Politics
By Kennedy Nnamani
PETER Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party has said that the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, the Yoruba movement and other agitations are due to cumulative leadership failure in the country.
Obi, who was responding to questions during an interactive session at the Chatham House in London on Monday with over 60,000 online participants, debunked accusations that he had never publicly condemned the activities of IPOB.
He recalled his earlier statement that BIAFRA ended 53 years and condemned all agitations.
He added, however, that while condemning the activities of the agitators, there is the need to consider what brought about the agitations in the country.
“I condemn all agitators, but in condemning them you have to look at what brought about these agitations all over the place.
“It is not only IPOB, we have Yoruba Nation movement, we have all sorts.
“When you have created this level of massive poverty where 63 per cent of your population is poor, you are going to create all sorts of problems,” he said.
Obi added that any country with the level of unemployment rate as Nigeria will experience similar agitations.
“I was speaking with the British minister this morning, I said we have about 40 per cent unemployment and we have about 60 per cent youth unemployment; young people in their productive age doing nothing.
“If you have 15 per cent unemployment in Britain today, you are going to have massive agitations; nobody will be able to leave his house.
“So what you are seeing is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years which will be solved by good governance,” he said.
When people start seeing justice, fairness and inclusive government, all those things will start reversing itself.
Obi therefore promised that his government with Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, his running mate, would solve these problems and restore sanity to the general society.
“I will talk and discuss with all agitators, there is nothing wrong with that. I will talk with them,” Obi said.
KN
Tags: Chatham House IPOB Kennedy Nnamani Labour Party Peter Obi Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed
