Peter Obi, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Friday met with Cross Rivers State PDP delegates, assuring to fix Nigeria if elected president.
At a meeting in Calabar, the state capital, Obi also promised to replace the sharing formula of monthly allocation with a production formula if he succeeded in his presidential ambition.
According to the former Anambra State governor, everybody must be productive for the nation to survive.
He said, “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.”
Noting that borrowing as a nation was not wrong as the largest economies in the world such as America were also in debt, he however, decried the situation Nigeria keep borrowing for consumption.
Obi said, “The consequences of borrowing for consumption today is that Nigeria is spending over 90 per cent of its revenue to service debt without much production to show.
“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.”
Speaking during the meeting, Cross River State PDP Venatius Ikem, said he believed if Obi is elected president, Nigeria would have a turnaround.
“I, however, don’t expect Nigerians to just wish but express their wishes through their support for Peter Obi,” he added.
