The Labor Party (LP) presidential candidate said that the human factor plays a big role in the fact that things are not going well in Nigeria.
Mr. Obi appeared as a guest on the Arise TV morning show on Wednesday and said: He said he traveled to study countries that are doing well in economic policies.
Mr Obi, former governor of Anambra State and former chairman of Fidelity Bank, said that the strategies of successful nations were same as that of our country Nigeria, but the problem with Nigeria's strategy is the inability of the national leadership to deal with pressing "human factor problem."
“For example", customs clearance of goods in a Nigerian port takes three months. Whereby It takes just two days to clear in Cotonou (Togo). This is also true for Ghana, Ivory Coast.
Actually, I traveled to Singapore and other countries because of the port. "I'm working on something suitable for this port," he said. As for how Nigeria can emulate this, Obi said the country can only progress if the human factors standing in the way of the country's programs are removed.
“What we need to do is to deal with human factor (problem). Everything you are seeing in Nigeria that has not worked, whether it is scanning, is because of the human factor problem.
Obi said that when he became Governor of Anambra State, he fixed the human factors issues that affected the state's education sector before the sector experienced positive growth.
“I tell people what we did in education in Anambra State. We moved from 26 to 21 (in ranking). We didn’t change the teachers.
“They were the same teachers and we didn’t hire new people. But when they saw the body language of the leader and that people were being asked to go if they don’t deliver it, they delivered it,” he said.
He said the country is in coma and is yearning for a ‘specialist’ to save it from total collapse.
“This election will not be based on ethnicity or religion. It will be based on Nigerian agenda to save this country, ” he said.
“Nigeria is in coma, and it needs a specialist. And that’s why I am offering (myself) to save its life or it will die,” Mr Obi added.
Removal of Subsidy
Mr Obi said the LP has not been opposed to the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.He said Nigerians have been “critical” of the subsidy regime because the Nigerian government has not achieved anything with the initiative.
He said the government could have better utilised the funds being used to sustain the subsidy regime on other projects in the country.
“You have to convince people. People are against removal of subsidy because whenever it is done, they did not see its benefit. We did privatisation, we didn’t see the benefits. What we did is (that) we privatise profits, we socialise nothing,” he said.
Mr Obi expressed worry that Nigeria is not exporting enough products for foreign exchange to service the country’s debt.
The former governor said if elected as president in 2023, his administration would pay more attention to production and exporting to grow the economy and revenue of the country.
“There is no reason Nigeria should not be exporting at least N300 billion worth of products,” he said.
Attacking opponents
The LP presidential candidate said those who attack his opponents on social media are not his supporters.
He said they were people paid by his opponents to vilify people to give him a bad name.
The former governor said he is contesting because of his competence, and that people should vote for him on the basis of his ability to transform the country and not on ethnic and regional sentiments.