Politics

How Obi, Atiku Lambast FG Over Insecurity, Economic Crisis

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2022

By Oladosu Oluwagbenga

On Monday, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party both slammed the Federal Government for the country’s economic and security problems, saying that Nigeria met all the requirements for a failed state on all the negative indicators.

The two candidates unanimously concurred that Nigeria’s future will be decided in 2023 and declared that the results of the election would determine the country’s continuing existence.

Speaking during the 62nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, which is taking place in Lagos, were Atiku and Obi.

In his speech, Atiku noted that Nigeria had never before found itself in such a highly precarious situation and that the nation is now more divided than it has ever been since democracy took hold in 1999.

Obi, hoever, asserted that Nigeria needs to quickly transform from a very unsafe nation to one that is secure, as well as from a divided nation to one that is united.

He added, “Nigeria has qualified to be a failed state. We have the two or three biggest characteristics of a failed state. One is when you are no longer in charge of your territory.

“Today, we are among the top terrorised countries in the world; we are among the top kidnapping countries in the world. Banditry has taken over part of the country and Nigerians are being killed.”

Speaking on the theme: “Bold Transitions in the 21st Century as Far as Our Country Is Concerned,” he asserted that Nigeria had all the bad indicators, adding that the country had never known the amount of poverty, insecurity, and unemployment that it was currently experiencing.

He stated, “Since the return of democracy in 1998/99, Nigeria has never found itself in such a very very critical point in our history.

“Today, we have had all the negative indices. Today, we are all disunited in the nation. We have never experienced this level of poverty. We have never experienced this state of insecurity. We have never experienced this level of unemployment. We have recognised all these negative development in our history.”

He added that the important thing was to tackle the challenges.

“This is where history and experience beckon to us that we don’t get it wrong at this point in time. If we get it wrong, I don’t know when we will get it right,’’ he noted.

According to an online newspaper, The Cable, the former vice president stated that if elected president, he would transfer control of federal universities to the states.

According to the report, Atiku stated that one of his administration’s reforms would be to create an environment that would be favorable to both domestic and foreign investors.

He added that since “the government alone cannot bring about development,” the reforms would also address healthcare and education.

He stated, ‘’One of the fundamental reforms I have in my policy document is to encourage the private sector as far as the development of the country is concerned — both foreign and local. It is very essential because the federal government does not have the resources to do all the things that they want to do,” he said.

Shedding more light on his plans, he stated, “The only way is to make sure that a conducive environment is available for the local and foreign investors to participate in the development of our country, whether it is infrastructure, education and healthcare.

“I had an argument with a university professor from Federal University, Lokoja. He said he read in my policy document that I intend to devolve, in other words, to return education to the states. How dare I do that?

“I said: ‘Mr professor, do you realise that the first set of our universities belongs to the regional governments?’ He said, ‘yes’. I said ‘who are the successors of the regional government?’ He said: ‘the states’.

“I said the children you send to America or England; who owns those universities? Mostly, the private sector. So, why is it that you think we cannot do it here? We don’t have the money.”

On Monday, Atiku announced through Twitter that he was attending the NBA conference to speak to attorneys about his bold agenda, which he claimed represents unity, security, economy, education, and the devolution of authority to local and state governments.

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“The election will not be about tribe, religion, connection, or entitlement, but it must be about ability, capacity, and willingness to deliver,” stated Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party.

Obi stated that Nigeria needs to quickly transform from a very unsafe nation to one that is secure, as well as from a divided nation to one that is united.

He added, “Nigeria has qualified to be a failed state. We have the two or three biggest characteristics of a failed state. One is when you are no longer in charge of your territory.

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He called on Nigerians to elect the candidate with the capacity to rescue the nation from its current mess.

“Nigeria is in a mess. We got here simply because of the accumulative effects of bad leadership. The coming election is not about tribe or religion but about character and competence. We need a bold transition from a highly insecure state to a highly secured state,’’ he noted.