Peter Obi, a presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), says he will abide by his party’s decision in respect of who emerges as the presidential flag bearer ahead of the 2023 general election.
Obi, who said he was contesting the 2023 presidential election because he is “qualified for the position”, added that the party has the final say. “Whatever they say everybody accepts. I will respect whatever decision they take”
The former Anambra governor who was running mate to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 presidential election, debunked claims that he was in the race to hold forth for Atiku Abubakar.
According to him, “our country is now going through a difficult time. I am not desperate to be a president; I am desperate to see a better Nigeria.
“You have to check my trajectory as a person, look at all the people that are contesting and view my background; you will probably see that I am the only person who has a very unique background.
“I am a businessman; I have chaired corporations in this country, including SEC and so many quoted companies. I have been a governor. It is for you to go and check all those places and see what I have been able to do and ask yourself who is the right person to take leadership of this country at this difficult time.
Speaking on his plans to secure the nation, Obi regretted that Nigeria has assumed the unenviable top position on the list of the most fragile states.
“We are now on the top of the list of the most terrorised states 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.
He declared that his administration will take natural security above artificial security.
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“Natural security deals with job creation, you need to put food on people’s table to ensure that they are not doing the wrong thing. If they don’t know where the next meal will come from, the tendency is that they will become a tool for anything. So we need to employ people.
“I know what to do in putting money into micro, small and medium scale enterprises. I have experimented in a small way that people can see. Otherwise, how could a small state like Anambra end up on the day I was handing over not owing salary, pension, no contractor who has executed his job, raised certificate or supplied us goods were being owed. I have N77billion which is over $500 million at that time in the bank. I know what we can effectively do to turn around the situation.
According to him, “unemployment is 33 percent officially but when you add underemployment, it is about 55 percent. About 60 percent of these are the young ones who constitute the asset and the engine room of their productive age.
“People now spend 100 percent of their salary to feed. It is a crisis situation. What will somebody like me do: “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.
“I am coming from that background, basically as a trader who has created wealth in private space and in government space. We now need to shut down the cost of governance and everything.
“So go and look at the trajectory of where people were coming from and check all the places I have been given responsibility, including being a governor. You saw what I did in Anambra State; you saw what I saved and all that.
Obi, who declared that the country is in a crisis situation, added that “what the party can do is to allow the best candidate to emerge.
