By
Obinna Nwachukwu

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi has accussed past and present administrations in Nigeria of mismanaging loans taking for national development

According to him, between 1999 and 2022 about N225trillion borrowed funds were spent without tangible evidence of what it was used for stressing that unemployment, poverty and infrastructure decay still dot our history as a nation

According to him, if the funds had been effectively and efficiently utilized they would have increased the country’s energy generation and distribution capacity as well as created over 20 million jobs and promised to change the situation if elected president in 2023.

Speaking at a one day leadership summit organised in Abuja by Labour party and coalition of peter obi support groups on Thursday, he said his administration will use the instruments of job creation and regenerative investments to change the country from consumption to productive economy

The summit had over 50 support groups working for the presidential bid of the former Anambra state governor in attendance

“From where I stand, I dare to proclaim that Nigeria’s Democracy Must Survive! The new alliance that we seek is between Nigerian Youths, the Labour Party, which represent Nigerian workers, and Like Minds.  Collectively, it is an alliance of the #OBIdients!

“Going forward, we must look for ways to move Nigeria beyond oil. We must end this criminality called ‘oil subsidy’. Nigeria today is vastly polarised and wrecked by divisions that run deep along religious, ethnic and regional lines.
“There is a staggering level of corruption. Our universities have remained closed for over five months. While our healthcare system remains comatose, power generation and distribution are also at an all-time low.

“After we win the 2023 elections, we intend to use the instruments of job creation and regenerative investments to drastically reduce the high incidence of insecurity and poverty, while moving the economy from the consumptive to the productive mode.

“Undoubtedly, the greatest challenge we face beyond bad leadership, is lack of elite consensus. But, let us not forget Dante Alighieri‘s admonition, that “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”

“History must serve as a tool in our decision making. The implosion of Nigeria has long been forecasted. Year 2023 could be a tipping point in the annals of our history. But that must not happen, even as the options before the electorate seem stark.
“Finally, Our structure is everyone seated in this hall today! Yes, we have structure, and we are ready to move mountains to save Nigeria,” Peter Obi stated.

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) also promised to return power back to the citizens, saying that in 2023, Nigerians would no longer allow “drivers that don’t know where we are going” to lead the country.
According to him, nobody knows where the country is heading. Obi said his job in 2023 is to wrest power from those who hold it presently and return it back to the people. He said his administration would provide leadership which he said had been lacking.

Obi said: “Our job is to take power from those who have it and give it back to you. We have a country called Nigeria but we don’t have Nigerians. What we want to do is to create Nigerians.
“The only way to create Nigerians is to make people to have hope in Nigeria and the only way they will have faith in Nigeria is that there is hope in Nigerians.

“The only thing that is lacking in this country is leadership. And that is what we intend to provide. We are not trying to do something else. Leadership is what Datti and I want to provide. We are not looking for anything.
“In 2023, we will no longer allow drivers that don’t know where we are going. We will remove that driver. We will not allow him to continue. We will put another driver to continue because what we have now, and what is happening in Nigeria is that you don’t know where you are going, the driver doesn’t know where the vehicle is going, so every road leads us there.

“But we don’t want to worry. All we say is that 2023 onwards, we will no longer allow that situation. For now, we will manage it to the end.”
He also pledged to return the country to production, saying: “All we want to do is to move this country from consumption to production”.

The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure boasted that the party will win the 2023 presidential election. Abure, who is a former trade union leader, said the party was on a mission to rescue Nigeria. He regretted that the current APC administration has failed to quell the high level of insecurity in the country despite billions of Naira spent for the purpose