August 11, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has said that the party’s structure is the Nigerian People, urging members of the party not to yield to the deceptive narrative of lack of structure in the movement.
Obi, who said this while delivering his speech at the Labour Party-Coalition for Peter Obi Summit Thursday, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, said, “I want to assure you that as a people-oriented party and Movement, the people remain the fulcrum of our collective quest to take back Nigeria; the people are our structure. I, therefore, urge you not to yield to the deceptive narrative of lack of Structure in the Movement. You all seated here are the Structures we seek.”
Obi said the current structures of both the PDP and the APC are the stomach infrastructure that has brought the country nothing, but misery.
“Their understanding of structure is sharing of Nigeria’s patrimony to vested interests and influence peddlers. That is against what Peter Obi represents; that is against what Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed represents; and it is indeed, against the vision of the Labour Party”, he said.
Obi said Nigeria is at crossroads and that it would be foolhardy for anyone to sugarcoat the current morass.
“Ravaging insecurity, largely inflicted by non-state actors, is fast threatening the sovereignty of Nigeria”, he said.
He further said that, “Nigeria is today vastly polarised and wracked by deep divisions along religious, ethnic and regional lines. There is a staggering level of corruption. Our universities have remained closed for over five months. While our healthcare system remains comatose, power generation and distribution are also at all-time low.
“I have consistently maintained that while there is a need for the sustenance of the hard approach to fighting insecurity, there is an urgent need to tackle poverty and those social and economic malaise that exacerbate the crises. We cannot have 33% unemployment rate, 18.5 million out of school children and 100 million poor people, in Nigeria and expect to go to sleep with our two eyes closed.
“The money Nigeria is sharing from oil earnings is finished! We now spend more today to service debts than we earn from oil! Nigeria now spends more to pay for subsidies on imported refined products than she earns from crude sales! Going forward, we must look for ways to move Nigeria beyond oil. We must end the criminality that is called oil subsidy.
“But we must do the first things first. It is only auspicious that the reset button is urgently applied now, and that is why the OBIdient Movement is an idea, whose time has come! We must find ways to change the political trajectory in Nigeria in 2023.”
Obi further said that there is a common link that will tie or separate Nigerian youths, good governance and a New Nigeria, saying it is the forthcoming 2023 elections.
“In essence, democracy has always been about periodic and genuine elections. Besides the periodicity, the pertinent qualifiers include certifiable credibility, transparency, and respect for the choice of the voting populace. In 2023, we must ensure that the choice of Nigerians is respected.
“After we win the 2023 elections, we intend to use the instruments of job creation and regenerative investments to reduce drastically the high incidence of insecurity and poverty, while moving the economy from the consumptive to the productive mode. We seek to build a new Nigeria where transparency, due process, rule of law, and prudent management of resources will be the norms.
“As I have always said, our vision and mission is to give full expression to our democracy by moving our country from consumption to production; we shall achieve by giving primacy to implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Our national challenges are daunting, but our determination is assuredly unwavering. Sadly, amidst the above overwhelming situations, our current political class keeps punching the air. Indeed, the greatest challenge we face beyond bad leadership, is lack of elite consensus. But let us not forget Dante Alighieri‘s admonition, that “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
He urges members of the coalition that they should endeavour to remind the opposition that “Nigeria’s democracy must survive because of our structure – that critical mass that has been dehumanised and disenfranchised by the ruling oligarchs; the 100 million poor Nigerians who will come out on election day to fight for their future; the 33% unemployed Nigerians who already know who kept them unemployed; our structure is indeed the parents of 18.5m out-of-school-children in Nigeria, who will strive to ensure that such affliction does not visit them a second time. And finally, our structure is everyone seated in this hall today! Yes, we have Structure. And we are ready to move mountains to save Nigeria.”
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
