The former Governor of Anambra State and the Deputy Director General of the PDP National Campaign Council, Mr Peter Obi has advised Nigerians in the diaspora to take a critical look at Nigeria and those seeking to be elected in the forth-coming election in the country.
Obi gave the advice on Sunday while speaking to Nigerian communities in Holland and UK.
Insisting that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan remained the best option, Obi maintained that going by his Transformation Agenda and focused leadership, the current president deserves another term to consolidate myriad of reforms he had started in the country.
“When you look at all sectors critically, you will see overwhelming evidence of a President who is focused on bringing back the lost glory of the country. Under him, rail transport that stopped over 30 years ago is back. Besides rehabilitating old, narrow gauges, many standard gauges are under construction in accordance with the 25 years Strategic Railway Plan,” Obi said.
“Today, the Aviation sector has changed a great deal, with 22 remodelled airports as well as five new International Terminals being constructed simultaneously in Abuja, Kano, Portharcourt , Lagos and Enugu. In the area of corruption, the President is focussed on building institutions that will stop the menace by not exposing people to the temptation of corruption.
“With what he has done in fertilizer procurement and distribution, it is working. Going by his strategic agricultural programme, in the next three years, Nigeria will be self-sufficient in rice production and that is even the reason while some countries are against him- the fear that his aggressive agricultural programme if allowed will affect our import of rice.”
Obi also appealed to Nigerians in Holland and UK not to be carried away by the clamour for change, which he described as a mere sloganeering by the opposition without convincing anybody on the dynamics of that change.
“The opposition is playing on the psyche of our people by shouting the need for a change. Let me ask you were there not changes in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and other places? I am sure Nigerians do not deserve such a change,” he said.
“The change we want in Nigeria and the change taking place in all parts of the country cannot come from a 73 year old elder statesman, however morally upright he is acknowledged to be. What people of that age do everywhere is to offer advice to the younger ones that have the capacity and energy to drive the change we clamour for or sustain the change already begun, as is the case with Nigeria.
“The other day, Gov. Fashola said that Lagos needed a younger person to govern because of the stress and strain attendant with governance. If Lagos needed a younger person, what of Nigeria as a country that has the stress and strains of Lagos many times magnified? Even in the Western World, many of their leaders are under 60 years. The USA, for example, has never been governed by a President over 70 years at the start of his tenure.”
Speaking on the security situation in some parts of the country, Obi said that the world as a whole was witnessing security challenges, but assured Nigerians that Jonathan is working round the clock to bring the situation under control. He said the measures he had taken, including massive procurement of arms and ammunition for the military were necessary steps as there are no miracles to that as some people would want Nigerians to believe.
Obi said that the decision to interact with Nigerians in the Diaspora was to explain to them the real issues involved in the coming election as a basis for their interaction with Nigerians everywhere, especially with the people at home.
Commenting on the change of dates for the election by INEC, Obi said that the PDP accepted it because it believed the reasons that informed the shift were genuine. He said that a situation where most states had not achieved 70 percent in the distribution of Permanent Voters’ Cards should worry everybody.
He expressed optimism that the shift will enable more Nigerians to collect their PVCs.
The sessions witnessed many questions that where answered by Obi, who concluded by calling on Nigerians to support Jonathan’s candidacy.
According to him, eight years will assure the South-South that Nigerians have regard and respect for them as the zone that lays the country’s golden egg.
“I call on elders of the country to come together for the good and progress of the country and forge a common front in the support for Jonathan,” Obi said.
“Four more years in the life of a country is not eternity. Moreover, we are talking of four more years that will sustain peace in the country.”
