Tinubu Govt Should Resign Over Rising Poverty, Insecurity – Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has called on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to resign over rising poverty, insecurity, unemployment and inequality in Nigeria.

Obi said the worsening living conditions of Nigerians and the reversal of previous poverty reduction gains should have compelled the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government to step down if the country is a more organised society.

He made the remarks in a statement posted on his X account on Tuesday to commemorate World Statistics Day, using the occasion to criticise the government’s handling of the country’s economic and social challenges.

The former Anambra State governor further argued that Nigeria could make significant progress by learning from other developing countries that had recorded measurable improvements in poverty reduction and human development.

He cited Bangladesh as an example, noting that the country lifted about 34 million people out of poverty between 2010 and 2022, while its extreme poverty rate fell from 12.2 per cent to 5.6 per cent.

According to Obi, Bangladesh achieved the progress through agricultural growth, export-oriented manufacturing, microfinance initiatives, social safety nets, and investments in human capital and infrastructure.

He maintained that Nigeria could study and adapt these strategies to address its own development challenges rather than continue with policies that, in his assessment, had produced poor results.

Obi also referenced Vietnam, Rwanda, Morocco and India as developing countries whose experiences Nigeria could examine in its pursuit of economic growth and poverty reduction.

He stressed that data and statistics were essential for measuring government performance, identifying policy failures and adopting approaches that had delivered verifiable results elsewhere.

“Good governance principles are anchored on global best practices, which entail acknowledging, borrowing and adopting what works best in other climes,” he said.

The NDC presidential candidate accused the APC-led government of failing to demonstrate the humility and commitment required to learn from successful development models.

He argued that a government’s willingness to evaluate evidence and adopt effective policies was essential to improving the welfare of its citizens.

Obi further claimed that Nigeria had become one of the world’s poorest countries, with an estimated poverty rate of about 63 per cent and more than 140 million people living in multidimensional poverty.

He also expressed concern over a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, which he said indicated that previous gains in poverty reduction in Nigeria appeared to have been reversed.

The former governor questioned why a country with abundant natural and human resources continued to record a growing number of people falling into poverty.

He listed insecurity, unemployment, inequality and corruption among the challenges confronting Nigerians, arguing that reports documenting the country’s worsening conditions should have prompted the government to take responsibility.

“In a more organised society, the recent reports from many international and local organisations on the different dimensions of hardship faced by Nigerians, including poverty, insecurity, inequality, unemployment and corruption, should have compelled the incompetent, corrupt and unpatriotic APC government to resign,” Obi said.

The presidential hopeful also criticised what he described as the government’s unwillingness to learn from international best practices, insisting that effective leadership required continuous assessment and adaptation.

Obi said Nigeria could accelerate its development by studying the experiences of countries that had achieved significant progress and applying relevant lessons to local conditions.

He emphasised the importance of continuous learning in governance, warning that institutions that fail to learn at the pace of change risk falling behind.

“We must learn to learn from others so that we can fuel our leapfrog with what others have done. As an axiom in organisational learning states, unless the rate of learning is greater than or equal to the pace of change, an organisation is becoming a dinosaur,” he concluded.