Obi to fight corruption if elected president
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), says he will fulfil his anti-corruption pledge to Nigerians if elected president.
He spoke in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) African Service published on Tuesday via X.
The former governor of Anambra said former President Muhammadu Buhari could not tackle corruption as he had promised because he was not in charge during his administration.
“He was not in charge. The difference is this: I will be in charge,” Obi said.
The former governor said curbing corruption would begin with ensuring that he and his family were not involved in corrupt practices.
“If you are not stealing, if you are not involved, your wife and family are not involved, you reduce it by 50 percent,” he said.
Obi said ahead of the 2027 election, the opposition coalition should ditch the idea of having one presidential candidate step down for another.
He said the opposition should instead focus on mobilising more voters.
“In the last elections, Sokoto had over 2 million registered voters. Opposition should be talking about how do we get additional 25 million people to come in and vote. We don’t need to step down,” he said.
He added that his position on petrol subsidy removal had not changed, saying corruption was the problem with the policy.
“I have not changed on fuel subsidy. What has changed is that whenever I talk about methodology, people say, ‘Oh, he has changed.’ From day one that I talked about subsidy, I talked about corruption. Corruption is the problem of subsidy,” he said.
Asked if he would bring back the subsidy, Obi replied: “Yes, but not with the corruption associated with it. That’s why I said I will remove the corruption and retain the subsidy.”
Credit: The Cable
