Presidential candidate of Labour Party in the February 25 Presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, has said the waste and stealing of public funds must stop if Nigeria is to progress.
He added that Nigeria’s problem is lack of leadership, adding that God has blessed the country with all the good things of life.
He stated this yesterday at a Colloquium and Hall of Fame in honour of the national chairman of Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, which was organised by the Edo Policy Round Table in Association with Mudiame University, Irrua, in Benin City, Edo State.
The event held at Bishop Kelly Pastoral Centre, Airport Road with the theme: “The Contemporary Nigerian Politics: The Way Forward for Edo State”,
In a goodwill message, Obi said, “We all have our problems, I am not a saint and I am not a criminal, I have never knowingly done anything that is wrong, if I know it is wrong I wouldn’t do it.
“I have served in the state, I have served in the private sector and today we are going through difficulties, we are not here to mention names, I just listened to a very wonderful speech when they were talking about planning, if you have not planned, you plan to fail and it is very simple.
“The reason why the country is filling today is lack of plan, and when you talk about lack of planning, you are talking about lack of implementation because we politicians, when we are campaigning, everything is sweet and good but once we have the opportunity, we would bring out our true side and start doing the opposite and reserved our pride for implementation.
“The keynote speaker talked about the country, mine is goodwill message, those who have spoken to us and those who will still speak today in this round table policy, try to find out how we can have a better Nigeria, if we have a better Edo State , we would have a better Nigeria.
“All I can tell any body, there is nothing wrong with Nigeria, Nigeria has one of the best in terms of land, weather, God given resources and the people.
“One thing God has not given Nigeria is leadership, if we have good leader we would do better.
“A country like Nigeria has no reason to be poor if not because of leadership, if you compare Nigeria with the three biggest economies in Europe- Germany, Britain and France, these three countries, if you compared them with Nigeria in land size, they are just about 20 percent bigger than Nigeria when you put the three together.”
He lamented that Nigeria has a leadership that is involved in waste, focusing on consumptions and not production.
“So whenever you are talking of pulling the people out of poverty and creating jobs for the people, it is simple, just remove the economy from consumption to production, you create jobs.”
He stressed the need to stop people from stealing public money and wasting public money, adding “it is not their private money and all of us are involved, we must not celebrate them.”
Obi called on Nigerians to unite and rebuild the country, stressing, “We must bequeath a better Nigeria for our children, we can’t bequeath Nigeria as it today, we are going to bequeath anarchy to them, suffering and when you wake up in the morning, all you are hearing is killing.”
In his speech, the national chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, said the September 2 Edo governorship scheduled to hold next year affords the people of the state the opportunity to elect the right governor.
He said the people have the opportunity to choose a governor who will be a bridge-builder, who will be selfless and ready to take risk and make personal sacrifices at all times in the interest and well-being of Edo people.
He stressed that such a governor must have the capacity to bring all shades of persons together in order to achieve the objectives of developing the state and must have innovative ideas and openness to harness the state resources to create for the state.
Abure stressed that the Labour Governor would be interested in Wealth creation and poverty eradication, Security, Local Government Administration, Education, Health and Infrastructural development.
Earlier, the Chancellor of Mudiame University, Prof. S. E. Eromosele noted that the situation in Edo State was dire, with poverty, hardship, and backwardness exacerbating the dependency ratio.
He, therefore, called for a Government that drives people- oriented policies, adding that citizens deserve to be integral the policy-making process.
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