. . . Says too much public fund being wasted

Governor of Anambra State 2007 to 2014 and the 2019 Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Obi, has reiterated his popular thesis that the Nigerian State will go nowhere in development until it finds solutions the wastage of public funds and the high cost of governance at all levels.

Obi repeated this on Wednesday while addressing Participants of Course 4 of the Strategic Management and Policy Course at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Abuja. He told his audience, comprising retired Generals and serving top officers from the Army, various security agencies and paramilitary organisations, that growth and progress will not happen in Nigeria for as long as the country maintains the quantum of waste in the public service.

He said that Nigerian leaders must strive to create public wealth, rather than focus on accumulating private wealth when in office. “Public wealth enriches everybody, but private wealth impoverishes the people and the nation,” Obi said.

According to him, the core of Nigeria’s challenges is leadership of its political class. He stressed that until Nigeria’s leaders commit to good governance and responsible management of public resources, the right policies will not be put in place to serve public good.

Obi, immediately after he was introduced by the Lead Faculty for the Strategic Management and Policy Course, Dr Okey Ikechukwu, held his audience spellbound with his experiences as governor and how he managed to get the resources he used in achieving the much he did, saying: “Whether we agree or not, failure of leadership is taking a huge toll on us as a nation and it could be worse if we do not put the right and committed people in charge of the affairs of critical sectors. Education, health and provision of basic infrastructure were my main goals and I was able to record success because we planned our programs using a universally certified development formula.”

Obi described as disheartening owing pensioners and going about wasting money on useless social projects, stressing that “owing people at the most difficult times when the opportunities are less is the worst thing to do to them.”

He reiterated his repeated public observation that borrowing is not bad in itself when it is for production, but that is becomes bad when it is for consumption; “which is another way of mortgaging the future of the country.”

On revenue generation, Obi said that expecting to generate more revenue without doing much to improve on the people’s lives is like expecting to withdraw more money in an account into which one has not been depositing. He pointed out that less than 40 million, out of the eligible 120 million Nigerians gainfully employed. Even then, the few working Nigerians are over taxed, Obi lamented.

Earlier in the programme, the Director General of NARC, Maj.-Gen. Garba Wahab (Rtd.), had welcomed Obi to the Centre for the third year in a row, to address Participants on leadership and strategic management issues. He explained the goals of NARC, as well as the Centre’s reason for occasionally bringing in distinguished technocrats to interact with Course Participants.

The NARC Director General thanked Obi for always being ever ready to share his thoughts and experiences with the Centre, in the latter’s endeavour to fulfill its mandate of developing high calibre human capital for strategic leadership, national security and holistic national development.

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