By Kamsi Anayo, Awka
The Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, has released the manifesto for his 2023 presidential campaign entitled “Our Pact with Nigerians: Creating a New Nigeria“.
In the 62-page manifesto, Peter Obi and his Vice-Presidential candidate, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, promised, amongst other things:
“To secure Nigeria, end banditry and insurgency; and unite our dear nation, to manage our diversity such that no one is left behind.
“Shift emphasis from consumption to production by running a production-centered economy that is driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented industrialization.
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.
Leapfrog Nigeria into the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), through the application of scientific and technological innovations to create a digital economy.
Build expansive and world-class infrastructure for efficient power supply, rail, road and air transportation, and pipeline network, through integrated public-private partnerships, and entrepreneurial public sector governance.
Enhance the human capital of Nigerian youth for productivity and global competitiveness through investment in world-class scholarship and research, quality healthcare, and entrepreneurship education.
Conduct an afro-centric diplomacy that protects the rights of Nigerian citizens abroad and advance the economic interests of Nigerians and Nigerian businesses in a changing world.
The ObiBaba-Ahmed team expressed commitment to “disrupt the country’s deterioration and end the race to extreme poverty and state collapse under mercenaries who have posed as messiahs”.
It noted that there is a strong determination of Nigerian youths, to create a new future for themselves based on prosperity, safety, and freedom.
The manifesto said: “We want to heal Nigeria. But to solve a problem you must understand its pathology. To heal Nigeria, we need a good diagnosis of its problems.
“The problem with Nigeria is elite capture. Nigeria has been captured by an elite that has shown no commitment to development.
“The result is that in spite of trillions of naira from oil revenue and the abundant human and natural endowments, the country has remained poor and unstable.
“This failure of development and political stability has worsened since the return of democracy in 1999.
“Although we made modest gains from 1999 to 2015, the culture of corruption, highlighted by plundering of state resources and insensitivity to the suffering of the people, continued to define statecraft and resulted in growth without development.”
The ObiBaba-Ahmed team decried the “crisis of leadership has worsened” since 2015 under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government leading Nigeria to being described as a failed or failing state.
The manifesto noted: “Since 2015, the crisis of leadership has worsened to the point that the Nigerian state is now generally described as a failed or failing state.
“A sizeable portion of Nigeria is under the control of either terrorists, bandits or insurgents.
“About 63% of Nigerians (133m) are so poor that they do not have access to basic sanitation, good nutrition, basic education and healthcare, or employment.
“In 2022 alone, 5.1m Nigerians entered into acute poverty, bringing the number of extremely poor Nigerians to 95m,” it added.
In tandem with Peter Obi’s consistent stance, the manifesto stated that Nigeria’s problem is not ethnicity or religion, geography, or weather.
“The problem is leadership. The problem is a leadership that is not attuned to the people, does not believe in the people, and will never serve the people’s interest,” it stated emphatically.
It, meanwhile, assured: “Through our dedicated action on the 7 priorities on governance and development priorities that mainstream the principles of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the aspirations of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy under Chapter 2 of our Constitution, we will transform Nigeria and realize the hope of our founding fathers and the heros and heroines of the nation.”
Details later…
