Former governor of Anambra State and front line Presidential aspirant under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi has said he will transform Nigeria from a consuming to a productive economy if elected president come 2023 general election.
The former governor also said that though he is not desperate to become the next President of Nigeria but desperate to see better country. He said the country is in a crises situation which can be salvaged by electing a leader with the proven track record.
Obi made the disclosure during a media interaction after he visited the party’s headquarters, on Wednesday in Abuja to officially he members of the National Working Committee of his intention to run for the President.
The Presidential hopeful said that he has an impeccable leadership trajectory that makes him the most favoured Presidential Aspirant of the party. He said that he has a n unbeatable track record which makes him fit to become the next number one manager of man and resources during this crises period.
He said, “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 business man, I have chaired coorporations in this country including SEC and so many quoted companies and I have been a governor.
“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”.
Obi said that wealth creation and human capital development is the only strategy that can rebuild the country’s economy.
“We are now on the top of the list of the most fragile state. We now on the top of the list of the most terrorised state sitting behind Yemen and Afghanistan. We are the capital of poverty in the world. We now have more people living under poverty than most big nation’s combined. We now have several millions of out of school children.
“Unemployment is 33% officially but when you add under employment, it is about 55%. 60% of these are the young ones who constitute the asset and the engine room of their productive age.
“People now spend 100% of their salary to feed. It is a crises 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.
“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 cost of governance and everything” he said.
On security Obi added, “We have what we call natural security and artificial security. The natural security deals with job creation, you need to put food on people’s tàble 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 puting money into micro, small and medium scale enterprises. How could a small state like Anambra end up on the day I was handing over not owing salary, pension, gratuity, no contractor who has executed his job, raised certificate or supplied us goods were being owed. I have 77 billion which is over $500 million at that time in the bank. I know what we can effectively do to turn around the situation.
“Our country is in a crises situation, we are now using over 90% of our budget to service debt. First four months of last year, we earned N1,875tr, we used N1,802 to service debt, that is 98% of our revenue was thrown into servicing debt. Last year we said that on the budget of N13tr, we were supposed to borrow N4tr but what we generated was far below so we borrowed N6.5 to N7tr. This year we said that we are going to generate N20tr to borrow only N7tr but I can assure you that we will borrow more than that so we have crises on our hands.
“So in this situation, you need to bring in a competent person, a good manager of resource, we need to manage our resource, that is the crises we face”.
He said that potential candidates must be pinned down to show their score card and not ramble razzle electorate with empty promises.
“If some one comes and tells you that he can do this and that, ask him to show you where he has done that before. If someone comes today and says am going to save, ask him where did you save. If you want to know further, go and read Ngozi Okonjo’s book “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous” and see all the governor’s who supported and who did not support savings, Peter Obi was the only one who supported savings” he said.