A chieftain of the Labour Party, Prof. Pat Utomi, has responded to the notion that the party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi is stingy, saying that the country is currently in dire need of such a man to stop the economy from bleeding itself out.
He said the former Anambra State governor has the qualities to stop what he referred to as “transactional government” that has become the order of the day in governments of the Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress.
“If you look at his Anambra experience, let’s not forget that Peter Obi among the things he has done is rebuild democracy. In Anambra they used to lock up their governors in the toilet and stuffs like godfathers, schools were closed, everything was shut, and no pension benefits were being paid. When he comes to that process, Anambra becomes a new kind of place, pension was paid, and others.
“So from what I know of him, he has a transformation mindset. I think there’s this thing they say that he is stingy, my goodness the only thing you need now is a stingy man to run the country. The guys are bleeding the place, you need a guy to stop this nonsense, stop the bleeding,” Prof. Utomi said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday.
On why he thinks Nigerians should choose Obi ahead of other candidates for the February 25 presidential election, Prof. Utomi said he is convinced that the candidates of the PDP and APC will not take the country forward.
He maintained that they will continue with the “transactional government” and their friends will get rich while Nigeria will get stuck.
“These parties the way they are structured are so transactions driven that to emerge in the process you have already sold up. I will give the oil wells to this guy, you have committed that ministry to this guy and he is asking that a certain percentage of the budget of that ministry will come to him.
“I’m not talking about stuff in the air, it’s stuff I have dealt with; I have spoken out personally to all of them aloud,” the professor of political economy said.