By Phil Okose, OnitshaThe Vice Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in 2019 elections, Mr Peter Obi, weekend stated that no political leader in Nigeria deserved any award of excellence, considering the general failure of the nation in all fronts due to the mismanagement of national resources, selfishness, greed and wickedness of politicians.Speaking at the 44th Biennial National Women Fellowship Conference of the Methodist Church of Nigeria at Umuahia, Obi blamed the many ills that have befallen the nation on accumulated leadership failure, over the years, for which ‘we the politicians are responsible for’.Obi explained that Nigeria has not only remained underdeveloped, but continued to retrogress because the political leaders, overwhelmed by greed and corruption, are not committed to the development of the nation.He maintained that even when a tiny faction deserves accolades, the overall failure of a country like Nigeria, currently on life support, with corruption and looting of public funds witnessed in every sector, outweighs the good ones.Obi urged the people to rise up and condemn the ills of the politicians and hold them accountable for their actions.“Many Nigerian children, about 15 million of them, do not have access to education, but check all the politicians in the country, we have our children schooling in the best schools in the world. We are always quick to run outside the country for our medical needs, while our hospitals in Nigeria are largely dilapidated.We have a country where about 120 million people are supposed to be working, sadly however, only about half of that are employed. The majority of the unemployed people are the youths in their productive age. How can we not have a crisis in such a situation?”, Obi queried.Earlier in her address, the National President of Women Fellowship, Methodist Church of Nigeria, Nneoma Florence N. Uche, revealed their plans for youth empowerment across the six geopolitical zones in the country.She explained that most youths took to drugs and irresponsible lifestyles, due to negligence on the part of society.She mentioned that with the empowerment schemes across the country, they aimed at starting off projects to take the youths off the streetsand engage them in different productive skills.Obi, who made a donation of N3 million to support the projects, said such empowerment initiatives were welcomed and should be encouraged.He said the job of children’s upbringing should not be left for parents alone, but for society in general.Obi stated that any child neglected by society would become a threat to that society in the future and the children abused by any society, would take their revenge on such society in the future.Making another donation of N1.5 million to the Methodist owned Nkechi Colwill Methodist Hospital, Uzuakoli, Obi said he has made it a point of duty to always visit hospitals and support them financially.He said he understood there were always people who needed medical attention in such hospitals but were unable to pay the medical bills and hoped that his contribution would be of immense help to such people.Appreciating Obi for his words of encouragement and financial support, the Prelate, Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence, Dr Samuel Chukwuemeka Kanu Uche, described Obi as the best Governor Nigeria has ever produced. He prayed God to bless Obi’s political aspirations and help him touch more lives positively.
Present at the event was the Methodist Archbishop of Umuahia, Most Rev’d Dr Chibuzor Opoko.
