By Justina Mboho
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2023 elections has said that Nigeria has the characteristics of a failed state.
He said this at the Nigerian Bar Association’s 62nd annual general conference in Lagos. The 2022 NBA conference, themed “Bold Transitions”, which had in attendance leaders in the areas of justice delivery, technology, the economy, politics, judicial reforms, human rights and the rule of law.
Mr Obi who said Nigeria needed a bold transition from a highly insecure state to a highly secured state noted that the upcoming 2023 election is not about tribe or religion but about character, competence and capacity to deliver.
Speaking on the topic “Democratic Transitions in 21st Century Nigeria: 2023 and Beyond”, Mr Obi said Nigeria has the three biggest characteristics of a failed state.
Obi said, “Nigeria has qualified to be a failed state. We have the two or three biggest characteristics of a failed state. One is when you are no longer in charge of your territory.
“Today, we are among the top terrorised countries in the world; we are among the top kidnapping countries in the world. Banditry has taken over part of the country and Nigerians are being killed.”
Mr Obi noted that Nigeria is currently in a bad state as a result of the effects of bad leadership.
“Nigeria is in a mess. We got here simply because of the accumulative effects of bad leadership.
The coming election is not about tribe or religion but about character and competence. We need a bold transition from a highly insecure state to a highly secured state,” he said.
Speaking further, he said “Out of 200 million Nigerians, 60% is supposed to be working. It should be 120 million Nigerians working, but today, Nigerians that are working are under 60 million.
“We are in a physical mess, total physical mess because of all this.
Between January this year and April, the total revenue of the federal government of Nigeria is N1,630,000,000, 000 but expenditure is N4,720,000,000,000. If you minus this, we have a deficit of N3,100,000,000,000.”
“How did we come here? It is the effect of leadership failure over the years. What are we going to do to come out of this?
“You need to have visionary, articulated, competent leadership.
“The elections we are going to have next year will not be about tribe nor religion, not connections, not entitlements, it must be elections about character, competence, capacity and solutions to deliver.” Mr Obi added.
Presidential candidates of different political parties were invited to speak at NBA Conference on the topic, Democratic Transitions in 21st Century Nigeria: 2023 and Beyond”.
While Mr Obi and Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were present at the event, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Peoples Congress (APC) was represented by his Vice Presidential candidate, Kashim Shetima.
The Keynote Speaker at the event is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning Nigerian writer.
The Conference was designed to address key trends impacting legal services and conferees will be presented with the opportunity to make “Bold Transitions” in reshaping their law practice in line with global evolutionary trends.
The Conference also address the impact of the rapid changes on fundamental socio-political and economic issues.
