The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi was at the Chatham House in the United Kingdom on Monday.
The Nigerian politician spoke about his plans for Nigeria if elected President next month.
Read and watch full speech below:
“In agreement to the primacy of gratitude among human virtues,
please allow me to begin today with words of gratitude. I am most
grateful to Chatham House, Dr Alex Vines and his team for the global
impact of their mission and commitment to engagement with Nation
building in Nigeria. In providing this global platform to interrogate
the vision of those seeking to lead Nigeria, at this time when clear
existential threats as I will discuss shortly are pervasive across our
dear country, this Chatham House event challenges us to new thinking.
“We have alarming insecurity that has led to the loss of many
lives and properties, significant decline in food and economic output,
immense trauma that has compromised the mental health of communities,
and in some cases, irredentist pressures and disaffection with the
Nigerian project. The economy is in crisis with a troubling debt profile
worsened by oil theft of proportion once hard to even imagine, two
economic recessions in six years and a lamentable power sector that
significantly constrains manufacturing and social life. The Nigerian
state is captive to an elite gang-up and a rentier political economy
that has concentrated political power in the hands of those who came to
power and influence mainly through their own contrivances and not
through the affirmation of the people, and therefore, do not have the
incentive to serve the people’s interest.
“Even after exploiting ethnic and religious cleavages and
sentiments to ascend to political power, the very people on whose
sentiments they grabbed power often become the primary victims of such
political fraud that has rendered Nigeria a failing state with a
worsening leadership crisis. Consequently, Nigeria’s Democracy has been
on the wane, evident in the Afrobarometer longitudinal tracking which
reveals low voter turnout and apathy in the current Republic.
“But this seems to have turned around dramatically last year,
allowing Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register
over 12 million new voters, with many more complaining they wished to
register but were unable to make INEC deadlines. What prompted this
turn-around? The reasons for these very high stakes are lurking in facts
of demographics, with our dominant population (the youths) frustrated
and unhappy with the status quo and the diminished opportunities in
Nigeria in an age of globalization when the Internet easily reveals to
them the prosperous homes of those who live in better-led and governed
countries.
“How did we (Nigeria) plunge into such economic decline that we
have overtaken India as home to the biggest pool of the absolute poor
in the world? While the poverty rate in India is about 16%, that of
Nigeria is about 63% with about 133 million Nigerians classified as
multidimensionally poor! This is unacceptable and needs to change! What
Nigeria needs is a Great Escape as the 2015 Noble prize winner in
Economics Angus Deaton of Princeton University elucidated, what
separates poor & rich is attributable to Health & Education. But
what provides Quality Health and Educational Systems for a society?
Committed and Focused Leadership that can Build and Sustain Public
Wealth as I was told by Professor Donald Jacobs of The Kellogg School of
Management.
“In many ways, this is at the heart of my remarks today which
are deeply rooted in my upbringing, particularly my mother’s counsel
that I live a life of positive impact and manage both personal and
public resources most prudently for sustainable/inclusive growth and
development of the society. It is the principle that guided my
stewardship as Governor of Anambra State, Nigeria and led to our
much-commended performance with some priced awards to show for it. Some
of the awards were for outstanding accomplishments in key Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) now Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is
the same counsel and principle that is guiding and motivating me to
offer to serve in a New Nigeria!
“The answer lies in an understanding of Leadership,
Institutions and Demographics. The good news is that demography is
driving the change we are seeing in Africa with election after election
in the last year in Africa, in which the establishment parties are being
upturned by new or small parties. It is for this change that my vision
of policy change and institutional development is rooted in the push for
a broadened scope of social mobility and freedom for Nigerians,
particularly our children and youth. Like Former British Prime Minister
Harold McMillan said at the start of the Independence decade, a wind of
change is blowing through Africa. Today a new wind of change sees the
ballot box as being instrumental in changing bad leadership.
“Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, my running mate, and I are
committed to a new politics that starts with the ethics of
servant-leaders and anchored on the marriage of clean hearts and skilful
hands. We know that unless we change our politics by changing our
political leadership, we are stuck with this terrible state of
underdevelopment and misery. We will patriotically reform our
institutions particularly ones directly responsible for implementing
Government policies to make them fit for purpose. It is not to be
doubted at the global scene that Nigeria is blessed with some of the
most entrepreneurial youths in the world, in science, in business, in
art and entertainment. We believe that what remains is to change the
leadership class from predators to creators of value; from those whose
wealth and power derive from the destitution of the nation and its
peoples to those who have demonstrated the competence, character and
capacity to invest in human development, create prosperity, and instill
the right values and ethical conduct deserving of servant leaders.
“Nigeria today is at a critical juncture and the people, led by
the youths brutalized by bad leadership, are awake and leading the
movement to transform Nigerian politics and restart the engine of
economic growth and social stability. We count ourselves honoured to be
trusted especially by the youths, to lead this democratic revolution and
we deeply pledge to do so with sincerity, accountability and
unquenchable love and desire for a better Nigeria. We are simply, the
symbol of the Nigerian youths’ struggles to reverse the ugly trend that
keeps driving them into social anomie, despair and rejection of their
beloved country. We are determined to do everything that needs to be
done to rescue and lead our beloved country to prosperity, freedom,
security and peace. We will use merit to assemble competent Nigerians
from all sections of Nigeria to form an effective Government of National
Unity.
“At the heart of my goal here today is to look at our Labour
Party’s key policy planks and how they will drive up the quality of life
of the average Nigerian, dramatically reduce poverty and return Nigeria
to a place of strategic relevance in a world that needs a thriving and
well governed Nigeria stabilizing the continent of Africa, making it a
high value add for a planet imperilled by environmental challenges,
terrorism and inequity. I also plan here to speak on institutions and
how the leadership we offer can facilitate the evolution of stronger
institutions, with the rule of law a key anchor of Nation building in
Nigeria. I have no doubt that the policy choices we favour, and the
strong institutions Labour Party will facilitate, will move Nigeria from
a country of rent seekers sharing Oil receipts and consuming
conspicuously, to one that produces, based on vast factor endowments
whose value chains can move us towards a high employment economy. We
will turn our youth bulge to a demographic dividend, rather than today’s
harvest of a time bomb of violence and insecurity from the uneducated,
unemployed and marginalised.
“This forms the first and most important thrust of my
governance priorities without which the rest may not be achieved: “To
secure Nigeria, end banditry and insurgency, and unite our dear nation
to manage our diversity, such that no one is left behind”. The growing
insecurity in Nigeria is not because the enemy is formidable, it is
rather because of lack of focused leadership, ineffective security
governance structure and poor coordination from the centre. All these
need to be addressed by first, projecting strong leadership signals that
allow both state and non-state actors to be mobilised around a single
vision. Then, by pursuing a robust reform of the security governance
structure with a strong coordinating mechanism that assures that all
levels of government – federal, state, and local (with 3-level policing
structure) – are aligned with strong collaboration with partners from
both the private sector and development groups to provide the required
services and deliver results for every Nigerian. Once this is done, it
is also important to have a single, clear, coherent, and consistent
communication system to keep the government accountable, citizens
engaged and involved in the development process. It is important for
institutions to be able to provide strong leadership, coordination
capability, partner and engage collaboratively with all relevant
stakeholders in an environment that mutually reinforces values.
“The second plank of my policy thrust is to “Shift emphasis
from consumption to production by running a production-centered economy
that is driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented
industrialization”. With about 70 million hectares of arable land, we
will pursue an agricultural revolution through proper segmentation of
Nigeria to activate and harness the factor endowments of different parts
of the country for both rapid and mechanized agricultural development
and as a pillar for Nigeria’s other sectoral development and
industrialization. We will incentivise and invest in agro-cluster and
industrial cluster development across our geo-resource zones to take
advantage of agglomeration and scale effects particularly in North-West,
North-East and North-Central regions of Nigeria. We will dredge both
Rivers Niger and Benue, build dams and massively support the planting of
economic trees across the country for local usage, poverty elimination,
export and revenue generation.
“A key task is to sequentially but decisively, dismantle the
inefficient and anti-market distortionary structures restraining the
Nigerian economy from creating the preconditions for a dynamic
pro-market economy. We will employ entrepreneurial governance to
dismantle impediments to free trade and ease of doing business and
implement radical economic policies that will drastically reduce our
debt service – a major drain on government revenue today. Our Micro,
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) will be robustly supported.
Further borrowing will be strictly for productive purposes. While we
will aggressively pursue the activation of all opportunities in the oil
and gas value chain, we will use targeted incentive schemes that will be
professionally administered to diversify our non-oil export portfolio
with proper consideration and management of climate change risks and
opportunities.
“The third pillar of our governance priorities is to
“Restructure the polity through effective legal and institutional
reforms to entrench the rule of law, aggressively fight corruption,
reduce cost of governance, and establish an honest and efficient civil
service”. Reducing the cost of governance in Nigeria is an effective way
to fight institutional corruption. In addition to reducing cost of
governance and streamlining government operations for efficiency and
effectiveness, we will ensure that reforms are pursued in a way that
protects the livelihood of our hardworking and efficient civil servants.
“Critical to fighting corruption, we shall install a new
budgeting system founded on the cardinal principles of public
accountability, objective setting, and program implementation. This is
against the extant budgetary principles of revenue mobilization,
expenditure allocation, borrowing without emphasis on monitoring,
evaluation, and feedback. We will enforce the principle of performance
auditing and institutionalize monitoring and evaluation process of the
entire public service delivery as the primary means of actualizing our
vision of a new Nigeria. This reform will institutionalize the personal
involvement of the President in setting budgetary objectives of MDAs,
and monitoring and evaluating the implementation process through the
Office of Regulatory Review in the Office of the President. Budget
monitoring and evaluation capacity will be strengthened within the
Presidency.
“We will embark on effective macro-economic and fiscal
restructuring to quickly restore fiscal viability by discontinuing
unaffordable subsidies which have left a black-hole in government
finances. Fiscal and monetary policy will be properly coordinated, with
each deploying conventional tools transparently instead of distorting
markets to favour a few privileged persons. For the avoidance of doubt,
we will collaborate with the Central Bank of Nigeria for the transparent
liberalization of the foreign exchange market and the dismantling of
the opaque multiple exchange rate regime which effectively subsidises a
few privileged persons.
“We will also seek to boost the supply side, rather than
continuing to concentrate exclusively on demand management of the
foreign exchange market. When unaffordable subsidies are removed, some
carefully calibrated transfers will be used to cushion any adverse
impact on the economically weak. If the competitiveness of a sector is
to be enhanced, then that will be done via the enactment of transparent
and specially targeted fiscal and trade policies designed to stimulate
investment and growth. Revenue shortfalls and leakages such as oil theft
will be dealt with decisively by holding persons in positions of
authority fully accountable.
“The fourth plank of our governance priorities is to “Leapfrog
Nigeria into the 4th Industrial Revolution through the application of
scientific and technological innovations to create a digital economy”.
Building on the gains of the agriculture-led manufacturing and export,
we will pursue the development of knowledge and skills to leverage on
the emerging disruptive digital technologies, automation, Internet of
Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, block
chain technology, biotechnology and data science – all of which are at
the heart of the fourth industrial revolution.
“The fifth plank of our governance priorities is to “Build
expansive infrastructure for efficient power supply, rail, road and air
transportation, and pipeline network, through integrated public-private
partnerships, and entrepreneurial public sector governance”. Our
solution to the perennial power problem in Nigeria is a comprehensive
one that covers transmission, distribution, generation and financing as
detailed in our Manifesto. However, we will immediately complete the
$2.3b Nigeria-Siemens network improvement deal to achieve 7,000 MW
stable capacity by the end of this year (2023), 11,000 megawatts by
2024, and 25,000 megawatts by 2025. We will support local manufacturing
capacity of power technologies and encourage and expand local R&D in
universities, training centres, and workshops through which many jobs
will be created.
“Our 6th priority programme is to “Enhance the human capital of
Nigerian youths for productivity and global competitiveness through
investment in education and research, quality healthcare, and
entrepreneurship education”. The World Bank’s Human Capital Development
Index ranks Nigeria 168 out of 173 countries. To move Nigeria right to
the top bracket of the index, we will pursue a Marshall plan-type
programme on education that incorporates compulsory technical and
vocational skills, sports, entrepreneurship, programming, and digital
skills from the primary to the secondary level. In line with this
commitment to transform our educational sector, we will prioritize the
funding of this critical sector. Our tertiary institutions will be
remodelled to serve as hubs or centres for research, development, and
commercialisation of ideas for the quick industrialization of Nigeria.
“Finally, our 7th priority is to “Conduct an afro-centric
diplomacy that protects the rights of Nigerian citizens abroad and
advances the economic interests of Nigerians and Nigerian businesses in a
changing world”.
“In concluding, let me say that the problem with Nigeria is at
once complex and simple. It rests on leadership. As our erudite
Professor Chinua Achebe stated, ‘’ The trouble with Nigeria is simply
and squarely a failure of leadership’’. In Achebe’s view, there is
nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. ‘The Nigerian
problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the
responsibility, to the challenge of leading in the front by example
which is the hallmarks of true leadership’.
“When people of competence, character, commitment, and
compassion take over leadership and pursue their mission and task with
the seriousness required, a New Nigeria characterised by peace, unity,
prosperity, inclusiveness will be achieved and sustained.
“That is what is driving Datti Baba-Ahmed and I to join and
offer to lead this desire and crusade of Nigerians, particularly our
youths, for an inclusive and sustainable Nigeria that works for all.
“In line with my upbringing, especially my Mother’s counsel, my
promise is that Nigeria’s resources will be most prudently used and as
the Commander in Chief, I Peter Obi sincerely pledge that Our Pact with
Nigeria will be diligently pursued to create a new Nigeria characterised
by sustainable/inclusive growth and development.”
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