A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections, Charles Udeogaranya, has endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, for the 2023 presidency.
In a statement to newsmen, Udeogaranya, who kicked against the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, stated that he believes only a vibrant and tested politician like Obi can genuinely bring development to the North.
According to him, it would be unfortunate if the northern oligarch compel their people again to follow the herd mentality of voting for candidates from the ruling party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
While stating that the APC and PDP have no fresh idea of governance, Udeogaranya counseled that an economy driven by petroleum resources had landed Nigeria in abysmal failure, rising debt burden, state of hopelessness, insecurity, and poverty headquarters of the world.
Meanwhile, Peter Obi, while speaking in Mkar, Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State, said that his desire is to see that the nation’s population becomes an asset and component of production.
He said, “On Nigeria population figure, For me, instead of thinking of how we can regulate the birth rate, we can make that number an economic asset if we want to make the country productive.
“India is 1.2 billion, China 1.4 billion. China is high and we are still low even when we are one of the seventh in terms of high population. But the question is how do we make our population an asset and a component of production?
“In my Interaction with the Synod, because I came on invitation by the Synod to talk to them about the next election which I said is a crucial election. Just like I have said, the release shows that Nigeria is 216 million in population, it is said that 130 million are in poverty and that is what should concern us.”
Speaking on the economy, the presidential candidate expressed the need to reduce the cost of governance in the country and make the country productive.
Peter Obi said: “On the economy, for me, I do not know their reason for redesigning the currency; so, I cannot comment so much about it. But what I have been saying is that Nigeria is not a productive country.
“We must make it productive. If we get it up and running, we will see that things will start changing. We must reduce cost of governance, criminality and corruption within government space.
“There is no government that has eliminated everything but ours is at unacceptable level. We must reduce it to a drastic level. We should put every resource to production and you will see the country change.”
