Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party, on Thursday declared in Abuja that his party would revolutionise Nigeria’s economy from one centered around consumption to one based on production. At the Conference Held for his Coalition, Obi made the statement.
He continued by promising to establish an unbiased nation where residents will take pleasure in their patriotism.
‘We have a country called Nigeria, but we donβt have Nigerians.’
‘What we want to do is to create Nigerians and the only way to create Nigerians is to make people to have hope in Nigeria.’
‘Nigeria is a great country. God created this country and gave it everything to make it great. The only thing that is lacking is a simple thing called leadership.’
‘That is what Datti and I intend to provide.β he said.’
He described his strategy for utilizing regional opportunities for the growth of the national economy.
‘When I say we are not a producing country but a consuming one, it is true.’
‘For instance, Borno is a state situated on 70.9 square kilometers of land and today we are talking about Sambisa Forest. It is an asset for Nigeria.’
‘This is because Sambisa Forest is twice the size of Israel and it is an agricultural land that can give us food.’
‘If you go all over the northern part of Nigeria you will see that Nigeria is blessed with land that can give us food.’
‘We are waiting to share money from oil. How much do we generate from oil?’
Mr. Obi explained further: ‘Our total export as a country is 30 billion dollars including oil, yet we live in a country of over 923,000 square meters, almost one million square kilometers.’
According to Obi, Vietnam, which has a population of 100 million people and occupies 331 square kilometers of territory, is ahead of Nigeria in development.
This, he claimed, was the case despite Nigeria’s large land mass and population of 200 million not being able to compete with 10% of Vietnam’s exports, which total 312 billion dollars.
In comparison, the Netherlands’ agricultural export for 2021 was worth 120 billion dollars. Niger is two and a half times the size of The Netherlands, however, the state is unable to feed itself or the nation.
‘We cannot continue to live like this; our position is simple, all Datti and I want to do is to move this country from consumption to production.’ He emphasized
The party’s vice-presidential candidate, Mr. Yusuf Datti, stated in his speech that the pair and the party were seeking to run a government in money rather than seeking to obtain wealth from the government.
According to Datti, for Nigeria to fully realize its wealth and potential, it only needed competent leaders.
‘I am following a business leader who knows how to create wealth and we are going to create it legitimately.’
As one of the senators who chose not to purchase a home at the Apo Legislative Quarters when they were sold, Datti promised that he would serve with integrity because he had already demonstrated it while serving as a senator.
He emphasized that Nigeria would achieve prosperity and integrity owing to the Labour Party.
Datti urged people who had thrived and flourished by fomenting unrest and problems in Nigeria to cast aside their weapons because their hourglass has been emptied.
