The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has assured the Northern region that his presidency if elected will give the region premium place in his agenda because the wealth of the nation is in the region.
Obi, who titled his remarks, ‘The Unmet Needs of the North region’, told the Arewa Joint Committee Interactive Session at the Arewa House Auditorium, Kaduna, on Monday, that the region is strategic to the development plans of Obi-Datti administration if elected president in 2023.
“We shall pay as much attention to the development of the North as to the development of all other parts of the country; but with much greater emphasis on the development of the agricultural resources. The North remains where the biggest and sustainable wealth of this great nation lies”, Obi said.
The LP candidate said that he intends to pursue aggressively policies, programmes and projects that will enhance the productivity and competitiveness of all the sectors of the Nigerian economy.
He pledged do the following in the North: “Offer immediate and decisive long-lasting and permanent-effect resolution of all security challenges in the North; ensure that farmers return to all farmlands for the 2023 farming season. We will make Nigeria’s arable land in the North her new oil and gold.”
As part of his administration’s Marshall Plan for Education, he said; “We will foster federal intervention in education at all levels in the North and partnership with state governments and international organisations in order to improve access to affordable and quality education at all levels; ensure very adequate representation in government, equitable appointments especially in the security and economic sectors; incentivize the resuscitation of the moribund cotton and textile industries; and full exploration of the cattle economy value chain, notably the $75 billion global hide and skin economy.”
He announced that Nigeria’s share of the global industry is envisaged to generate over $1 billion by 2025; and assured that his administration will ensure very generous deployment and allocation of economic and social projects and infrastructure in the North – with keen attention to roads, energy, power, and dams- and solar energy from sunlight.
Obi said that a new Nigeria is possible and the Nigerian people want solutions to the many problems confronting them.
“But we must return to dreams of our founding fathers to create an egalitarian society. The Nigeria we seek will be a united and secure Nigeria that symbolizes the spirit, letters, and exhorting ethos of our national anthem – ‘one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity’ where ‘peace and justice shall reign.’”
Obi, former Anambra State governor said that Obi-Datti ticket plans to offer Nigerians purposeful leadership with the fear of God and with all good conscience and intent where the constitution and the rule of law will always prevail.
He also told his audience comprising the Northern corporate and political leadership that Nigeria’s situation got this bad because “our leaders became selfish, myopic and stopped listening and caring for the common man. Bad leadership, divisive rhetoric, and impunity became the norm. Nigerians have suffered; they have lost jobs, and lost their farms and herds and their trust in our leaders. That narrative must change.”