Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, his running mate, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, and the party have made public the official campaign manifesto for the 2023 general elections.
Obi published the 72-page manifesto titled, ‘It's POssible: Our Pact with Nigerians’ on his Twitter account in a post saying, “I have the honor to present our 72-page Manifesto, titled, ‘It's POssible: Our Pact with Nigerians.’ This Manifesto, its overarching and visionary policy planks, lay out our mission focus and mandate for securing, uniting, and making Nigeria productive.”
The document, a colorful blend of pictures, graphs, and texts, contains a detailed expression of Obi and Baba-Ahmed’s commitment and pledge to Nigerians and a breakdown of how they intend to fulfill their promises if elected to perform the country’s top job.
The duo speaks of an inclusive and diversified government where women, children, youths, the aged, and persons living with disabilities have an unfettered voice in governance. They also assured Nigerians that they would improve access to finance, particularly for MSMEs, youths, and women.
A shift to production and export, an aggressive fight against corruption, reduced cost of government, improved security, application of scientific and technological innovations, world-class infrastructure, quality healthcare, and protecting the rights of Nigerian abroad are also top priorities for the candidate and vice.
In the manifesto, Obi and Baba-Ahmed said they want to stop the deterioration and redirect the country to prosperity and sustainable development, thereby ending extreme poverty and state collapse.
Also, in a section of the text labeled, The Context, they gave details of the nation's state and said Nigeria's problem is that it is captured by elites who show no commitment to development.
It reads, “Now is the time for a new beginning. There is a strong determination of Nigerians, especially the youths, to create a new future for themselves, a future of prosperity, safety, and freedom. The Obi-Baba-Ahmed team is committed to this mission.
“We want to heal Nigeria. But to solve a problem, you must understand its pathology. To heal Nigeria, we need a good diagnosis of its problems. The problem with Nigeria is elite capture. Nigeria has been captured by an elite that has shown no commitment to development. The result is that in spite of trillions of naira from oil revenue and abundant human and natural endowments, the country has remained poor and unstable.
“This failure of development and political stability has worsened since the return of democracy in 1999. Although we made modest gains from 1999 to 2015, the culture of corruption, highlighted by the plundering of state resources and insensitivity to the suffering of the people, continued to define statecraft and resulted in growth without development.
“Since 2015, the crisis of leadership has worsened to the point that the Nigerian state is now generally described as a failed or failing state. A sizeable portion of Nigeria is under the control of either terrorists, bandits, or insurgents. About 63% of Nigerians (133m) are so poor that they do not have access to basic sanitation, good nutrition, basic education, healthcare, or employment.
“In 2022 alone, 5.1m Nigerians entered into acute poverty, bringing the number of extremely poor Nigerians to about 92m. The World Bank noted in its report on Nigeria that in spite of several social and economic reforms of the government, no single Nigerian was lifted out of poverty, instead, 5 million more Nigerians dropped into poverty. The report notes that this failure has nothing to do with the global health pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war but the failure of policy formulation and administration by the government.”
To remedy the situation, the Obi-Baba-Ahmed team said its commitment is to offer honest and competent leadership to deliver the following seven priorities:
“To secure Nigeria, end banditry and insurgency, and unite our dear nation, to manage our diversity such that no one is left behind.
Shift emphasis from consumption to production by running a production-centered economy that is driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented industrialization.
Restructure the polity through effective legal and institutional reforms to entrench the rule of law, aggressively fight corruption, reduce the cost of governance, and establish an honest and efficient civil service.
Leapfrog Nigeria into the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) through the application of scientific and technological innovations to create a digital economy.
Build expansive and world-class infrastructure for efficient power supply, rail, road and air transportation, and pipeline network through integrated public-private partnerships and entrepreneurial public sector governance.
Enhance the human capital of Nigerian youths for productivity and global competitiveness through investment in world-class scholarship and research, quality healthcare, and entrepreneurship education.
Conduct afro-centric diplomacy that protects the rights of Nigerian citizens abroad and advances the economic interests of Nigerians and Nigerian businesses in a changing world.”
Furthermore, the team promises to uphold the country’s unity and move it toward climate and eco-friendly energy use, among other things, if voted into office come 2023.
“As your President, I, Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, my Vice President, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, and our team pledge to:
• Secure and unite our dear nation, and manage our diversity such that no one is left behind in Nigeria.
• Move Nigeria from consumption to production.
• Embark on comprehensive legal and institutional reforms and practicable restructuring measures to ensure the enthronement of the rule of law and decisively fight all forms of corruption.
• Prioritize Human Capital Development through robust investments in STEM education, health, and infrastructural development, with emphasis on wealth creation, distribution, and sustainable development.
• Engineer the transition of Nigeria from fossil fuel dependency to climate and eco-friendly energy use.
• Pursue holistic poverty eradication with emphasis on agricultural revolution through effective utilization of our vast arable lands, particularly in Northern Nigeria, and erase Nigeria’s categorization as the poverty capital of the world.
• Improve access to finance, particularly to MSMEs, youths, and women, to significantly reduce unemployment and insecurity.
• Ensure that in policy and practice, governance will be made more inclusive, cost-effective, transformative, and less transactional. No more sharing of the national wealth by a few.
• Ensure that our diversity will be leveraged to give women, children, youths, the aged, and persons living with disabilities an unfettered voice in governance and a renewed sense of patriotism and faith in Nigeria.
• Ensure that Nigeria is progressively better governed through legislative, executive, and judicial reforms so that the constitutional separation of powers among the three arms of government is entrenched and the three tiers of government are allowed to function independently and jointly for a more inclusive and sustainable Nigeria,” the Obi-Baba-Ahmed team vowed.
