How Peter emerged Labour Party presidential candidate
How Peter emerged Labour Party presidential candidate
Former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, on Monday emerged as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party of Nigeria for the 2023 general elections.
The 2019 PDP Vice presidential candidate who withdrew from the party presidential race recently got 96 out of the 98 delegate votes while erudite political economist Prof. Pat Utomi secured one vote with one vote voided.
The result was announced by the Chairman of the electoral committee, Abdullahi Usman Aliyu.
One hundred and four delegates were accredited for the election which took place at Orchid Hotel, Asaba, Delta state.
Other aspirants including Pat Utomi, Mrs Oluwadare Joseph, Mr Charles Uchenna, and Mrs Olubusola Emmanuel had stepped down for Mr. Obi shortly before the commencement of the election.
Prof Utomi while stepping down said “Obi must be given the opportunity to govern this country.”
The winner, Obi had earlier stated his mission to redeem Nigeria from the shackles of poverty.
He said, “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 way 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. The first time this country borrowed money in September 1964 was when Tafawa Balewa wrote the World Bank for $82 million to build the Kanji Dam.
“And he said it then that he was applying to build the facility, 760 megawatts of electricity for the growth of the country. Eight years after, we are still struggling with 4,000 megawatts.
“As of today, Nigeria is owing $120 billion. Imagine if we had used that money for power, we would have been 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 is 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, and competence to deliver.”
