*Utomi, Oluwadare step down for ex-Anambra governor
Omon-Julius Onabu
Peter Obi, former governor of Abambra State, on Monday, emerged the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) after winning the party’s presidential primary election held at the Orchid Hotel in Asaba, Delta State.
Obi, who picked the nomination forms of the LP consequent upon dumping the PDP recently, garnered 96 votes of the 97 valid votes cast at the primary election, the returning officer, Aliyu Abdullahi, announced before declaring him as the LP presidential standard-bearer in the 2023 general election.
A total of 104 delegates, drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, were duly cleared to vote but only 98 votes were cast; Obi got 96, Prof Pat Utomi got one vote and one vote was invalid.
Three other presidential aspirants, including Prof Pat Utomi, Charles Uchenna and the youngest aspirant, Joseph Oluwadare Faduri, had stepped down for Obi while a fourth, and only female aspirant, Olubusola Emmanuel-Tella also announced that she too was stepping down for Peter Obi, midway after commencement of voting by the delegates.
Speaking after receiving the LP Presidential Flag, Obi said that his mission in the Labour Party was to lead the charge towards building a new Nigeria Nation through revamping of the economy, effectively tackling insecurity, addressing education problems and upping the general standard of living of Nigerians by ending wasteages in government.
The Labour Party flag-bearer also spoke authoritatively about his credentials in business and financial management especially as the Anambra State governor.
Obi said, “I will show you that this country called Nigeria will start seeing the face of hope if we all work hard to bring in a new government that would harness people’s talents to march up opportunities, a government that would plug leakages and curb wastage, a government that can look into the future of our children and know we cannot continue this gangsterism and stealing of government assets.
“Let me tell you, I have got a simple mission, Nigeria is not a productive country. I just want to remove it from consumption, from sharing to production. If you listen carefully, you hear people talk about 100 million living in poverty. Why do we have insecurity as a problem? The number one to fight insecurity is to pull people out of poverty. When you have over 20 million out of school, then we have a problem, we will invest in education. The reason we don’t have power in Nigeria is because our leaders have chosen not to do so.
“Go and ask about what I did in Anambra State. I left in Diamond Bank of Nigeria $50 million and N12 billion. I left in Fidelity Bank $56 million and N12 billion.
“They are banks in Nigeria you can go and verify. Since I left office as governor of Anambra State, the state has not bought me pure water.”
He noted that leaders in the First Republic had better long-term plans for the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
“The first time this country borrowed money in September 1964 was when Tafawa Balewa wrote the World Bank for $82 million to build the Kainji Dam. And, he said it then that he was applying to build the facility, 760 megawatts of electricity for the growth of the country. Fifty-eight years after, we are still struggling with 4,000 megawatts. As today, Nigeria is owing $120 billion. Imagine if we had used that money for power, we would have be generating over 40,000 megawatts of electricity. But we consumed the money, and that is why we find it difficult to service debt. If you have 40,000 megawatts of electricity, you will be able to set industries and factories in all the local government areas. We are a people of 200 million and we are generating 4,000. South Africa is just 60 million but they are generating 54,000 megawatts. Egypt with a 100 million population are generating 54,000. What will shock you is that Egypt doubled their own, between 2016 and 2020. It was 22,000. It can be done in Nigeria it is not rocket science, what we need here is a leader with a vision, capacity, competence to deliver.
“My dear people, for the sake of our children, let us stop this otherwise it will take a toll on them and ruin their future irredeemably”, Obi said.
Earlier, solidarity messages were presented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and others.
