The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has vowed to tackle Nigeria’s multifarious challenges ranging from oil theft to debt servicing, secessionist agitation, youth unemployment, electricity problem, insecurity, amongst others.
According to Channels Television, Obi stated this while addressing a world-leading policy institute and think-tank forum, Chatham House in the United Kingdom, on Monday.
According to Obi, the “structure” currently in Nigeria is that of criminality which has impoverished the West African country.
He, therefore, promised to dismantle the “structure” if elected next month adding that he would fight and end public corruption.
“Go and check my records. It is there,” he said, adding that he is the only former governor that did not owe salaries, gratuities or any pension after he left office.
The LP candidate said he would provide enabling business environment that would attract foreign investments.
Obi said: “Bringing back foreign investors is like bee and honey. All you need to do is to create honey and the bees would find it.
“Foreign capital is scared of corruption, is scared of bad policies, is scared of where there is no rule of law. You need to put regulatory and secure environment. We will fight corruption.”
Obi said Nigeria borrows for consumption and not for in- vestment. “When you borrow for consumption, you have a crisis.
“We have grown that debt by over 400 percent but our per capital is 2,000. That means the money we borrowed was thrown away.
“We will restructure the debt for a long time to be able to pay it. Then we will say no more borrowing for consumption but for investment.”
The former Anambra State governor said he would “turn around the power sector” if elected by February 25. According to him, he would move Nigeria’s power gen- eration capacity from 4,000 megawatts to 7,000 mega- watts by the end of 2023.
Obi said: “My solution to the perennial power problem in Nigeria is comprehensive and well-covered in our manifesto.”
“We’ll ensure we deal with the issue of transmission and distribution.
“However, we will immediately complete the $2.3bn Nigeria-Siemens network improvement deal to achieve a stable 7,000 megawatts by the end of this year, 11,000 megawatts by 2024 and 25,000 by 2025.”
Obi said he would tackle youth unemployment through investment in education, research, quality entrepreneurial education.
The LP candidate said he would pursue his education plan by “incorporating compulsory technical and vocational skills, sports, entrepreneurship programming, digital skills from primary to secondary school level.”