Labour party’s flag bearer, Peter Obi was on Monday morning received with tumultuous ovation by Nigerian lawyers at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) holding in Lagos.
Obi was one of the presidential candidates for the 2023 elections that addressed the body of lawyers at the conference tagged “Bold Transitions”. Others are Kashim Shettima of APC, Abubakar Atiku of PDP, and Peter Umeadi of APGA.
Displaying the cherished African Traditional culture, Obi left his seat, and went to Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, Peoples’ Democratic Party(PDP) and bowed in greetings to the later, the way a junior brother will greet his senior. This again drew an outstanding applause for both.
All Progressives Congress(APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was conspicuously absent, but he was ably represented by his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
Obi says Nigeria must move from the level of a consumption-driven country to be production-driven. In his words, “next year will not be about tribe, religion, connection or entitlement but about competence, capacity and commitment to deliver. He also promised to focus on security, law and order, human capital investment, education and revamping the power sector.
The APC running mate who is also representing the party’s flag bearer, promised to focus on improving the economy, ecology and assured of providing leadership that will be in tune with reality, who has the capacity to add value to the society.
Shettima said the government of APC Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, will replicate the “wonders” in Borno and Lagos states if elected president in 2023. “Nigerians have the capability to see through the worn-out rhetoric and sophistry of pretentious politicians. Nigerians should follow the man wey know the road. From day one, we will hit the ground running. We’ll promptly address the issue of the economy, ecology, and security; and we have the antecedents. I built some of the best schools in Nigeria. Go to Borno and see wonders; you will never believe that it is a state in a state of war.
In his address, Retired Justice Peter Umeadi, who is the APGA flag bearer urged the electorate to exercise due voter diligence in the 2023 general electioneering process, as a way to strengthen Nigeria’s democratic transitions.
PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar said that he will hand over Federal Government-owned universities to state governments. He said the Federal Government does not have infinite resources.
“The only way is to make sure that you make conducive environment available to both foreign and local investors to participate in our country, whether it is infrastructure, whether it is education, whether it is power,” he said.
“I had an argument with a university professor from Federal University, Lokoja. He said he read in my policy document that I intended to devolve, in other words, to return education to the states. How dare do I do that?
“I said, ‘Mr Professor, do you realise that the first set of our universities belong to the regional governments?’ He said, ‘Yes’. I said who are the successors of the regional government? He said the states. “I said the children you send to America, to England, who own those universities? Mostly the private sector. So, why is it that you think we cannot do it here? We don’t have the money.”
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