2023: South East can’t decide for other zones – Peter Obi

.Says women are less corrupt than men

Comfort Ekeleme

The former governor of Anambra State  Mr Peter Obi has said the South-East needs to convince other regions before they can win the country’s presidential seat in 2023.

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, Obi said the South-East cannot take the presidency by force.

He said: “You said the governors, these are the leaders of today in terms of who they are, the Governors’ Forum and then, of course, the parties. This decision will be done by the parties. It is not the question of my view or anybody’s view.

“It is the view of the party, because even if I say ‘oh let it come to the South, if the party zones it to the North, we are not going to walk away from there, if they zone it to the South. It depends on where they want to zone it because these are major parties. They have a lot of members and stakeholders who will sit down at a round table.

“Politics for me is something where you sit down at a round table and discuss and agree with each other. It is not something where Peter can say this is my preference. That is not politics otherwise it becomes another dictatorship. We have to sit down, discuss it and have a convincing argument why it should be here or here or here. Resolve it amicably where every section of Nigeria feels a sense of belonging.”

Women are less corrupt than men – Peter Obi

Former Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, Monday argued that Nigerian women are less corrupt than men.

He equally noted that corruption can easily be fought and scraped in Nigeria.

Speaking when he appeared in a programme on AriseTv, the Vice Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 general elections, extolled women, noting that they are more caring and meticulous in handling issues.

“I have worked with women. They are less corrupt. As far as Nigeria is concerned, women are less corrupt. When I was a chairman of a bank, the key drivers of the bank; Treasurer, etc were women and they were fantastic. As governor, from my chief of staff down to others, those who helped me were women.

“They are more caring, and because they have families, when you talk about education, they are more passionate about it. When you talk about supporting small businesses they are passionate. They can understand it because they are running families.

“We need to involve women more. Ruben, you were in government when Ngozi Okonji-Iweala was begging us to save money. Look at the mess we are in today. Had we listened to that woman, she was crying and said we have 20bn dollars in the excess crude, let’s put it in a sovereign wealth fund. If we had done that, we won’t be where we are today.”

However, when asked if he has the solution to Nigeria’s problem, Obi said: “Our problem is very simple, I always say it. It’s the issue of leadership. If we have a leadership that is visually focused and understands what the problem is, it will be solved.

“We have security issue, issue of law and order, issue of trying to stop all forms of impunity. People will say yes, for me, it’s about the economy. But you can’t talk about the economy without talking about security, law and order, and the removal of all forms of impunity.

Why this is important is because, the greatest contributor to your economy and GDP is the intangible assets, which I just mentioned. If you talk about America, 70 per cent of American GDP contribution is actually intangible assets. Security, law and order and of course I said the removal of all sorts of impunity which we see today, then you deal with the economy itself.

It’s not a sophisticated thing. All we need is to move our economy from consumption to production and that is very simple, it’s not rocket science. Then stop corruption. Corruption again is easy to fight.

However, reacting to corruption, Mr Obi threw his weight behind the former military head of state, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, who opined that the corruption index in the country is worse and more pervasive at the moment than his time in power.

Obi said: “I agree hundred per cent with IBB. Nigeria is far more corrupt now than then. If there is anything that has had consistent growth, probably competing with the world, it’s corruption. You can’t compare what is happening today to the military regime.”

Speaking on Nigeria’s problem cum solution, Obi succinctly said: “What we are passing through is the cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years.

“The problem of Nigeria is leadership. However, it is for Nigerians to ensure that the leadership selection this time should be well organized. They should be able to scrutinize all those who are availing themselves for the leadership. It’s very simple: Where was this person yesterday, what did he do then?

“What we have in Nigeria is not just leadership issue, its integrity issue. We have people who are well sophisticated, well-educated but they are thieves.

“Educational qualification is not a measure of integrity. Ability to speak the queen’s English is not either. We should look for people who have the capacity, integrity, and of course, have the knowledge of what the problem is all about in order to tackle it. We need to look at their records”, he said.