Nigeria an IDP Camp, Says Peter Obi
•Decries incessant attacks on members
•LP gets new campaign DG
Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, yesterday, described Nigeria as an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp due to the standard of living in the country.
Obi, who lamented the continue attacks and killing of its members across the country, stated this at the unveiling of the party’s new Presidential Campaign Council Director General, Balogun Akin Osuntokun in Abuja.
Osuntokun, former Political Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, was appointed the new DG of the Obi-Datti campaign organisation, following the resignation of Dr Doyin Okupe, who was embroiled in a money laundering case recently.
Speaking at the event held in Barcelona Hotel, Obi said: “I have been traveling to various states, people in difficulties, visiting the IDPs. Like I would always say, if Nigerians are in the IDP camps, if they are made to leave their homes and stay in IDP camps, then, Nigeria itself is an IDP camp, because, those are Nigerians that should be among us.
“The purpose of government is to care for the citizens and the first line of the care of citizens are the less privileged. My commitment is that every Nigerian wakes up and feels proud to be a Nigerian.”
Obi, who expressed worries over the current situation in the country, said Nigerians were industrious people looking for “opportunities to work. Nigerian youths are energetic, they are productive and can compete with youths globally but as long as Nigerians are suffering, every Nigerian is suffering.
“You can’t be a rich man in a poor environment. It’s is not de-marketing the country. As long as there is insecurity in the north east and south east, there is insecurity in Nigeria. The highest number of unemployed people and out of school children are in the north. So, Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children and unemployed. It doesn’t matter where they reside in the country and the job of the government is to provide. I would never de-market Nigeria,” he said.
Announcing the new DG, the party’s National President, Julius Abure, said the party regretted Okupe’s resignation but assured that Osuntokun had been appointed based on his vast knowledge and competence to drive the party to victory.
“The resignation of the former DG, Doyin Okupe, was regretted, because we will be losing his wealth of experience, but as a result of the circumstances surrounding his resignation, we didn’t have any choice but to accept the resignation as we said the Obidient movement is centered around integrity, humility and transparency.
“Therefore, in as much as we regret his resignation, we are pleased to announce one of our comrades, also from the same geopolitical zone because we must appreciate the fact that we must employ federal character as enshrined in the constitution and all of that and so, having put all of these into consideration, and having consulted widely, we have come to the inevitable conclusion to replace the DG with Akin Osuntokun.
“We believe that he has the capacity, he has the competence to join us in this campaign and be able to drive it to success,” Abure said, while bemoaning attacks on party members.
His words: “The party, no doubt, has been going through several challenges. There is no gain saying the party has been under serious attacks at various levels, our vehicles are being pulled down, we are being denied venues to do our rallies and all of that.
“We also have situations where some of our party members have been killed in Kaduna we lost our women leader and two other people, we have lost two house of Assembly members in Imo state. We also lost the National vice chairman.”
