- Says He’ll Loosen The Grip Of Bad Political Structure On Nigeria
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi has said if elected president he would quell secessionist agitations coming from various quarters in the country by not shutting the doors of communication against agitators.
Obi while speaking to his manifesto at the Chatham House, London, United Kingdom ahead of the February 25 presidential election, said he will provide a listening ear to genuine agitations from groups clamouring for self determination.
The New Diplomat reports members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a violent separatist group have been in a long-drawn battle with the Federal government of Nigeria over their call for a Biafra nation in the South-east. In the Southwest, secessionists are yet to back down on their demand for a separate Oodua nation amid the years-long violence by islamist’s attacks in northern Nigeria.
To address the multi-pronged unrests, Obi said that he would revamp the already impoverished Nigeria’s economy, fight insecurity and corruption as a path to lasting peace in the country.
According to him, when the country is functioning, there will not be call for secession.
The former Anambra State governor also said he would ensure social justice is enthroned in order to discourage social unrest and criminality.
Obi said, “I condemn all agitators. But in condemning them, you have to look at why all these agitators are all over the place including IPOB, the Yoruba Nation.
“The ethnic tension you see today is a result of injustice, unfairness, exclusion and marginalization; immediately we start reversing that, they (ethnic tensions) start going down. This is what I tell you about agitations, as long as we start doing the right things, as soon as we start building an inclusive society where people’s talent and hard work will match up their opportunities, you will start seeing those things go down. There is tension even in the western world. We will show compassion; we will show love,” Obi added.
Speaking further, Obi said he will declare war against power mongers in the country if elected president in the forthcoming February election.
He said the country has been held in captivity for too long, adding it is time to break the powers of the elites who have continued to hold Nigerians into ransom.
He continued, “You have heard them say we don’t have structure, that structure is the one that has dismantled Nigeria. We will destroy that structure of criminality, I assure you of it.
“The Nigerian state is captive to an elite gang-up and a rental political economy that concentrate power in the hands of those who came to power and influence mainly through their own contrivances and influence, rather than the affirmation of the people and therefore do not have the incentive to serve the people.
“Even after exploiting the ethnic and religious cleavages, sentiments to ascend to political power, the very people on whose sentiments they grab power often become the primary victims of such political fraud that has rendered Nigeria a failing state with worsening leadership crisis.”
