Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, says Nigeria now needs wealth creators, not wealth sharers.
Mr Obi spoke with reporters shortly after briefing the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on his 2023 presidential ambition, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The former vice presidential candidate of the party in the 2019 election was unhappy with the level of insecurity, poverty, unemployment and out of school children in the country.
“People now spend 100 per cent of their salary to feed. It is a crisis situation. What will somebody like me do?
“We need to move the country from consumption to production. There is nothing to share again.
“We now need wealth creators, not wealth sharers. We have been sharing wealth for a long time, we need to start creating wealth,” he said.
Mr Obi also said that Nigeria needed to scale down the cost of governance.
He said that, as a trader who had created wealth in private space and in government space, he would create wealth for the country to tackle insecurity.
“Go and look at the trajectory of where people are coming from and check all the places I have been given responsibility, including being a governor.
“You saw what I did in Anambra State, you saw what I saved and all that.
“On security, we have what we call natural security and artificial security. National security deals with job creation; you need to put food on people’s table to ensure that they are not doing the wrong thing.
“If they don’t know where the next meal will come from, the tendency is that they will become a tool for anything. So we need to employ people.
“I know what to do in putting money into micro, small and medium scale enterprises. I have experimented it in a small way which people can see,” he said.
Asked if he would support zoning, Mr Obi said that the party had the final say.
“Whatever they say, everybody accepts. I will respect whatever decision they take.”
He, however, advised the party to allow the best aspirant to emerge as its candidate.
Mr Obi said that he was not desperate to be Nigeria’s President but was desperate to see a better Nigeria.
(NAN)
