Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has noted that bad leadership in the country is currently breeding poverty, hunger and insecurity.
He stated this at his presidential campaign rally on Thursday in Bauchi, saying the country only enjoyed justice, peace and fairness through the efforts of former Prime Ministers, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe during their leadership.
Claiming that Nigeria would be different under his leadership, Obi lamented the country’s huge debt burden.
He said, ”whenever I am in Bauchi, it reminds me that there was once a united and peaceful Nigeria, that Nigeria was on the path of greatness from a revered leader from Bauchi and that is Tafawa Balewa.
“Nigeria is breeding poverty, people are poor in Nigeria, people are hungry, people are insecure. All the money that we have borrowed, if we had used it the way Tafawa Balewa used the money he borrowed, Nigeria would have been heaven today.”
The presidential candidate recalled that on June 19, 1974, Tafawa Balewa applied to the World Bank to give him $82 million to build the Kainji Dam to generate power and today, Kainji Dam is still there, it was supposed to generate 750 megawatts, pointing out that the equivalent of that money is supposed to be about $1.250 billion but Nigeria is owing N77 trillion.
If you divide it by the value of what Tafawa Balewa borrowed then, Nigerians would have had 150 Kainji Dams and Nigeria would have been exporting power to other countries today.
The Presidential candidate said he believes that a new Nigeria is possible, where people have jobs, and economic growth, are peaceful and secure.
He advised Nigerian to vote for credible candidates in the forthcoming general elections and not to vote based on ethnicity or religion, as people from all the zones of the country were currently living in hunger.
