Says LP Had No Plan to Harvest Votes from PDP
- poverty in North unacceptable
Insists on removal of fuel subsidy
By our correspondent
Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, yesterday said his government will dialogue with proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Boko Haram and other agitating groups in the country.
This was as Obi dismissed speculations that he planned to leverage on the ongoing mass movement in the country to harvest votes from his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obi also lamented the level of poverty in the north, saying that it was unacceptable giving the amount of arable lands available for agricultural purposes in the region.
Obi who stated this yesterday at the Arise TV, Presidential Town Hall Series on Security and Economy held at Transcop Hilton, Abuja, also insisted on the removal of fuel subsidy if he elected president next year.
Responding to questions from the panelists and other participants at the event on security and economy, Obi said his government will dialogue with every agitators in the country to reduce the level of insecurity in Nigeria
His words: How do i tackle the issue of IPOB, Boko Haram and all agitations. I have said it repeatedly, I will dialogue with every agitators. There is nothing wrong with agitation. I will consult. Governance and democracy is about concessors. I will consult, I will dialogue, I will meet everybody. Dialogue is normal, agitations is normal. So we will deal with everybody. We will make sure we sit down and talk and resolve issues amicably.
On whether he was plotting to harvest votes from his former party, the LP presidential candidate said: “We are not taking Votes from the PDP. We are contesting to win for Labour Party is in this election and to win and serve Nigerians. We are taking votes away from the traditional parties who have structures of incompetence, structure of bad leadership, structure of illegality, and looting of Nigeria and bringing us to a level where we become a safe state. So we are saying to Nigerians, he said.
Also on how he planned to combat insecurity, Obi expressed disappointment over the level of poverty in the country, especially in northern Nigeria where he said leaders in the region have failed to leverage on the huge arable lands in the region to create employments.
He said: “Today in Nigeria, you have 35 per cent unemployment with our youth. With your youths who are in productive age, you have 60 per cent youth unemployed. You can’t have that, and won’t have crisis. That’s where the guns are domiciled. So you replace that with job, you replace it with employment, you invest in your micro small businesses where these youths are domiciled by supporting them, pulling them out of poverty.
“The whole of Nigeria, in terms of physical assets, is those uncultivated lands in the north. You can’t have that huge land and we have the level of poverty that we are experiencing in the north. Niger State has eight or seven local governments that are occupied by bandits. It is unacceptable.
Obi who earlier alleged that people in government were involved in oil theft, said his government will remove subsidy to develop other critical sectors of the economy..
He explained: The quantity of consumption is unacceptable and you can compare with countries like Pakistan with about 215,000,000 to 220,000,000, they have more roads than we have and they have more vehicles than we have but their consumption is below ours. That shows that something is wrong. It’s criminality that we need to deal with immediately.
“What Will I do? We will remove subsidy. Use the resources efficiently and support those who are and set up refineries and channel the rest of the resources to other critical sectors
When asked how he could have handled the abduction of the Kaduna train passengers as the commander in chief, he said: “There was a failure of intelligence processing, because before that incident happened, from informations available, there were already indications of a security threats within that corridor of the rail as well as previous attempts.
“So, there was a failure of processing and given the attention to intelligence, which I would have probably dealt with when it happened.
“If I was commander in chief, we would have acted swiftly and throughout the process, we would have remained in communication and at least shown consistent empathy to the families of those that were involved and acted differently.
“I think that shows the overall need for us to improve in the intelligence processing and giving to an immediate response whenever such situation arises.
“I’ve always said consistently, that the more you put people out of poverty, the more you reduce the criminality.
“And I’ve always argued that they are doing what they’re doing because in a country where those people are in government are richer than enterpreneurs, you manufacture poverty.
“I served estate for eight years, and you can go to that state. And see, not one day did I ever borrow from any financial institution in Nigeria?
“As a governor, I served a state for eight years and you can go to that state and see that not one day, did I ever borrow from any financial institution in Nigeria and that was not in any position, neither have I been invited by anybody to question about their missing money.
