Inside Nigeria
Peter Obi’s Lamentation: Lunatics Have Taken Over Nigeria’s Political Space
Labour Party, LP, Presidential candidate for the 2023 election, Peter Obi has called on Nigerians to take back the country, insisting that Nigeria’s political space has been taken over by lunatics.
Obi says many politician occupying political space are mere loafers who do not have business being there.
“Seventy per cent of those who are in politics today should not have any reason to be near there,” Obi said on Sunday at the ‘Men of Valour’ conference organised by the Revival House of Glory International Church (RHOGIC), Abuja. “I have said it before and I will say it again, politics in Nigeria is a case where lunatics took over the asylum. They must be out. “You must replace that asylum with people who are competent. This is the only country where the worst is leading; the best should lead. I have served there, I am a trader and I started gradually and entered into politics.”
According to him, some persons in leadership positions who loot public funds are not greedy but “sick”.
“How do you think about one person taking N80 billion? Or $200m? That is sickness. It is not greed. The person is not greedy. Greed is taking N1 billion which he is not entitled to but taking N80 billion is sickness. That is a simple truth. And that’s why I said mad people have taken over,” he said in the programme tagged ‘Navigating the Corridors of Power, the Church, and the Politics’.
He says more competent people should take over governance as that is the only way to reposition the country just as he accused political parties of having no ideology.
He, however, believes that “If we get more young people who have the competence and capacity to be there, they can start developing these things” he said.
Obi dismissed claims that his party does not have the structure to challenge the two main parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“It is about the people. The people have allowed some group of persons to hijack their country,” he said.
“That is why I have said take back your country. It is not theirs. We can’t allow this gangsterism to continue.”