We Need To Reduce Cost Of Governance – Obi Tells CNN

By Adadainfo

Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, Friday during an interview on the CNN, said Nigeria requires a leader that can tackle insecurity heads-on.

According to him, insecurity hampers Nigeria’s economy. He also stressed the need to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria.

Quoting him, “If you have a leader that has commitment to start dealing with it, you’re not going to solve it overnight but there will be a clear, visible, measurable attempt to deal with it.

“We know they are things that are solvable, but you have to have a leader that if you look at what they have been able to do in the past, you can say that person can solve them.

“Insecurity is impacting negatively on the economy today. You have to get the farmers to go back to farm and start ensuring that the vast land of the north are invested and cultivated on. You have to start pulling people out of poverty as quickly as possible. You have to reduce the cost of governance and deal with corruption.

“There is no reason our refineries cannot work. We should encourage the private sector to build refineries and operate them. They are not rocket science. You can to remove fuel subsidy, and use the resources to support critical areas.

“What people need to do is to go and look at what I promised as a state governor. When I said I was going to turn around education, health, pull people out of poverty, bring sanity and civility in governance in Anambra state, that happened.

“Unless you have security, the farmers can’t go back; you can’t attract investments. Nobody will want to go to an insecure place.

“You need to reorganize the security architecture, ensure that there is multi-level policing. State police has to be decisively dealt with. We need to bring in more personnel into the security system, equip them properly, ensure that they are properly motivated to deal with insecurity because it’s the most important thing Nigeria needs today.”

He attributed Nigeria’s leadership problems to ethnicity. Quoting him, “We elect people based on ethnicity, religion, ‘my turn’, connection or one form of bias or the other, which brought us to where we are.

“That is hmwe want to dismantle now, and ensure that the next election is based on character, capacity, competence, commitment to do the right thing.

“Nigeria is at the last stage to collapsing. The people in the north don’t have a secured place. They don’t have good roads, they don’t buy bread cheaper than people in the south, so all you hear about ethnicity, religion, connection.”