The presidential candidate of the Labour party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has claimed that Nigerian politicians run ‘’transactional politics” where they go as far as paying youths to insult anyone advocating for a better future for all Nigerians.
The former Anambra State governor made this known while speaking on the topic ‘Politics and Change in Nigeria’ at an event at Johns Hopkins, Washington, DC.
‘’People pay them to cause confusion. As I am here now, go to social media. All those that are being paid N20, 000 or N40, 000 monthly are youths whom you are fighting for their lives because at over 60, I have just few years to go but we can get it right,” he said.
Nigeria’s Failure Caused By Political Leadership
Obi further noted that Nigeria’s failure across all sectors was caused by politicians, adding that, only competent, capable and compassionate political leadership can help Nigeria achieve development.
“The failure of a nation depends largely on its political leadership. Competent, capable and compassionate political leadership, with integrity, will help nations to achieve sustainable growth and development,” he said.
He noted that, unlike Nigeria, grouped along with China, Vietnam and Indonesia, in 1990, on Human Development Index, the three countries have performed better.
“In 1990, the year the measurement of the Human Development Index (HDI) was started, these 3 comparable nations, including Nigeria, were all classified under the medium category of the HDI measurement. 35 years later, 3 of these nations have moved up to the High category of HDI while Nigeria has fallen into the low category.
“Within the same period of 35 years, from 1990 to 2025, the GDP Per Capita of these comparable nations have all improved. As of 1990, while Nigeria had a GDP per capita of $556, China had $317, Indonesia had $578, and Vietnam had only $99. Nigeria, obviously, had higher GDP per capita than China, while Vietnam had less than one-fifth of Nigeria’s per capita. Today, Nigeria’s per capita is about one-fifth of Indonesia’s ($5000) and Vietnam’s (4400) GDP per capita and below one-tenth of China’s (1300) GDP per capita.
“In the area of poverty, Nigeria with about 50 million poor people, had the least number of people in poverty in 1990 than any of the three countries. While China had about 750 million people living in poverty, Indonesia and Vietnam had 85 million and 60 million poor people, respectively. China alone had about 15 times the number of poor people than Nigeria. Today, however, Nigeria has more poor people than these 3 countries combined,” he stated.
The former Governor of Anambra State emphasized the need for Nigerian leaders to prioritize investments in education, health and poverty alleviation.
“The question then is, what exactly did these countries do to be able to achieve the desired growth and development? That is where political leadership comes in. These comparable nations, and indeed other progressive nations, unlike Nigeria, have competent leadership with character, capacity and compassion, committed to prioritizing investment in critical areas of developmental measures; Education, Health, and pulling people out of poverty,” he added.