Ex-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, continued his attacks on the administration of Bola Tinubu on Wednesday saying he has kept to his promise to continue where Muhammadu Buhari stopped.
Throughout the campaign for the 2023 election, Tinubu, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) maintained that he would keep to “the good work of President Buhari.”
But under Buhari, Nigeria began to sink into crises as unemployment worsened. The nation’s currency, the naira began to fall rapidly.
There was pervasive insecurity as kidnapping and terrorist attacks surged. Investors began to leave as well as farmers, worsening unemployment, leading to rapid rise in food and generally commodity prices.
Nigerians began to feel the pinch of what the president called reforms, and lack thereof as the administration tried to stem the tide of the general sorry state of the economy that was only yielding social discontent.
Opposing candidates especially Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sounded notes of warnings that Nigeria must reject continuity and embrace new governing formulas to arrest the situation.
The election which was adjudged the worst in the annals of Nigeria produced Tinubu who immediately began to initiate reforms he considered crucial to solve the socio-economic crisis.
He removed fuel subsidy, floated the naira while embarking on borrowing spree with a budget that has more recurrent expenditure largely on luxury cars, renovations of official quarters and other ostentatious items than the capital component to create jobs.
The economy has worsened, exposing Nigerians to low consumer spending as prices of goods continue to surge, complicating the already poor insecurity situation and raising a likely social uprising.
Obi said he’s not surprised: Tinubu had made the promises and has so far kept them.
Speaking on Arise news night on Wednesday, the day Nigeria celebrated 25 years of unbroken democracy, the former Anambra State Governor said of Tinubu’s one year in office. “I’ve never made comments about one year in office. The reason why is simple. I would say that president Tinubu has kept to his campaign promises.
“Throughout the campaign, he consistently maintained that he will continue from where Buhari stopped and he’s done very well.
“I would say excellent. I’ll give him an excellent pass mark.”
Providing statistics to how poorly Tinubu has performed, Obi said, “Dollar was 460, it’s now 1,500. Fuel was 238, it’s now about 700. Diesel was 844, it’s now 1,415. A bag of rice was 30-35 thousand is now about 80 (thousand).
“A bag of beans was similar, 30-35 (thousand), it’s now about 90 (thousand). Garri was 27-28 (thousand), it’s now 49-50 (thousand).
“A tuber of yam was about 2,700 to 3,000, now it’s about 10,000. Tomato basket was about 40,000, now it’s over 150,000. Electricity that was 66 kilowatts is now over 200 (kw). You can go on and on.
“Our debt, even bread which is the basic thing other countries are subsidising, like Egypt, bread, small medium bread for 450 naira is now 900 naira. The big one was 900, it’s now 1,500.
“Our debt, like I mentioned, was 87 (trillion). By the end of last year, it was actually 97 (trillion), the highest we’ve gone within that short period. Now it’s over 100 trillion.
“In fact, this year alone, the government, through the central Bank of Nigeria, had issued and taken from the system, over 16 trillion naira. You can imagine the interest at almost 20%. It’s about 3.2 trillion after 12 months. Add that last year, a period of nine months, we spent about 5.7 trillion servicing debt interest and payment, so add that. So, overall, we’ve done well.”
He added, “Let’s even go back to the overall economy. By the time he took over last year, we were still the biggest economy in Africa with $477 billion as our GDP, followed by South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. Today, we are number 4. South Africa is number 1 now.
“I think about $373 billion. Egypt is second, $347 billion, followed by Algeria, 266 (billion) and we are now a 252 billion GDP economy.
“It’s even worse when you go to per capita. We are actually 1/4 of per capita of the list of these nations that I mentioned.
“South Africa is over 6,000 per capita, Egypt is 4,000 plus. So is Algeria and then Morocco, which among these is supposed to be the 5th, at 4,210 and we are 1,000 plus. So we actually have gone low. We are coming from a low of per capita of 10,000 plus in 2014.
“Every other thing has headed South. Is it insecurity? It has worsened. Corruption has worsened, adherence to the rule of law has worsened, nepotism is at the highest,” Obi, who had earlier on wednesday said Nigeria was not practising democracy but State capture stated.
I Am Hoping Labour Party Will Merge With ‘Like-Minded people’
Speaking on merger to oust the APC, Obi expressed hope that the Labour Party will enter into a political merger with other “like-minded people” who are willing to take Nigeria out of its current difficulties.
Addressing the increasing rumour concerning merging with the PDP, Obi said, “There’s no deal, but I wish and hope there will be. We need to look for like-minded people who are now committed to saving this country.”
He explained that we (Labour Party) are “trying to put ourselves together and explore all those opportunities,” towards a possible merger and though the party has not started this process officially, they are considering it.
“I want the like minds and those who can see that we are in difficulty to come together and save this country for the future of our children,” he said.
On the crisis in the Labour Party he said, “There’s no toxic division within the Labour Party, that I can tell you. And I’m intervening. When fathers intervene in their family, it is not a public affair. I’m a leader in the Labour Party, and we are talking, and I assure you that whatever is the problem or crisis in the Labour Party is not up to 10% of what is happening in other parties, and we will resolve it and do so amicably.”
Asked if he would leave the party if the crisis continues , Obi said, “We don’t have that type of conflict that you are mentioning, people are just exaggerating what is there.
“I am a faithful member of the Labour Party, I remain there, I am a member of the Labour Party. If for any reason, like I said, if we’re going to move forward and there’s other groups that want to work with us, we’ll work with them.”