A former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has warned that the Nigerian economy will collapse soon if the federal government does not take immediate steps to arrest the rot in the system.
He also accused the government of not doing enough to alleviate the sufferings of the people even as he decried the high level of hunger and poverty that Nigerians are passing through.
Mr. Obi gave the warning in an address at the Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo (FUNAI) during the grand-finale and presentation of awards to winners of a creative writing competition.
The event was organised by the university’s chapter of the Creative Writers Association of Nigeria, with the theme “Hope for Africa: The Birth of A New Age.
Mr. Obi who left office in 2014 after serving two terms as governor of the south-east state, urged youth across the country to show more concern to creativity to enable them realize their dreams and warned them to stop emulating the Nigerian leaders.
“Our leaders are doing things wrong, we should not follow them to celebrate what is wrong. What we have in Nigeria is that we are celebrating what is wrong. And I am of the opinion that we should stop celebrating what is wrong and start doing things right so that this country can grow.
“People are hungry and we should join hands together to question our leaders to tell us what is happening in this country and making sure that the right thing are done”.
The former governor urged the government to cut the cost of governance, warning that the country is living on borrowed time.
“Our leaders should cut the cost of governance and show more concern to how to improve the standard of living of all Nigerians.
“All of us, from 1960 when we gained independence, if we had done the right thing from then, it is not the question of PDP or APC. We have lived wrongly, we have done the wrong things and that is why the country is not growing.
“If we don’t do anything now the country will collapse. Nigeria is living on a borrowed money. So, you see things are difficult in Nigeria and we need to change our society so that things will get better,” he added.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Chinedum Nwajiuba, who was represented by Matthew Eduoga, said that the programme was organised to educate the youth on the need to be creative, stressing that the problem of Nigeria was that the leaders do not encourage creativity.
“If you are not creative, you are not going anywhere. The problem of Nigeria today is that we are not creative. We depend so much on imported things,” he noted.
