A 2023 presidential election aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) and former governor of Anambra State Peter Obi has stressed the need for the nation to create wealth, rather than sharing the nation’s resources as being done by politicians.
Obi challenged the youths and women to do the right thing by voting out incompetent leaders in 2023, saying his focus will be on wealth creation to take the country away from its present status as a nation known for a growing appetite for consumption.
Speaking during the inauguration of the 36 state coordinators of one of his support groups, Nigeria Needs Peter Obi Movement (NNPO), he lamented that the country has channelled about 96 per cent of its total revenue towards debt servicing.
Obi stated that the current administration is borrowing and sharing the future of the youths instead of investing the loans collected from other nations.
He, however, cautioned the federal government against borrowings that favours only the elites in the economy, instead of investing in Nigerian youths.
Obi maintained that if he is elected as president, he will halt sharing of free money.
He lamented that the country has collapsed, adding that there is nothing again for the elites to share.
According to him, “Government always complain that they don’t have enough revenue. They don’t say they have a debt problem but a revenue problem.
“They also say tax to GDP is low. All these are because they have people who are not working. How are they going to pay tax? Are they going to tax unemployed people? Taxation is like a bank account. You first have to put it in then you take it out.
“If they have invested in those youths, they will be productive, then you tax them. But, because you did not invest in them you can’t tax them. I can show you 20 countries, what the youths have been able to do, empirical evidence to verify. So, that’s where we are.
” Sharing has finished. What they have been sharing is your future because they are borrowing money and sharing it.”
He insisted that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country is low because the government kept youths at the back seat of economic development.
According to the former Anambra state chief executive, insecurity that has become a challenge in the society today came as a result of improper investment in youth, adding that a little investment in the demography could have reduced it.
He continued: “The reality is that we are not doing the youths a favour, but we’re saving ourselves today, you hear of banditry everywhere in Nigeria. That bandits are those we refused and failed to invest in yesterday. If we had invested in them, if we had given them a job we would have reduced it.
“I am not saying that there won’t be crime but it would be reduced, so they have no reason to say they are not Nigerians. Yes, people say most of them are foreigners, I agree. But, if we invested in our own, they won’t allow the foreigners to come in.”
Earlier in her address, NNPO national coordinator, Dr Adeyinka Adetokunbo Azubuike, said the group is standing behind Obi because of his exquisite knowledge of how to solve problems with practical analysis, of his humility in approach to all aspects of life.
Azubuike said his wisdom and honesty in his approach to public life as well as his unbelievable transparency in calls to jettison wrong ways remains critical in the country.
“Weighing all other aspirants, Obi is our best, and I must add, by far. We’ve said so severally and millions of Nigerians are saying so also. We will support him with everything we’ve got that can make his party the PDP believe he’s the most worthy too and elect him as their flag bearer for 2023 election.”
