Mr Peter Obi, presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said that if voted president in 2023, he will replace sharing formula of monthly allocation with production formula.
Obi, an industrialist, said this in Calabar when he visited delegates of the PDP toward the forthcoming party’s presidential primary of May 28 and May 29.
The former governor of Anambra State, said it was important for everybody to be productive if the nation must survive, adding that other nations in the world were busy producing while Nigeria was busy sharing and consuming.
He said it was not a time to dance and celebrate as a nation but a time to work and fix the nation badly battered because of our celebration of the wrong things.
“Nigeria is a nation of over 200 million people with about 100 million living in poverty, over 18 million out of school children out of which about 10 million are girls.
“We have 35 per cent unemployment rate and if we add underemployment, it will rise to over 50 per cent, many of which are youths in their productive age, so we cannot be celebrating,” he said.
The astute economist said there was nothing wrong in borrowing as a nation as the largest economies in the world were also in debt but the problem of Nigeria was that it was borrowing for consumption.
“The consequence of borrowing for consumption today is that Nigeria is spending over 90 per cent of its revenue to service debts without much production to show for it.
“Exporting crude oil has not saved Venezuela or any country, we need to invest in our massive land mass and grow our economy like other nations such as Singapore, Vietnam and even Morocco has done with tourism,” he maintained.
He appealed to the party delegates to place less emphasis on sharing money as many politicians would come to share money but when it was time to vote, they should consider the future of their children.
Responding, Mr Venatius Ikem, Chairman of PDP in Cross River State, said “although things had gone really bad for the nation, we could start repairing for the future by voting right”.
According to him, Obi is the kind of president Nigeria needs because after listening to him, every right thinking person should have a sober reflection on the way forward for Nigeria.
“I believe if you become president, Nigeria will have a turn around.
“I, however, do not expect Nigerians to just wish but express their wishes through their support for Peter Obi,” he noted.
