2023: Datti and I, will give Nigerians required leadership – Obi

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, declared in Abuja Thursday that he and his running mate, Senator Yusuf Datti Baba – Ahmed, will give Nigerians visionary leadership they deserved if voted into office.

Obi gave the assurance at leadership summit organised by coalition of support groups for his presidential ambition at the International Conference Centre.

He said the basic problem afflicting Nigeria and Nigerians over the decades was the absence of purposeful and visionary leadership or drivers who know the way as far as nationhood and genuine development were concerned.

He lamented that as a result of the lacuna, nobody knows where the country is heading to now but the required bearing and direction, will be provided next year if he and Datti Baba – Ahmed are elected into office.

He pointedly declared that his job in 2023 is to wrest power from those who hold it presently and return it back to the people.

“Our job is to take power from those who have it and give it back to you. We have a country called Nigeria but we don’t have Nigerians. What we want to do is to create Nigerians.

“The only way to create Nigerians is to make people to have hope in Nigeria and the only way they will have faith in Nigeria is that there is hope in Nigerians.

“The only thing that is lacking in this country is leadership. And that is what we intend to provide. We are not trying to do something else. Leadership is what Datti and I want to provide. We are not looking for anything.

“In 2023, we will no longer allow drivers that don’t know where we are going. We will remove that driver. We will not allow him to continue.

“We will put another driver to continue because what we have now, and what is happening in Nigeria is that you don’t know where you are going, the driver doesn’t know where the vehicle is going, so every road leads us there.

“But we don’t want to worry. All we say is that 2023 onwards, we will no longer allow that situation. For now, we will manage it to the end,” he said.

The National Chairman of the Party, Julius Abure, boasted that the party will win the 2023 presidential election.

Abure, who is a former trade union leader, said the party was on a mission to rescue Nigeria.

He said the country was tilting towards collapse as a result of insecurity and a failing economy.

Director – General of Obi/Datti Campaign Organisation, Dr Doyin Okupe, warned that Nigerians would suffer if the country continued on the same path.

He said the party would mobilise to ensure that everyone at the polling stations voted for the Labour Party.

Vice Presidential Candidate of the party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, called for calm ahead of the election.

He cautioned election riggers to “sheath their sword” and allow the voice of the people to prevail.

He said: “We do not take anything from anybody for campaign. We are not looking for money in government. We are looking for how to manage government money by following a serious leader who knows how to create money.

“I am following a leader who has nothing to achieve again in this life except to see a peaceful and prosperous nation.

“It pains me when a uniform staff of a federal government of Nigeria, in broad daylight collects money from ordinary citizens for services not rendered or already paid for by his or her employer . Each time I see it , my heart breaks.”