Felix Morka is the Nationwide Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC). On this interview, he speaks on the New Yr message of the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and the implication of the message on President Bola Tinubu’s administration, amongst different concern, ANAYO EZUGWU writes
You described the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, as a prophet of doom. What precisely did he say that isn’t proper in his assertion?
A complete lot of what Obi mentioned in his press convention have been simply unsuitable, completely misled, and virtually deliberately deceptive, attempting to get Nigerians to imagine what isn’t.
Now, I’m certain that even those that are listening to Obi, will disagree considerably along with his evaluation of the state of the nation. Now, no matter sector chances are you’ll want to take a look at, the nation is rebounding in important measure.
There’s no query about that. Sure, issues have been tough initially, however the roughness didn’t begin with this administration. The reform that Obi was talking about was initiated to appropriate and radically reposition Nigeria for prosperity.
When this authorities got here in, issues have been simply not proper however the president took a really onerous take a look at the state of affairs and determined to enunciate very daring insurance policies to radically rework our financial life. Now, 18 months later, we’re seeing the outcomes of that. So, proper now, I feel the dialog shouldn’t be about whether or not or not these choices have been proper or unsuitable.
We ought to be what’s now the plain rising influence of those insurance policies. And they’re pointing within the constructive course. So. when Obi says that every thing is worse right this moment than it was yesterday, I disagree. And I feel many Nigerians will disagree with Obi as a result of that’s not an correct evaluation.
He accused the President of not tying a lot of the borrowings to particular tasks and investments, and suggested that the President ought to keep extra at dwelling in 2025. Shouldn’t that be a few of the requirements that the APC ought to be setting, if certainly issues are getting higher?
The President was elected to manipulate. Governing consists of interacting with different international locations of the world, particularly this President, who has made it a core goal to mobilize investments into Nigeria. You don’t merely do this by sitting in Aso Rock and hoping that the world will come to you.
We dwell in an age the place competitors for world assets may be very fierce. Each nation on the earth is in search of the identical funding that Nigeria is in search of.
You don’t count on the President, who has launched an bold challenge of financial transformation, to take a seat put in Aso Rock, in order that Obi might be completely happy, whereas others are busy shuttling round attempting to present cause to traders and different international locations to make Nigeria an funding vacation spot.
This president, greater than any president within the historical past of our nation, has laboured and has garnered commitments, a few of that are starting now to trickle in, for large funding that can assist rework all the sectors of our nationwide life.
So, Obi can sit and easily simply, you recognize, I imply, localize his considering, and since he’s not the president, he can prescribe, like a backseat driver, how greatest to drive a automobile, however he’s not the president. And this president has the mandate to manipulate, and Mr. Obi isn’t going to dictate to him how he governs.
All I’m saying is that we will quibble with particulars and quibble with these little issues, however we should take a look at the massive image and see the place this President is headed. Now, take a look at what’s going on. Go searching you. Is it the refineries? Is it agriculture? Farmers have by no means had it so good, getting a good worth for his or her labour.
I imply, in my district of Delta, those that know me, come to me to say, look, you could thank Mr. President for us as a result of my yam farm is producing yield and revenue that far exceeds what I’ve gotten in years mixed prior to now. So, whereas the individuals who, you recognize, take heed to Obi are screaming, the true Nigerians who’re within the productive sectors who’re producing and promoting their services or products are petering out proper now.
You’ve hit again at Obi with a volley of assaults, calling him a prophet of doom and a voodoo economist. Don’t you suppose that’s a slingshot that has gone past regular politicking?
No. He’s the one throwing that. Obi is taking pictures from the hip. He isn’t, he’s not trying. He’s not aiming. He simply shoots extensively like what we used to see in films again within the day, within the wild-wild-west.
President Tinubu has been in workplace for simply 18 months… So, Obi ought to take a chill capsule and permit this president to do what he couldn’t do in Anambra State
He isn’t being rational. It’s irrational for a person who was governor for eight years, and who left nothing to recollect in Anambra State by means of a legacy or transformation. He served as governor for eight years.
He didn’t have the knowledge or the smarts to vary Anambra State and to make Anambra the beacon instance of governance within the nation.
However then, you recognize, he ran for president in 2023, after which now he didn’t win. He’s sulking quite than getting a perspective and determining what he did to lose, so he can do higher sooner or later.
He thinks that he can carry down the federal government by merely being maliciously misleading. That’s unsuitable. I’m not someone to go on that offensive in that method, however Obi has crossed the road so many instances. And I feel that at this level he has come into him no matter he will get, he must handle it.
If you happen to have been the one who visited an IDP camp and also you noticed the variety of Nigerians nonetheless on the market who couldn’t rejoice Christmas and New Yr of their houses, wouldn’t you are feeling involved?
Don’t overlook my background. I’m a civil rights lawyer. My whole skilled profession has been devoted to working with the poorest of the poor. All the slums in Nigeria, I’ve one thing to do with them and serving to them to barter energy with the federal government.
So, I’m all too conversant in the character and the influence of maximum poverty. That’s been the core of my profession, serving to to do issues proper and get higher offers for people who find themselves in that class, sadly.
Anyplace on the earth, while you go to IDP camps, it’s miserable. It’s not humorous. there’s nothing romantic about IDP camps, as a result of if you find yourself displaced, for no matter cause, whether or not by struggle or by inside strife or by even pure catastrophe, individuals dwell lower than they do ordinarily within the regular course of issues.
So, sure, I can hear Obi when he says, I went there and I used to be depressed and I used to be unhappy. Sure, it’s unhappy however Mr. President is the president of everybody in Nigeria. He’s the president of all people, the wealthy, the poor, the prosperous, and the individuals within the IDP camps.
He’s the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And Mr. President is someone who is understood. I don’t must make that time. He’s universally acclaimed to be a person who’s deeply compassionate, whose stage of empathy is past Obi.
However we haven’t seen President Tinubu visiting an IDP camp or attempting to see how the federal government can work extra utilizing governmental establishments…
I’m not right here to debate the schedule of ministers and even the President as to when they are going to go to the IDP camps.
However what I’m saying is that this authorities is deliberately orchestrating insurance policies and taking actions that in the end will reset the truth for everybody, together with those that sadly discover themselves in IDP camps for no matter cause that they obtained there, whether or not it’s due to flooding or due to terrorism or due to struggle, no matter it’s that has obtained them there.
This President has a worldwide perspective and is mobilizing assets and positioning property to assist deal with all of those circumstances.
The purpose I’m making is that whether or not the president himself has personally visited IDP camps right now, does that imply he gained’t do this? It doesn’t imply that. And I’m not right here to let you know the President goes to go there tomorrow. However I’m simply saying that we will’t at all times take right this moment and suppose that the world ends right this moment.
The world doesn’t finish right this moment. It might finish right this moment from the evaluation that Obi is prepared to make. But it surely doesn’t finish right this moment as a result of the resident has the freedom to go wherever and do issues as he thinks. And he has ministers who work for him. He has different ranges of authority who’re delivering authorities insurance policies and packages to make sure that individuals all over the place, wherever they’re, get to really feel the influence of presidency.
What I’m saying is that Mr Obi’s evaluation is introduced to make it sound as if this President has performed one thing colossal in neglecting people who find themselves within the IDP.
And I’m saying that that’s really ridiculous as a result of President Tinubu has been in workplace for simply 18 months and he’s in workplace for he was elected to serve for 4 years. So, Obi ought to take a chill capsule and permit this president to do what he couldn’t do in Anambra State.
Have a look at refineries, issues, the place is it, it’s insecurity. In each sector you take a look at, you see large pointers of progress. And I do know that the media, once more, it’s comprehensible that generally we focus an excessive amount of on the negatives. However I feel that we have to, right now, start to maneuver away from this deal with simply reporting the tragedies in our nation.
And take a look at the constructive aspect. This can be a new 12 months for crying out loud. Allow us to start to take inventory of the nice issues which might be occurring whereas nonetheless conserving a deal with what’s unsuitable and what must be performed. No person, the president isn’t saying to all people cease telling me about what must be performed. Sure, we have to do this.
However we have to additionally take inventory in order that we will start to see what we’re doing proper after which replicate that. After which what we’re not doing proper to start to see how we will repair it. That’s what governance does all over the place on the earth, not simply in our nation, however all over the place on the earth.
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