Tunde Opalana, Abuja
A former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stand a better chance of winning the 2023 election if it fields a competent candidate who is capable of solving the nation’s problem.
He enumerated Nigeria’s problems to include insecurity, mismanaged economy, poverty and bad leadership.
Obi was at the PDP secretariat, Abuja to inform the party leadership of his intention to run for the party presidential ticket, The Trumpet gathered.
He told journalists after the meeting that he is the best candidate PDP can present.
While stressing that the country is going through a difficult time, he said “we are now on the top of the list of the most fragile state. We are now on the top of the list of the most terrorized state sitting behind Yemen and Afghanistan. We are the capital of poverty in the world. We now have more people living in poverty than most big nations combined. We now have several millions of out of school children.
“Unemployment is 33% officially but when you add underemployment, it is about 55%.
60% of these are the young ones who constitute the asset and the engine room of their productive age.
“People now spend 100% of their salary to feed. We are in a serious crisis. What will somebody like me do:
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“We need to move the country from consumption to production. There is nothing to share again, we now need wealth creators, not wealth shearers. We have been sharing wealth for a long time, we need to start creating wealth”.
As someone coming from a business background, basically, as a trader who has created wealth in private and in government space, he said he will cut down on the cost of governance.
He said “so in this situation, you need to bring in a competent person, a good manager of resource, we need to manage our resource, that is the crises we face.
“So if someone comes and tells you that he can do this and that, ask him to show you where he has done that before. Let us look at their past. Where did you do it before. If someone comes today and says am going to save, ask him where did you save.
“If you want to know further, go and read Ngozi Okonjo’s book “Fighting Corruption I’d Dangerous” and see all the governors who supported and who did not support savings, Peter Obi was the only one who supported savings.’
