Forget 2023 Presidential Quest, Fight To Survive Insecurity First – Peter Obi

Mr. Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and presidential running mate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections, advises Nigerians to deal with issues at hand (insecurity) first and leave the 2023 presidency alone.

A Source learnt Me Obi who showed dissatisfactions over how everybody is talking about the next election; who is to be where, what is to be shared, affirmed that there’s is still corruption everywhere saying that the worst thing is that people are still trying to steal the little thing that is remaining and even when you ask some people, they say ‘when you were there…

” If you find out that when Peter was there, he was going the wrong route, that’s why you are there now, correct it. When I got there, I saw what they were doing that was wrong. People asked me to continue; I said no, we couldn’t continue doing it that way. We had to cut cost of governance. It was not acceptable to me and we cut it down.

“Well, I am one of those who said it at the beginning. Let’s deal with issues at hand and leave 2023 alone. There is crisis in this country today. You and I are not safe. Whenever I leave my house to travel, my children are afraid, they want to know where I am going to, my wife is afraid. They don’t use to do that. I am afraid, myself. Nobody is safe any longer. I live in the village. I go round and see people who are not sure of where their next meal will come from”. He said

He also stated that It is not the issue of who will be the next President, but the need the leaders across party lines to start thinking differently.

“I know about my colleagues who ask me what do I mean about saving for the future of our children, what about the parents? But there are people who are saving for their own children, some of whom are even stealing government money to keep for their children. Let’s deal with the issue of where we are today when we are celebrating criminality.

The only people who are celebrated in this country are criminals, not honest people, not people who mean well”.

He further saidThere seems to be a battle between entrepreneurship and education.
” You have more female students than male students in Anambra State. The males go into apprenticeship rather than into education.

“Well, if you study what we did in Anambra, it is one of the things we corrected. We actually improved the enrolment of males”.

The cost of governance is a function of the type of government you are operating, You were able to do it in Anambra, but the federal and state governments are the main source of employment, so you have people in the system whose productivity quotient can be questioned but they are there, not necessarily because of their productivity but because government is providing them a safety net to be able to feed their families.

That’s on one side. On the other hand, presidential system is, by nature, very expensive, this is all politics and we will not make any move if we don’t tackle the politics