Nigeria Needs Wealth Creators As Leaders Not Wealthy Consumers – Peter Obi
BY UBON EKANEM – Former Governor of Anambra State and presidential aspirant on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, Mr Peter Obi, has warned that Nigeria will continue to remain in the backwaters of development if wealth creators are not elected as leaders to run the country’s affairs at all levels of governance.
For him, having wealth or wealthy consumers as well as ‘it is our turn’ exponents as leaders have been the major cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment over the years.
Addressing a consultative meeting with the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the PDP in Uyo, the State capital on Tuesday, Obi said Nigeria urgently needs wealth creators at this moment because the era of sharing the country’s resources in the guise of politics is long gone.
He said with nothing on the table to share anymore, the nation is in dire need a new set of leaders ready to sacrifice towards producing resources and creating wealth to take care of the coming generation.
The former Anambra State governor, who assured that his “mission is to create a changed Nigeria from consumption to production and from wealth sharing to wealth creation”, said elected as President, the key priority areas to address in the economy include education, security, power generation and manufacturing.
Insisting that visionary and selfless leadership that focuses on the listed areas is required to reposition the nation for greater heights, Obi said; “The cake we are sharing now has finished. What we need to do now is to bake more cakes. There is no cake to share anymore. And those cakes we are going to bake are not for sharing.
“We will have a new system where the teeming unemployed youths are given a future. They are going to be driving the process. So, there is no need to share. Consuming is finished, we are now talking about production.”
The PDP Presidential aspirant said given current position of things and developments in the country, the new Nigeria he envisions is one that “will be creating and producing wealth, not the Nigeria where people are recklessly sharing public money.”
Urging Akwa Ibom delegates to vote with the future of their children in mind, the former governor lamented that the government’s inability to frontally tackle address security and economic challenges is largely responsible for the nation’s woes as a failing state.
He also challenged all party delegates to the forthcoming PDP Presidential primaries to shun politics of personality and ethnic consideration, saying the time to rescue Nigeria is now.
