Former governor of Anambra state and the 2019 vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Obi, has reiterated that the Nigerian state would not achieve development until it finds solutions to the wastage of public funds and the high cost of governance at all levels.
Obi told participants of Course 4 of the Strategic Management and Policy Course, at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja, comprising Retired Generals and serving top brass officers from the Army, other security agencies and paramilitary organisations that growth and progress would not happen in Nigeria as long as the country maintained the quantum of wastes in public service.
He said 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.
According to Obi, 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 in the programme, the Director General of the NARC Maj Gen Garba Wahab retd.) welcomed Obi to the centre for the third year in a roll, to address participants on leadership and strategic management issues.
He explained the goals of NARC, as well as the Centre’s reason for occasionally bringing him to interact with course participants.
Immediately Obi was introduced by the Lead Faculty for the Strategic Management and Policy Course, Dr Okey Ikechukwu, mni, he held his audience spellbound with his experiences as governor and how he managed to get the resources he used in achieving the much he did.
He said, “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 public observation that borrowing is not bad in itself when it is for production. But that it 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 less than 40 million, out of the eligible 120 million Nigerians were gainfully employed.
“Even then, the few working Nigerians are over taxed,” he said.
The Director General, in concluding, thanked Obi for always being ever ready to share his thoughts and experiences with the Centre, in the latter’s endeavour to fulfill its mandate of developing high calibre human capital for strategic leadership, national security and holistic national development.
