Presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi has asked the people of Ebonyi State to vote for him because he was qualified and not because he is an Igbo man from the Southeast.
Obi during a political summit in Abakaliki on Thursday warned against dividing the South-East and declared that he was seeking votes of the electorate as a Nigerian who is eminently qualified for the presidency.
“Let nobody divide the South East. I don’t want the people of Ebonyi to vote for me because I am from the South East. I don’t want you to vote for me because I am an Igbo person.
“My dear people, I want you to vote for me because I am qualified to be the President of this country. I want you to vote for me because I am the leading candidate,” he said.
Again, the former Anambra State governor said that President Bola Tinubu does not have the competence and energy to lead a modern Nigeria, advising him to go home and rest.
“I want President Tinubu to come to Abakaliki to tell the people what he has done in the past three years. I want him to come to Abakaliki to tell you what he used the money he has been borrowing to do for the past three years.
“I want him to come to Abakaliki to tell Nigerians what he has used their money to do. He said he will not come for a campaign.
“President Tinubu has stayed over 260 days out of Nigeria, yet he cannot spend up to 36 days to go round Nigeria to tell the people what he has been doing for the past three years. We will not do that.
“President Tinubu does not have the competence to run Nigeria. He does not have the energy to run Nigeria. He should pack his things, go home and rest,” Obi said.
Recall that Tinubu had said that he will only campaign in 12 states for the 2027 election because governance requires his attention.
Obi assured Ebonyi people that if elected he would declare an emergency on hunger, insecurity, education, corruption, health, power and other challenges confronting the nation and threatened to jail anyone who embezzled public funds.
“We will declare an emergency on about seven items. Number one is that we must unite Nigeria. We don’t want people to be around Nigeria saying, I am Igbo, I am Yoruba, I am Hausa, I am this, I am that.
“We must unite this country; our pride should not be based on considerations of employment, this or that. We will operate federal character for all the jobs we have. So, we must unite the country.
“We will declare an emergency on the security of lives and property in Nigeria. We will deal with insecurity decisively. Nobody will be in charge; we will be in charge.
“Let me assure you today, if I am President of this country, kids come to school, and somebody takes them into the bush, we will be in the bush with such persons. They will not be there alone; we will be there with those kids. We will defend the country because we are going to equip the security agencies to make sure that our country is safe.
“We will declare an emergency in corruption. I will fight corruption like nobody has fought it before. Public money must be used for public good; nobody will steal our money again. If you do it, you will go to jail, starting with the President.
“We will declare an emergency in the education sector. We have over 18 million children out of school; we must reduce it. We will declare an emergency on hunger. We have vast lands; our farmers must go back to farming, be able to cultivate, give us what we eat and be able to export. We will do that.
“We will declare an emergency in health. We must have functional healthcare in all the political wards of Nigeria. Every ward must have it; we have the resources to do it,” Obi promised.