The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi on Saturday said Nigeria is more naturally endowed than the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom, but continues to lag behind because it has not built the institutions and leadership culture required for development.
He spoke at the 2025 Leadership Forum Conference in Abuja, themed “Rethinking Leadership: Uniting a Divided People.”
Obi began by declining to read a prepared speech, opting instead for an interactive session. He said leadership must be rooted in continuous learning, and invited participants to ask questions that would shape the direction of the discussion.
Responding to a question on national cohesion, Obi explained that no country begins with a uniform set of values. Nations, he said, function like families, where people with different perspectives coexist through understanding. According to him, Nigeria’s religious and ethnic tensions are symptoms of leadership failure, not inherent national traits. He said identity politics thrives because incompetent leaders use ethnic or religious sentiments when they cannot compete on merit. He recalled urging Nigerians not to vote for him based on his ethnicity or faith, but on competence and character.
Obi linked the country’s governance challenges to its weak human development outcomes. Nigeria’s life expectancy of about 54 years, he noted, places it among the lowest in the world and reflects chronic underinvestment in health care. He criticized the poor treatment of medical professionals and academics, contrasting it with the remuneration of professors abroad who, he said, earn higher salaries than state governors. In Nigeria, he observed, professors earn around ₦400,000 even as political officeholders control budgets running into hundreds of millions. He added that Nigeria has now overtaken India in infant mortality, making childbirth and early childhood more dangerous than in many comparable countries.
The former governor identified education as the core foundation of national development. He argued that countries progress by nurturing talent and creating opportunities, citing Elon Musk’s decision to leave South Africa for the United States as an example of how environments shape potential. He said Nigeria has historically prioritized physical infrastructure over human development and noted that while Bombay College of Technology and Yaba College of Technology were established around the same period, India invested consistently in its institutions while Nigeria did not.
Obi maintained that Nigeria is naturally better positioned than several advanced economies, with superior weather, fertile land, and abundant mineral resources. The difference, he said, is that countries like the U.S. and UK developed strong institutions, while Nigeria failed to build the systems needed to convert resources into national prosperity. He warned that decisions being made today, including Eurobond borrowings maturing in 2048 and above will directly affect the youth, who will bear the cost of repayment.
Encouraging young Nigerians, Obi urged them not to lose hope. He said graduates should take opportunities anywhere in the world but must remain committed to contributing to Nigeria’s progress. “Your future is tied to the decisions we make today,” he said.
Obi also emphasized that law, order, and the rule of law are the intangible assets that drive economic growth in developed countries. He argued that Nigeria’s transformation depends on leadership that respects institutions and upholds judicial independence.
