The presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi has denied the allegation that he instructed northerners to wear a badge of identification during his tenure as governor of Anambra State. Obi said his aide de camp was a Kano State indigene while six northerners were appointed commissioners. He wondered why he would give such an order when he had northerners in his cabinet.
Obi also debunked the rumour that his son was the Biafra agitator in a picture that has gone viral on social media. He made it clear that his son is a thoroughbred professional who is consumed by his career in the Unuted Kingdom.
Obi was answering questions as a guest on the breakfast program of Arise Television, The Morning Show.
On being described as an Igbo who is on the lower ladder of politics by Buba Galadima, he said:
“We tend to neglect those on the lower ladder, they may be the solution to our problems. This election will not be based on my turn. ethnicity or religion. I am appealing to people to vote to save Nigeria. To save Nigeria is to hire the best. I don’t want people to vote for me because I am from the south east. I want them to vote for Peter Obi because he is a Nigerian who is competent to start pulling Nigeria out of mess. My candidacy is meant to solve problems. Those on the higher ladder has brought us to where we are today. Why do you want somebody who has knowledge of the economy to be vice president? You want to use people on the reserve bench to start the match? The Nigerian problem is the economy. I have the knowledge to pull people out of poverty. I will assemble a team of young sharp people to start dealing with these problems.”
On the choice of running mate, Obi said:
“For my vice presidential candidate, we are talking to quite a number of people. Yusuf Datti Baba Ahmed is one of them. He is actually the kind of person I will like to work with because he is much younger. We need to bring in young people with fresh ideas and I wish he will be the one. We can’t keep recycling people. We will announce the running mate soon. Datti is competent and qualified. I am building a team that is formidable like the one I had in Anambra State. I want a team that can look at my face and tell me I am wrong. We need to save this country. Leadership and traveling is inseparable. That is why I travel to learn. I have been to 31 countries to learn from them. I was in Morrocco that has a population of about 36 million. Their export last year was 50 billion. Morrocco runs the best ship port in Africa. I have to go there to learn from them. I also went to Egypt, Vietnam, India. These countries have the fastest electricity in the past 5 years. I went to study how they did it, who are the contractors etc.”
When he was asked a direct question subsidy removal, Obi answered:
“Yes and no. Yes, I will remove subsidy but I have to offer Nigerians an equivalent of what I am removing. Yes, because I am going to use the resources to do something tangible. But if I am not going to use the resources, I am not going to remove subsidy. You must be able to offer an equivalent. I cannot spend 40 billion dollars on subsidy and spend 50% of that on education and health, even in security. Our security budget has not been up to that. Are you saying that subsidy is more important than security. I will say that subsidy is a scam.”
On state policing, he said:
“Why won’t a state be in charge of their security? A governor should be in charge of security in his state. I removed six police commissioners during my administration in Anambra State. I went to Obasanjo and told him I am having security issues and I want the commissioner removed. I will hold the governor of Katsina responsible for security in his state. Egypt has one million policemen. Nigeria has 320,000, out of this number, 70,000 policemen are following VIPs about.
