THE Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has promised to end inefficiency and transactional policies in government if elected President come next month.
Obi made this pledge when he appeared as a guest at the British international Policy institute, Chatham House, London, on Monday.
He said with him as President and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed as Vice President, Nigeria will dismantle inefficiency and eliminate transactional policies that breed corruption in government.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Obi-Datti Hobnob News, in Abuja.
According to the statement, Obi who took over 15 questions from the audience after his elucidating paper on various sectors said they will dismantle the structure of criminality which they have been using to hold the country.
He was quoted as saying, “there will be no sacred cow” under the Obi-Datti administration, the Labour Party Presidential candidate said that “our objective is to dismantle these structures of criminality and enthrone competence, character, and capability so that talents and ideas can flourish.”
Speaking on how he intends to cope with possibly having a National Assembly that may be dominated by other parties, Obi recalled that he went through such experience as Governor of Anambra state when none of the 30 members of the State of Assembly came from his political party, adding that what he needed to navigate such case is to do the right thing, avoid nepotism and transactional policies because even the parliamentarians desire good governance.
Responding to a question on the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and why he has not condemned them, Obi said that for him and many other reasonable Nigerians including Igbos, the Biafra war ended 53 years ago. But he is not oblivious to the agitators’ demands for justice
Obi also said, “we are going to look into the issue of justice and marginalization which some of them are hinging their grievances.
“We are going to apply the carrot and stick in dealing with the agitators. But in the end, there can only be one government and we will be in charge.”
Commenting about his plans to attract investors into Nigeria while answering a question by a former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, Obi likened what he intends to do to attract investors to bee and honey, he will create enabling environment where rule of law thrives and will avoid any transactional policies which breed corruption and weakens governance.
The LP candidate also promised to give security, the attention it deserves because everything will be done to secure the environment and he will do this by first turning the country into production and pulling people out of poverty and adequately utilizing our military.
Obi was quoted as saying, “Our military once secured Africa and they should secure Nigeria and we will provide the needed leadership and political will.”
He equally answered questions on the independence of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying that what is happening in the apex bank now is a consequence of mix up of responsibilities and not necessarily of competence, a situation he assured his administration will correct by ensuring that square pegs are in square holes both in personnel and policies.
Obi explained that the ongoing fiscal rascality in the system will be dismantled and order and discipline injected into the country’s monetary policies.
On how to navigate the so-called ‘big boys’ to be able to see through his beautiful policies if elected, the LP standard bearer said the challenge will be surmounted as there will be no sacred cow.
The former Anambra state Governor also provided answers to questions on education, Health, and debt servicing among others to win consistent applause from the audience.
The statement further said, “ Obi gave an indication of his preparedness for the program when he was offered a seat by the moderator of the program and he respectfully rejected it saying the problem in Nigeria his country is so serious not for sitting down and he stood all through the nearly two hours program.
“Obi-Datti Hobnob news reports that millions of people within and outside the country followed the program via social media and 99% of the comments eulogized the Candidate for his fantastic outing.“
