Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi has pledged to rid Africa’s most populous nation of endemic corruption and widespread insecurity in the event that he wins next month’s election.
During a lecture on Monday January 16 at the Chatham House international affairs think tank in London, Obi, one of 18 candidates vying for Nigeria’s highest post, referred to his nation as “a failing state” in need of fresh political leadership.
According to Obi, a former governor of the state of Anambra in southeastern Nigeria and a candidate for Nigeria’s Labour Party, “Unless we change the politics by changing the political leadership, we are stuck in this terrible state of underdevelopment and misery”.
Polls have shown Obi leading the crowded field ahead of the ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu, and the main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, despite those opponents having higher name recognition.
The vote on February 25 to replace President Muhammadu Buhari after eight years in office has been called a make-or-break exercise by political observers. Other prominent candidates have made commitments similar to Obi’s since the election campaign got underway late last year. While Atiku promised to “save Nigeria,” Tinubu claimed he is seeking to “renew hope.”
Security issues, such as conflicts led by armed groups associated with ISIS/ISIL in the northeast, armed bandits in the northwest, and secessionists in the southeast, observers say, pose a threat to the election.
Obi promised to hold talks with secessionists on Monday and to enact a number of security measures, particularly in the troubled north where armed gangs have killed thousands of people in the past year.
According to him, those modifications would tempt Nigeria’s sizable expatriate populations to consider returning home and aiding development, he said.
“What you have seen is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years, which would be solved by good governance,” he said.
“When people start seeing justice, fairness and inclusive government, all those things will start reversing. Nigerians are prepared to come back if they can find that they have a country to go back to.”
Author-Roberta Appiah
