him and his running mate across the country, he would sweep the 2023 presidential poll.
