TheCable

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), says he would rather die than fail his supporters.

Speaking on Monday at the Editors Forum, an initiative of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Obi said he is determined not to fail members of the Obidient movement.

The LP presidential candidate said the right leadership would rid the country of its challenges and change it from a consumer to a producer nation.

“I am determined not to fail them. I would rather die than fail them. I am going to serve them,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“We are going to involve women and youths if I have the opportunity to serve because that 50 percent of our population must come into productive use.

“We cannot have that number of people living in poverty and not have criminality, banditry and so on.

“We must remove sharing formula and replace it with the production formula. The hope of this country is the vast uncultivated land, not that oil we are seeing.

“My commitment is to put Nigeria into production. It is not acceptable that we cannot feed ourselves. We must get the country to work. All it requires is the leadership that understands and can drive the process. I can do that.”

On campaign funding, Obi said contrary to insinuations, no one else is funding his campaign.

“I cannot be talking about being transparent about managing public money without starting with my campaign,” he said.

“I do not pay people to work with me. Nobody will say he is funding Peter Obi’s campaign. I am funding it myself.

“All those things happening everywhere are just that people believe in our cause and give whatever it is from their little resources.

“I am encouraged, and I assure them that they are doing it for the right cause and I will never disappoint them.”

Commenting on Nigeria’s debt profile, Obi said there is nothing wrong with borrowing.

“Every nation borrows, individual businesses borrow all over the world,” he said.

“What is important is what we use the borrowed money to do. If you borrow for consumption, that is where we have a problem.

“I won’t say I will not borrow but I will only borrow for investment and I will explain to Nigerians the need for the borrowing.”