Independence Day: Obi calls for honest reflection, promises productive Nigeria

Politics

ABUJA, Nigeria (NPA) — Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has urged Nigerians to use the country’s 66th Independence Anniversary for honest reflection on the nation’s progress, challenges and direction.

Obi made the call in his Independence Day address titled “Nigeria at 66: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” saying the anniversary should go beyond celebration and provide an opportunity to assess where Nigeria stands and whether the country is moving towards the vision of its founding fathers.

He said every serious nation must continually ask three fundamental questions: Where are we today? Where do we want to be? How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?

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According to Obi, the questions are particularly important given what he described as worsening challenges despite the promises made by the APC-led government in 2023.

He listed poverty, out-of-school children, insecurity, terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, food insecurity, infant and maternal mortality, youth unemployment and underemployment, drug abuse and low life expectancy among the challenges confronting the country.

Obi cited figures which he said showed more than 140 million Nigerians living in poverty and severe hardship, more than 18 million children out of school and more than 35 million young people unemployed or underemployed.

He also claimed that more than 40 million Nigerians could face extreme hunger by the end of 2026, while describing Nigeria as “the worst place to be born” in relation to infant and maternal mortality.

The NDC candidate said the country’s challenges could not be attributed to a lack of resources, arguing that Nigeria’s major problem was the failure to translate its human and natural resources into human development, productivity, security and shared prosperity.

Obi referred to his recent two-day visit to Sokoto State with his running mate, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, where he said they consulted residents on insecurity, out-of-school children, poverty, youth unemployment and drug abuse.

He said their visit to the Internally Displaced Persons camp at Ramin Kura in Sokoto metropolis was particularly troubling, with thousands of women and children, according to him, living in difficult conditions and lacking adequate access to education and basic healthcare.

“These are Nigerians who should be living in their communities, going to school, farming their land, conducting their businesses and contributing to the economy. Instead, they live as displaced persons in their own country,” Obi said.

He described the situation in Ramin Kura as a reflection of hardship experienced in other parts of the country and called for changes in the way Nigeria is governed.

“My message today is not one of despair. It is a message of hope, determination and responsibility. I dare to proclaim with full assurance that a new Nigeria is possible,” he said.

Obi said that, if elected president, he would make governance measurable, accountable and focused on the welfare and productivity of Nigerians, adding that citizens would begin to see what he described as tangible results within the first year of his administration.

He pledged to prioritise security, saying his administration would work to enable farmers to return safely to their farms, children to return to school and businesses to operate without fear.

He also promised to work towards the safe and dignified return of Nigerians displaced by insecurity to their communities.

On the economy, Obi said he would seek to move Nigeria from what he described as a consumption-driven economy to a productive economy focused on job creation, agriculture, manufacturing, human capital development and enterprise.

He identified education, healthcare, security and productive enterprise as priorities, describing them as foundations of a functioning nation.

Obi also pledged to lead by example, saying he would spend his holidays in different parts of Nigeria rather than outside the country if elected president.

“My holidays will be spent in Zamfara State; Borno State; Kwara State; Ebonyi State; Edo State; Ekiti State and other Nigerian States,” he said.

He said the purpose would be to enable him to continue seeing Nigeria, understand the challenges facing citizens and engage directly with Nigerians.

Obi pledged to build what he described as a secure, united and productive Nigeria governed with competence, accountability and justice, where children have access to education, mothers can access healthcare, farmers can return safely to their farms and young people can find opportunities to work and prosper.

He urged Nigerians to demand accountability from those entrusted with public office, saying national development could not be achieved through prayers and promises alone.

“On this sixty-sixth Independence Anniversary, let us look back with gratitude, look around us with honesty, and look forward with courage,” Obi said.

“The Nigeria we desire will not be built by prayers alone, nor by promises alone. It will be built by leadership that understands that public office is a sacred trust, by citizens who demand accountability, and by all of us who refuse to accept failure as our destiny.”

He concluded by calling for the building of what he described as a “new and productive Nigeria” and prayed for God’s blessings on the Federal Republic of Nigeria.