By Adedayo Akinwale:
The presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has challenged all young people of voting age to obtain their permanent voter cards (PVCs) and ensure they cast their ballots for qualified, competent, and trustworthy candidates at the local/state and national levels.
Obi made the call yesterday while addressing a press conference in Abakaliki, appealing to all Nigerians, especially the youths, to see the 2023 elections as an opportunity to take back their country and more importantly shun every form of primordial sentiments.
He said without a doubt, the new administration taking office in 2023 would face a plethora of domestic and external challenges provoked by cumulative leadership failures over the years.
He noted that these challenges have threatened national unity, social cohesion, and citizens’ trust in the government and impeded the country’s economic outcomes.
Obi stated: “It is imperative that, as this conference draws closer to the most critical period ahead of the 2023 elections, all young people of voting age obtain their PVCs and make sure they cast their ballots for qualified, competent, and trustworthy candidates at the local/state and national levels.
“Our country is currently one of the most miserable in terms of poverty rate, number of out-of-school children, infant and under-5 mortality rate, life expectancy, and a host of others. All these problems, though difficult, are not unsolvable.”
Obi pointed out that Nigeria is not bereft of good ideas and plans that would move the country forward, however, the institutional weaknesses and lack of political will to implement them are undermining development efforts.
He added that with the right leadership, political will and commitment to addressing these problems, a new Nigeria, where everybody including the most vulnerable and excluded group like youths, women, and children would become the key stakeholders in the decision-making process, is possible.
Obi reiterated his commitment to a purposeful leadership that draws its strength from all Nigerians, particularly the youths, in policy formulation and administration.
He stressed that the overall task of his leadership in 2023 is to streamline governance and ensure that it is responsive, transformative, and effective.
Obi noted: “We will demonstrate that good governance is all about providing the needed services to the people.
“If elected the next president of Nigeria, youths would be the main proponents of my main agenda to transform Nigeria from a consuming nation to a producing nation. The two main components of this agenda are human capital development and finance. Incidentally, the central goal of today’s conference is to improve the quality of human capital.
“Thus, under my leadership, the federal government will prioritise the ability of our educational system to produce the necessary skilled labour force that coincides with the 21st-century labour market demand, alongside providing entrepreneurial education at all levels.”
Obi stressed that given the role of health in reinforcing education in the measure of productivity, he assured that his leadership would pay serious attention to the health system by ensuring that at least 100 million poor Nigerians have access to free medical services through an integrated health insurance scheme.
He said If elected, his government intends to create a professionally managed SME Equity Fund within the first year of office with the goal of promoting the development of at least one value-added industry that would utilize the local raw material supply, be it agricultural or mineral, in every local government in Nigeria.
Obi explained that collaboration with global organizations like UNIDO and Afrexim Bank would ensure that the goods from these local enterprises would be of export grade.
He said the 2023 elections should be based on competence, capacity and commitment to doing the right thing and not on ethnicity/tribe and religion since the high cost of living, insecurity and other problems that are facing Nigerians have no discrimination against ethnicity/tribe and religion.
