Peter Obi, a presidential candidate running on the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) platform and a former governor of Anambra State, has stated that if elected president of Nigeria in 2023, he will not play with education.
Obi spoke yesterday in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, in response to inquiries from journalists about what he wanted to do for Nigerians and the country.
Obi, who was in the state to meet with PDP officials and seek their support for his presidential bid, highlighted that education, health, sports development, and poverty reduction were critical areas in which he would invest to help Nigeria’s economy recover.
We will invest in education. The more educated your country is, the better your development. We will invest in Health. And most importantly we must put money to bring people out of poverty. The more you put people out of poverty, the more you reduce criminality.
“We have wonderful young people. So we want to make this place to be a sporting destination because we have talents in Sports that we can develop by making sure we develop all levels of sports. That is what we want to do”
When asked how the lingering ASUU strike should be resolved, the PDP presidential candidate responded:
“It is a disaster. I don’t know anyhow anyone can comprehend it. And this was based on the agreement reached by ASUU in 2009. But I will do things differently.
“I will sit down with ASUU, and tell them how we can create a new source of revenue for Universities. We cannot play with Education.
I have told the Federal government of Nigeria please pay all outstanding gratuities, pensions, and agreements and negotiate the ones for the future”
In response to a question on what he would do as president if his Aides insisted on sharing the national cake, Obi stated that there was no more cake to share and that he would lead a government in which young people were given the chance to lead the process.
“I have said it repeatedly, the cake we are sharing is finished. What we need now is to bake new cakes. And those ones we are going to bake newly are not for sharing because are now going to have a new system where our teeming unemployed youths are given a future, they are going to be driving the process.
“We cannot continue to allow people to make money without contributing anything. Sharing is finished, we are now talking about creating. Consuming is finished, we are now talking about production. So that is the new Nigeria we want to create, we want to build a great country.”, Obi said.
