Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party, visited his alma mater, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, in Enugu as part of his ongoing national campaign and cautioned against turning over a sick nation to a sick man.
Obi said, "This country is sick and should not be given over to a sick person," during his meeting with the UNN Business School, in an apparent allusion to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ruling APC's presidential candidate. I don't want to imply that someone is ill. We don't want someone who can't stand for 30 minutes because we've been here for more than two hours.
He added that character and trust should be factors to watch for in this recruitment age to prevent throwing our country into even more chaos, highlighting the need to thoroughly investigate the identity of anyone wishing to lead this nation and ensure they have nothing to conceal.
“In the United States during the election, they go for debates, somebody once asked Barack Obama questions that are personal and he answered. But here in Nigeria, somebody wants to contest the election, we don’t know his real age, we don’t know his name, we don’t know the schools he attended. Nobody knows his real identity and he is pushing to lead everybody.”
The former Governor of Anambra State said that what we need for the job of the Nigeria President is character and people we can’t trust.
“My name is Peter Obi, I can say I went to CKC, went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Both the VC today, and the DVC today, are my schoolmates. We came to University the same year and left the same year. The people I went to school, with I can see here today, my seniors and my juniors. How come we now have people who do not have classmates. This is very important”
The LP standard bearer said that everybody shouldn’t have to go to formal education but their record must be straight. “Afe Babalola once told me he never had the opportunity of going to a traditional school. There is nothing wrong with that. There are so many people who have done well in life and never went to traditional school. “
Obi spoke on the issue of corruption, and Nigerians should watch out for a person’s antecedents, not what they claim they will do. “If you said you would fight corruption, let’s go to the road you have passed and see what is remaining there after you left”
He reiterated his earlier position: "this year’s election must be based on competence as it requires physical and mental energy, not a retirement job.”