The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has revealed plans to dialogue with members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, and other agitators in the country if elected in the 2023 presidential election.
Speaking with Daily Trust, Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, said Nigeria does not have more agitations than Brazil and Mexico.
The LP presidential flagbearer stressed that he would use a different approach to quench the agitations in the country.
He said: “I have said it times without number, Nigeria does not have more agitation than Brazil, if you want I will show you countries that have had agitations in the past, whether it is Brazil, Mexico, whether it is this.
“In our South East, it is a simple thing, I will dialogue, I will discuss, it is a democracy, and in a democracy, you govern by consensus. If anybody says he is not happy, you call him and you sit him down and discuss with him.
“People agitate in my house, my wife, my children. If you say to me you have lived with your wife all through and you people have never quarreled, then you are not married. You disagree and settle it – that is agitation.”
“I will govern by listening to the people. I will visit every state in Nigeria. We have a huge land in the North that if properly invested and cultivated, will change Nigeria. The more I pull people out of poverty, the more I reduce agitation, the more I reduce criminality.
“What you are seeing in Nigeria today is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years and all I want to do is to be seen to be that man who changed this country called Nigeria,” he said.
When asked whether he shares the federal government’s position in designating IPOB as a terrorist organisation, he said, “I don’t want to go into that place. I have told you, I will dialogue with anybody, anything they like let them call you, I will meet and we discuss.
“I don’t like the way people were treated during the EndSARS, I will apologise. We must have a country of healing and love; that is what leadership in a democracy is.
“I am going to meet people in the North, I am going to meet people everywhere and say come, let’s be a family.
“I want Nigerians to be proud that they are Nigerians. What we have now is we have a country called Nigeria but we don’t have Nigerians. I want to bring back Nigerians.”
While urging Nigerians to vote for him, he said he is not an Igbo candidate but the most qualified candidate among the 18 flagbearers.
“I am contesting as a Nigerian, I don’t want people to vote for me because I am an Igbo man or because I am from South East because people don’t buy bread cheaper because they are from that zone.
“I don’t want anybody to vote for me because I am a Christian; I don’t want them to vote because it is my turn, it is not inheritance.
“It is the turn of Nigerians to take back their country. I want them to vote for me because of character and competence, I have the capacity, I have the commitment, I am qualified,” he said.