Chukwu David 
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, yesterday, assured that he would move the country from consuming to producing nation, if elected as the next president in 2023. Obi, who spoke at the Labour Party and Coalition for Peter Obi leadership Summit in Abuja, berated the present crop of leaders in Nigeria, saying that neither they nor the people knew where the country was heading. He said that in 2023, Nigerians would no longer allow “drivers that don’t know where we are going” to lead the country, promising to return power back to the citizens.
The summit had in attendancecoalitiongroupsworking for the presidential bid of the former Anambra State governor. Obi said that his jobin2023wouldbe to wrestle power from those who hold it presently and return it to the people. His words: “Our job is to take power from those who have it and give it back to you. We have a country called Nigeria, but we don’t have Nigerians. What we want to do is to create Nigerians. The only way to create Nigerians is to make people to have hope in Nigeria; and the only way they will have faith in Nigeria is that there is hope in Nigerians.
“The only thing that is lackinginthiscountryisleadership. And that is what we intend to provide. We are not trying to do something else. Leadership is what Datti and I want to provide. We are not looking for anything. “In 2023, we will no longer allow drivers that don’t know where we are going. We will remove that driver. We will not allow him to continue. We will put another driver to continue because what we have now, and what is happening in Nigeria is that you don’tknowwhereyouaregoing, the driver doesn’t know where the vehicle is going, so every road leads us there. “But we don’twantto worry. All we say is that from 2023 onwards, we will no longer allow that situation. For now, wewillmanageittotheend.” He also pledged to return the country to production, saying, “All we want to do is to move this country from consumption to production.”
The National Chairman of the Party, Julius Abure, in his remarks, boasted that the party was on a mission to rescue Nigeria. The former trade union leader said that the country was tilting towards collapse as a result of insecurity and a failing economy. The Director-General of Obi/Datti Campaign Organisation, Dr Doyin Okupe, warnedthatNigerianswould suffer if the country continued on the same path, assuring that the party would mobilise to ensure that everyone at the polling stations voted for the Labour Party. Vice presidential candidate of the party, Datti Baba- Ahmed, calledforcalm ahead of the election, warning election riggers to “sheath their sword” and allow the voice of the people to prevail come 2023. Baba-Ahmed said: “We do not take anything from anybody for campaign.
We are not looking for money in government. We are looking for how to manage government money by following a serious leader who knows how to create money. I am following a leader who has nothing to achieve again in this life except to see a peaceful and prosperous nation. “It pains me when a uniformed staff of a Federal Government of Nigeria, in broad daylight will collect money. Each time I see it, my heartbreaks. Thatsimilaract is as bad as a $20 billion scandal, and it happens every day. We are going to end it. We are going to change it.”
