By Ojonugwa Felix Ugboja
The Peoples Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential candidate for 2019 election, Mr Peter Obi has stated that at least 10 million Nigerians have lost their jobs in the past 3 years due to the inability of the current government to effectively tackle the country’s economic crisis.
Mr Obi mad this known today while speaking at the Nehemiah Apostolic Resource Centre, Abuja during a political and leadership roundtable event under the centre’s School of Government and Politics, which according to its founder, Apostle Obii Pax-Harry, is where discussions that will provoke change are held.
The three-day event with the theme, ‘Towards Sustainable Transformation,’ was held at the Nehemiah Apostolic Resource Centre in Wuse, Abuja from Monday to Wednesday.
The third day had Mr Peter Obi, who is incidentally the PDP Vice Presidential candidate in the forthcoming 2019 election. It was an opportunity for the School of Government and Politics to see and hear his views about Nigeria and what he intends to do if he gets into government.
The organisers of the event wanted him to speak as a Nigerian who had been in office and had accomplished a lot. In acknowledging his performance as a former governor, they believe that they will be able to consider some of the points he considered vital in bringing about change.
In his interactive session with the audience, Mr Peter Obi bemoaned the sad state of Nigeria and the need for an emergency action.
’Nigeria falls very low in all the development indices in the world. From every indication, Nigeria is clearly underdeveloped. We have very low human development, we have the highest inequality rate in the world, and have overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world,’’ he said.
Speaking further, he stated that over 10 million Nigerians have lost their jobs in the past three years, and that this year alone has recorded four million jobs loses.
‘’We have incurred so much loans with little or nothing to show for it,’’ he said. ‘’We are our own greatest problem as a nation. Infrastructures are not being built or working as they should because of human errors.’’
On corruption, he stated that only lip service is being paid to the fight against corruption, and that people still glorify corruption and those who benefit from it.
“Somebody is opening a new house built with stolen fund, and people are going there to celebrate instead of calling police,” he remarked.
Going forward, he said that Nigeria ought to be able to restore hope in her people and build new values because many are disappointed and have lost their sense of patriotism.
In her closing remarks, the founder and convener of the event, Apostle Obii Pax-Harry stated that the School of Government and Politics is more or less a pioneering work by risk takers who are doing what they are doing, which is inspiring young leaders, on a Christian platform.
As they evolve, she said, they will cooperate with everyone driven by the passion of nation building, irrespective of their religion.
She said: ‘’We ought not to be waiting for God when He is also waiting for us to take action. We are a community of reformers and over the last 10 years, we have been able to raise a lot of reformers who are now doing well in several walks of life.”
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