Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has issued a stark warning about Nigeria’s current state, likening it to the sinking Titanic, News About Nigeria reports.
Speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Wednesday, Obi criticised Nigerian leaders for ignoring the country’s mounting difficulties.
“The first thing you do as a leader who inherits a difficult situation is to lead by example, and it starts with your own style, your behaviour, your conduct, and how you manage resources,” Obi stated.
“You cannot say that things are difficult when you’re living in conspicuous consumption.”
Peter Obi pointed out the severe housing crisis in Nigeria, noting, “Nigeria today is the country with the highest number of people without homes—over 24 million, yet you’re spending twenty-something billion to build a house for one person.”
Drawing parallels to the Titanic and an airplane facing turbulence, Obi emphasised the need for clear leadership and a plan to navigate through tough times.
“If we’re going to go through problems, this is very simple. You enter a plane, there is bad weather, there’s going to be turbulence. The pilot says, we’re going to go through bad weather, it’s going to take us maybe one hour, two hours because of this weather, and he follows it through,” he explained.
“That is not the time—in that bad weather, everybody, even the crew, are asked to sit down. That’s not the time to start serving food and wine and everything when everything is up and down.”
Obi expressed concern that Nigerian leaders are oblivious to the country’s decline, much like the passengers on the upper deck of the Titanic, who continued to dance as the ship sank.
“We should change and do things rightly. We can change and manage corruption and everything and all that.”
When asked about solutions, Obi said there is a need for leaders to adopt a lifestyle reflective of the country’s hardships.
“You start by living like somebody who is coming through difficulty, who is facing difficulty, who wants to change things. That’s how we do it,” he said.
“You don’t engage in what we’ve been doing—buying vehicles, partying, and everything—as if things are normal when you say there is difficulty. You need to deal with the issue of cutting the cost of governance; that’s where you start. You need to deal with the issue of massive corruption.”
Reflecting on his own experience, Obi said, “I’ve served in a system where I came in and found that things are bad, and we started by cutting the cost of governance. The role of a leader is not to remind people of the past mention the past or think about the past. Your role is to show the path by doing things that are right. Change starts from you, by you if you decide to walk the right path, that’s how it starts.”
