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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), has said while owning high educational credentials is not necessary for leadership success, a person must be honest and truthful about his or her qualifications to be a great leader.
The former governor of Anambra State also insisted that fuel subsidy is an organised crime.
Obi argued that one did not need to have the best qualifications to be a leader, but to simply be honest about ones background.
He said: “On the issue of qualification, I never said anything with regard to improving the degree. The issue of qualification is the issue of leaders making statements, doing things that are honest and truthful. This is an issue of honour and integrity. It is the foundation on which you build society.
“If you look at what is happening in Nigeria today, there are so many issues of certification, age, all sorts of falsifications or the others, all over within the leaders. There is no way people can be doing this and be able to do the right things, because that means they are living a falsified life, and that is not good morally.”
The LP standard bearer gave instances of a number of famous world leaders and innovators who went on to accomplish amazing things that altered the world despite having ‘poor’ educational backgrounds, no formal schooling.
“You don’t necessarily need to have all the degrees in the world to be great but you need to be honourable about your past. The world abounds of great people who have a poor past and no education, and that formed part of their greatness.”
On whether he would be willing to work with President Bola Tinubu’s administration to help with nation building, he said: “We are at a point where we are challenging the process, these are part of what makes a nation. The process through which people come into office or assume or achieve anything is far more fundamental than what they do thereafter. It is important people come through the right door and not just jump in through the window.
“As far as I am concerned, again, when it comes to the issue of working, even opposition is part of building the process of having the proper government. What is important is that we challenge the process through which this government came into being, and that challenge is still there.”
He maintained that fuel subsidy is organised crime.
“I have said it repeatedly that it should be removed. For me, the approach would have been, to remove the corruption and criminal side of it and remove the excess demand.
“By doing this, you would have reduced it by 50 per cent. The remaining 50 per cent is what we would have been able to, after consultations with various stakeholders in order to find a way in an organised manner, remove and invest the proceed of the gains of the removal in critical development areas.”
