Peter Obi to European Union: Rethink Your Perspective of Africa
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has called on the European Union parliament to rethink its perspective on Africa and indeed N
Obi, who had a guest appearance before the European Union said, ”I say to them it is time to rethink. Africa today is the last frontier of global development. It’s the second biggest continent in terms of size in the world, the second biggest continent in terms of population.
“It’s the continent that has highest amounts of natural resources. It’s a continent that has vast uncultivated land, a continent with young population. Sixty per cent of Africa’s population today is young. But then again, it’s a continent of mass poverty.”
The former Anambra State governor further said, “Today Europe, if I take Nigeria for example, Nigeria in terms of population is 50 per cent of European Union population. You’re about 450 million were about 240 million, so have over 50 per cent of your population. In terms of land size, Europe has about four point something million square kilometres, Nigeria is about a quarter of that.
”But when it comes to wealth, while Europe has a Per Capita of over $40,000, Nigeria which is 50 per cent of your population, has a Per Capita of about two and a half per cent of that of Europe. So you could see the potential, with all the resources, the potential for growth.”
He told the EU parliament that the nearest continent to Africa is Europe, explaining, ”So if Africa today turns around, the biggest beneficiary would be Europe. If it collapses, the consequences will affect you more.
“I believe that we have so many commonalities that we can work together and everything, and what is the problem of Africa? ”
Obi explained that the problem of Africa remains, leadership, adding, ”To have a political leadership that is competent, have the capacity, compassion, commitment and character to be able to deal with the issues of corruption, law and order, focus on investing on critical areas of development, which is health education and pulling people out of poverty.
”It was discussed here that we have issues of killings which again people can say it’s genocide, people can say it’s Muslims Versus Christians and everything. Are there killings? Are there criminalities, are they kidnappings? Yes.
”But we have to look at the issues that are driving these. When you have a huge population, for example, Nigeria has multi million people, living in multidimensional poverty, we have millions of out-of- school children or those who didn’t go to school at all. With mass poverty, and mass uneducated people, you have room for easy recruitment for all forms of criminality.
”Which is what is driving the killings that we need to deal with, and now we’re moving around and moving around and saying we need support, we need you to help us to overcome these and be able to create a clear developing environment that will also benefit you because it’s a huge market for you, it’s a huge advantage in terms of resources and everything if Africa especially Nigeria, is doing well it’s the most populous country in Africa, it’s about one sixth of Africa’s population, and it has all it takes to be a huge market that Europe just like Africa can tap.
“And to turn around Africa you have to turn around Nigeria because it’s the country that will drive the rest of Africa. To develop Africa, which will benefit you, you must start from Nigeria,” he stressed.
Obi further said, ”So that’s why I came to continue the conversation with you. I know it’s something that requires several visits, to be able to intimate you more on this commitment, on this trajectory that I want you to go down with us and be able to turn around Africa, Nigeria in particular.
”So thank you for the opportunity of having a few minutes conversation with you,” he stated.
