Why Nigeria isn’t working – Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) has said that human factor is mostly responsible for why things have not been working in Nigeria.

Mr Obi said this when he appeared as a guest on Arise TV programme, The Morning Show, on Wednesday.

He said he has travelled to study some countries who have excelled in their economic policies.

Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and a former chairman of Fidelity Bank, said although the strategies adopted by successful countries were the same with those of Nigeria, the problem with Nigeria’s strategies has been the inability of the country’s leaders to deal with existing “human factor problem”.

“(For instance) it takes you three months to clear goods at Nigerian Ports. To clear goods in Cotonu (Togo), (takes you) two days. The same in Ghana, Ivory Coast. I have actually travelled to Singapore, and other countries because of ports. I studied what works for the ports,” he said.

On how to replicate the same in Nigeria, Mr Obi said the human factor which serves as obstacles to government programmes should be addressed to enable the country move forward.

“It is a human factor problem,” the former governor said.

“What we need to do is to deal with human factor (problem). Everything you are seeing in Nigeria that has not worked, whether it is scanning, is because of the human factor problem. You deal with it decisively,” Mr Obi said.

The LP presidential candidate said when he was the governor of Anambra State, he removed the human factor problem affecting the education sector in the state before the sector recorded positive growths.

“I tell people what we did in education in Anambra State. We moved from 26 to 21 (in ranking). We didn’t change the teachers.

“They were the same teachers and we didn’t hire new people. But when they saw the body language of the leader and that people were being asked to go if they don’t deliver it, they delivered it,” he said.

He said the country is in coma and is yearning for a ‘specialist’ to save it from total collapse.

“This election will not be based on ethnicity or religion. It will be based on Nigerian agenda to save this country, ” he said.

“Nigeria is in coma, and it needs a specialist. And that’s why I am offering (myself) to save its life or it will die,” Mr Obi added.

Subsidy removal

Mr Obi said the LP has not been opposed to the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.

He said Nigerians have been “critical” of the subsidy regime because the Nigerian government has not achieved anything with the initiative.

He said the government could have better utilised the funds being used to sustain the subsidy regime on other projects in the country.

“You have to convince people. People are against removal of subsidy because whenever it is done, they did not see its benefit. We did privatisation, we didn’t see the benefits. What we did is (that) we privatise profits, we socialise nothing,” he said.

Mr Obi expressed worry that Nigeria is not exporting enough products for foreign exchange to service the country’s debt.

The former governor said if elected as president in 2023, his administration would pay more attention to production and exporting to grow the economy and revenue of the country.

“There is no reason Nigeria should not be exporting at least N300 billion worth of products,” he said.

Attack on opponents

The LP presidential candidate said those who attack his opponents on social media are not his supporters.

He said they were people paid by his opponents to vilify people to give him a bad name.

The former governor said he is contesting because of his competence, and that people should vote for him on the basis of his ability to transform the country and not on ethnic and regional sentiments.