Connect with us
Advertisement

Politics

2023: What Peter Obi Discussed With CAN Leaders Emerges

Published

on

I’m Not A Saint, Equally Not A Thief - Peter Obi

The details of the meeting between the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) have emerged.

Naija News reported that Obi met with the leadership of the Christian body led by the CAN President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, in Abuja on Tuesday.

In his remarks at the session with CAN, the former Governor of Anambra State reiterated his commitment to move the country from a consumption nation into a production economy.

Obi said all the 18 presidential candidates will make the same promise, but that Nigerians must check the sincerity of the promises and only support the person they can trust.

He stated that corruption and the culture of sharing would be tackled headlong, maintaining that Nigerians would be happy if he is elected as their president come 2023.

Obi said Nigeria is not bereft of ideas, and preaching solutions, stressing that institutional framework and the political will to do the right thing was lacking.

He said, “Talking about the document, (CAN’s roadmap for Nigeria’s development), it’s a wonderful document. If we implement whatever is written here, there is nothing again to do.

“That brings me to what I have always said Nigeria is not bereft of ideas, preaching solutions. What is lacking is the institutional framework and the political will to do the right thing.

“We are 18 of us now applying for the job of the president; you the owners of the country have interviewed the rest of us and it is important to note that everybody’s story will be as sweet as the other one.

“You have to put your binoculars to check the sincerity and the truth and the one you can trust. It’s now who amongst these 18 you can trust, because there is no promise that has not been made by the people in the past. That promise has always been there.

“All I want to do is to move the country from consumption to production. It is not a productive country. My priority is to secure and unite the country, it’s the number one thing you need to do. I want to be given the opportunity to hire young energetic men and women and start solving these problems. I want to put our young people where we have so much energy and talent; I want to invest in them because they can change the world, that’s what I want.’’

Obi said that Nigeria has qualified to be characterised as a failed state because the country is no longer in control of its territory and economy.

He said, “Nigeria has hit the two most critical things that qualified a country to a failed state. Number one: when you are no longer in control of your territory; we are no longer in control of our territory. Number two is when you are no longer in control of your economy.

“Nobody can tell you today how much they are going to sell a bag of rice tomorrow. No country can function like that. You saw the last report where we have 133 million people living in poverty, no country can have such a number of people living in poverty and won’t face the crisis we are facing.

“I assure you that I am committed to the charter, the only thing there is how do we implement it, the will to implement it, and I can tell you that we need to restructure, but even as bad as the present constitution is, there is a lot of guarantees in it and there is a lot things that you can implement that can make it work.

“It is not what is stopping us from production, that is not the problem of production. Over the years, we have had incompetent leadership.