Former Governor of Anambra State (2007 to 2014) and the 2019 Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Mr Peter Obi, again on Wednesday said Nigerian federal and 36 States will continue its underdevelopment trajectory until it finds solutions to the wastage of public funds and the high cost of governance within their systems.
Obi told participants of Course 4 of the Strategic Management and Policy Course at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) Abuja that growth and progress will not happen in Nigeria, for as long as we maintain the quantum of wastes in public service.
He told his audience, comprising retired Generals and serving top brass from the Army, Navy, Air Force and other paramilitary organizations that Nigerian leaders must strive to create public wealth, rather than focus on accumulating private wealth when in office.
“Public wealth enriches everybody but private wealth impoverishes the people and the nation,” he said.
Obi posited that the core of Nigeria’s challenges is leadership of its political class, stressing that until our leaders commit to good governance and responsible management of public resources, the right policies will not be put in place to serve public good.
Earlier, the Director General of the NARC, Major General Garba Wahab rtd.) welcomed Obi to the Centre which he is attending the leadership course for the third year in a row, to address the participants on leadership and strategic management issues, explaining the goals of the Centre.
It was immediately after Obi was introduced by the Lead Faculty for the Strategic Management and Policy Course, Dr Okey Ikechukwu, that the former Governor held his audience spellbound with his experiences as Governor of Anambra State and how he managed to get the resources he used in achieving the much he did.
,According to him, “whether we agree or not, failure of leadership is taking a huge toll on us as a nation and it could be worse if we do not put the right and committed people in charge of the affairs of critical sectors. Education, health and provision of basic infrastructure were my main goals and I was able to record success because we planned our programs using a universally certified development formula.”
Obi described as disheartening owing pensioners and going about wasting money on useless social projects stressing that “owing people at the most difficult times when the opportunities are less is the worse thing to do to them.”
He reiterated his repeated public observation that borrowing is not bad in itself when it is for production. But that is becomes bad when it’s for consumption; which is another way of mortgaging the future of the country.
On revenue generation, Obi said that expecting to generate more revenue without doing much to improve on the people’s lives is like expecting to withdraw more money in an account you have not been depositing on.
He pointed out that with less than 40 million out of the eligible 120 million Nigerians gainfully employed, the few working Nigerians are over taxed.
The Director General, in concluding, thanked Obi for always being ever ready to share his thoughts and experiences with the Centre, which in turn enables it to fulfill its mandate of developing high calibre human capital for strategic leadership, national security and holistic national development.
