Julius Abure Labour Party Chairman speaking during the occasion
* Reiterates call on production rather than consumption approach to economy
* Raises a hue against theft of public funds
By Kingsley Abavo, Benin
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the February 25, general election on Thursday, 3 November, 2023 in a firm critique tackled the poverty alleviation policy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The approach he criticised, would not yield any productive result if Nigeria continue to be a consuming country, without producing.
Suggesting ways out of the present economic woes confronting the nation, Obi urged; Nigerians must make it difficult for those in authority to steal public funds.
The former Anambra State Governor would not spare the citizens for being complicit in the stealing; always celebrating those who bleeds the economy.
Obi made the critics while addressing the gathering in Benin, at the Colloquium and Hall of Fame organised by ‘Edo Policy Roundtable’ in conjunction with the Mudiame University, Irrua, in Esan Central Local Government Area of the State.
The event which had the theme: ‘The Contemporary Nigerian Politics: The Way Forward for Edo State’ was in honour of the National Chairman of the LP, Julius Abure.
God has endowed Nigeria with all the necessary resources both human and natural; but the only shortfall is lack of good leadership, he argued.
With the abundant natural and human resources in Nigeria, the country had no reason to be poor, Obi pointed out.
“The reason why the country is failing today, is lack of plan, and when you talk about lack of planning, you are talking about lack of implementation because we politicians, when we are campaigning, everything is sweet and good but once we have the opportunity, we would bring out our true side and start doing the opposite.
“All I can tell anybody, there is nothing wrong with Nigeria, Nigeria has one of the best in terms of land, weather, God given resources and the people. One thing God has not given Nigeria is good leadership, if we have good leaders we would do better.
“A country like Nigeria has no reason to be poor if not because of leadership. If you compare Nigeria to the three biggest economies in Europe Germany, Britain and France, these three countries, if you compare them to Nigeria in land size, they are just about 27 percent bigger than Nigeria when you put the three together.
“But today 357,000 Germany, France 551,000 and the UK 373,000 and if you put them together you have about 1,281,000 square kilometres and Nigeria is 923,000 square kilometres.
“If you talk about the population, the UK is about 67 million, France is about 64 million, Germany is about 84 million and three of them together are 215 million, and Nigeria is about 210 million, and I can tell you that we have more resourceful people, youths, than the three of them have.
“But when you now compare our economies, if you put the economies of the three of them together; Germany has a GDP of 4.4 trillion, the UK has a GDP of 3.2 trillion, and France has a GDP of about 2.4 trillion. You are getting about 10 trillion in economy, and we are about 400, so they are 25 times more.
“Why? We have leadership that is involved in waste and consumption, not production!
“So, whenever you are talking about pulling people out of poverty and creating jobs for them, it is simple: just remove the economy from consumption to production, and you create jobs.
“But now all we are thinking about is to buy this and buy that, consume this and consume that, and organise this ceremony and that ceremony; it will not work!”
He therefore tasked the resource persons at the event to make recommendations capable of lifting Edo State and the entire country out of the present predicament.
This is as he urged Nigerians to stop celebrating those who were responsible for their pains.
“Those who have spoken to us and those who will still speak today in this round table policy discussion, try to find out how we can have a better Nigeria. If we have a better Edo State, we will have a better Nigeria. Now that you have announced a round table, let’s have a round table for Nigeria and everybody, and be rest assured that if we get this right, we will have a better Nigeria.
“We must stop people from stealing public money; we must stop people from wasting public money; it is not their private money, and all of us are involved; we must not celebrate them.
“Let us join together in rebuilding Nigeria. We must bequeath a better Nigeria to our children. We cannot bequeath Nigeria as it is today; we are going to bequeath anarchy to them, suffering, and when you wake up in the morning, all you are hearing is killing.”
Also speaking, the Guest Speaker, Dr. Yunusa Tanko noted that Nigeria at 63, was still searching for a new political order.
He attributed the situation to factors which includes; the dominance of ethnicity, religion and politics, which he argued are also affecting the survival of democratic rule and national development in Nigeria.
Dr. Tanko however commended Abure to have made his mark by the midwifing of the Labour Party to an unprecedented success from the build-up of strong founding leaders like Chief Dan Nwanyanwu and the late Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam.
Qualities of LP Governor – Abure
Delivering his speech, Abure laid bare the qualities a LP Governor in Edo State would possess.
Saying he would be a ‘Shepherd Governor,’ he asserts revealing the qualities would enable Edo people elect the right person.
He would be a bridge-builder and must be selfless, and ready to take risks and make personal sacrifices at all times, in the interest and well-being of Edo people, the national Chairman of the Party declared.
Such a Governor must have the capacity to bring all shades of persons together in order to achieve the objectives of developing the State, and must have innovative ideas and openness to harness available resources to create for the State, he added.
He assured; that the LP Governor would be interested in wealth creation and poverty eradication, security, local Government administration, education, health, and infrastructural development.
Earlier, the Chancellor of Mudiame University, Professor Sunday Eromosele, noted that the situation in Edo State was serious; with poverty, hardship, and backwardness heightening the dependency ratio.
He consequently sued for a Government that would be driven by people-oriented policies, as citizens deserved to be integral to the policy-making process, he pointed out.
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