Adequate security would remain the centre point of Nigeria’s economic recovery and development, while the North would be the vortex of the nation’s buoyant economy, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), maintained on Tuesday.
Obi, in a BBC interview ahead of the unveiling of the LP campaign council on Wednesday, said Nigeria’s top priority today, which his administration would address immediately ahead of other priorities remained the maintenance of adequate security, adding solving other problems such as the present high food inflation, would rely on how much the government succeeded in tackling the security question.
His words: “The number one priority today in Nigeria is the issue of security because it has become an essential issue for Nigeria. You can’t talk about being a country unless you are secure unless your citizens are secure. So, it’s an issue that must be dealt with decisively.
“It’s also something that if you deal with today, you can deal with inflation because the worst part of inflation we are dealing with is food inflation. So, if you secure the country, your farmers will go back, produce more and the food inflation will come down.
“We must immediately review and restructure the entire security architecture, making it responsive and responsible. Responsive is that they will deal with issues as quickly as possible. Responsible is that somebody is in charge and if he’s not doing it, don’t wait, the person will go.”
Restating once again that the Northern part of Nigeria remained the nation’s geese laying the golden egg, on which his economic base would be built, he said: “Look at the vast land we have in the north, that is the most important physical asset of the country today. If you cultivate all that vast land, we will feed ourselves, we will export, that vast land can change Nigeria.”
Bemoaning the nation’s prostrate economy, a situation he attributed to poor leadership, he said he was ready to build a structure that would secure, unite and bring about production-centred leadership in the country.
“What brought us to where we are today is the cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years by the same people who are in office today. We are talking about the structure that has kept us where we are, the structure that has produced the highest number of people in poverty in any country.
“The structure that has produced the highest number of out-of-school children, the structure that has made this country one of the most corrupt countries in the world, the structure that has made it one of the most insecure places in the world, the structure that has brought highest youth unemployment in the world, the structure that has made drug prevalence in Nigeria the highest, the structure that has brought disunity to Nigeria, that is the structure we want to remove.
“We want to bring a structure that will secure, unite and bring about production-centred leadership in Nigeria, where we will start pulling people out of poverty, children will be in school, where we will start ensuring that people get jobs when they leave school by supporting micro, small enterprises.
“A structure that will start governing by the rule of law, a structure that will fight corruption, this is the structure we need now.”
