Politics
I ‘must be President of Nigeria, Peter Obi says
I ‘must be president of Nigeria, Peter Obi says
I’m Not In A Hurry To Be President Of Nigeria, Peter Obi Says The candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, Peter Obi, said that he is not in a hurry to become Nigeria’s president.
Speaking during the unveiling of the book ‘Peter Obi: many voices, one perspective’ in Anambra State, he insisted, however, that he ‘must be president’ of Nigeria in the near future. NewsReport Nigeria gathered.
The Labour Party candidate said that he is not struggling to free Nigeria from bad leadership for the elites alone but for every Nigerian.
The former Anambra State governor said that he is more concerned about the process that brings leaders to office than who the leader is.
“Anyone who thinks I am on transit is wasting his time. Let me tell you, I must be the president of this country. I am sure of that. If it is not today, it must be tomorrow.
“Other people who want to be should come and tell us what they want to do and how to do it. This is my country; I don’t have dual citizenship. If anyone thinks I am going to run away from Nigeria, they are lying.
“I have three engagements in Anambra and Lagos today. I will be speaking in Lagos tonight. We will not leave Nigeria. I am not in a hurry to become president, but I know it must happen.
“For three years, I was in court in Anambra to reclaim my mandate, just to challenge the process. Many people tried to discourage me, but I said even if the entire four-year tenure elapsed for us to prove a point and correct the process, I would be fulfilled.
“My argument is that let’s do what is right. I always tell everyone that I will not give people money to do the wrong thing. I have been the chairman of a committee, the TETFUND committee, and Prof. Yakubu Mahmud was my member. We know ourselves, but since he became INEC chairman, I have never met him. I told him, “You are an umpire; just do what is right.
“If you have the chance to do the right thing and you insist on perpetuating anarchy, then it will consume everybody one day. I insist that we must do the right thing.
“I was at an event yesterday in Abuja, and it was the World Food Organization.” I listened to a report that stated that Nigeria will face intense hunger in the years to come. It is Nigeria that will face hunger, not Peter Obi.
“The report listed Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe as the states that will be worst hit, but those three states put together are five times larger in land mass than Israel, yet Egypt exports food, but Nigeria cannot feed itself.’
On his part, the chairman of the occasion and traditional ruler of Onitsha, Obi Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, expressed hope in his speech that Obi would reclaim his presidential mandate.
“I was still a new traditional ruler many years ago when I was invited to a meeting where some monarchs were trying to settle a matter between the then Anambra governor, Chris Ngige, and Obi over the governorship tussle.
“I was a new traditional ruler, so I was just listening to the conversations. Obi did not attend the meeting, but his representative said Obi sent a message that he was more interested in knowing the truth and ensuring that the process is credible next time, and that he was not willing to back down, even if it meant remaining in court even after the tenure.
“It took him three years, but he was later restored. His representative then said, Obi only wants the truth to be known, even if it happened after the expiration of his tenure. Also, when he was impeached, he told everyone that he would return, and he returned.
“Later, there was an election, and Andy Uba replaced Obi. He called me again and said that these people want to spoil our country. I had also heard that the judgment was to be delivered the next day and that it might be against Peter. He (Obi) called me, and he said he was confident that he would return as governor. I am saying this because this is a man I know very well. Someone called him a man of the moment, but I choose to say that he is a man of destiny.”
