The Labour Party presidential candidate during the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has described Nigeria and other African countries as criminal enterprises where leaders steal money while the youth and other citizens watch shamelessly.
Obi mentioned this on Monday in a series of posts on X(formerly Twitter), adding that the major impediment to African growth is bad leadership.
“Unfortunately, Africa’s growth and development will continue to appear as an impossible dream if we do not deal with the only challenge facing Africa – leadership failure,” Obi said.
He went on to say that, despite being endowed with vast natural and human resources, Africa as a continent is still struggling to provide a decent standard of living for its people.
He continued, “Africa, as the second largest and second most populous continent in the world, with a population of over 1.4 billion people, is home to a youthful, and dynamic workforce with the largest concentration of working age population of about 1.1 billion people, which when combined with the abundance of huge natural resources ranging from minerals to over 874 million hectares of arable land for for agricultural revolution, positions Africa as a key player in the global economy.”
“This is a point I’ve heard Prof. Lumumba make continuously. Governments in most African nations have become gigantic criminal enterprises where the citizens, especially our youths who have the talent and energy, to lead the world in technology, health, and other areas, have watched their leaders shamelessly convert public wealth that should be used for a greater Africa, turned into private pockets. This criminal style of leadership tradition must be dismantled in order to guarantee the youths a future.
“The fate of Africa is in our hands; especially, in the hands of our youths. We can ignite the long overdue emancipation of the African continent, by adding our voices to the need for change, but more importantly, by committing to ending Africa’s leadership morass.”
Peter Obi has been very vocal against bad leadership in Nigeria and beyond since when he lost his presidential ambition in 2023.
the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election, with Obi coming a distant third.
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, was declared the president-elect after the 70-year-old polled 8,794,726 votes to win the 2023 presidential election.
