Ahead of Saturday, February 25 presidential election, the Igbo Lawyers Association of South Africa (ILASA) has endorsed the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
In a statement issued and signed by Attorney Augustine Uchechi Ogbede, the group’s Publicity/Welfare Secretary, ILASA said its support for Obi-Datti ticket was based on competence.
The organisation’s statement read in full below:
“The nation Singapore separated from Malaysia to become an independent and sovereign state on 9 August 1965, interestingly this happened five years after their counterpart Nigeria gained her own independence on 1 October 1960. Today, comparatively speaking, Singapore is 100 times better than Nigeria in all important aspects like Human capital index, quality education, human development index, bigger sea ports, quality health services, deep and faster internet services, higher literacy level, better and modern commuter vehicles , more job opportunities, less poverty level and many more. Within a short while, Singapore has moved from third world to first in less than half a century. It has also earned a reputation as an innovative global city at the heart of Asia that has thrived despite its many constraints. Interestingly, Singapore is a small country with little or no natural resources that ordinarily depended heavily on unfettered trade and healthy relations with the rest of the world to fuel its growth.
Regrettably, the post-colonial Nigeria, even in the midst of plenty enviable endowments of natural resources has only retrogressed in almost all the fronts. Suffice it to say that, the success story of the Asian nation Singapore accords with the saying that “places don’t make people, rather it is the people that make places”. Anna Sewell, amplified this when she said that “It is good people that make places.” The two greatest problems that have stymied and stunted our growth as a nation are ethnic and religious bigotry. Yet according to Myles Monroe of a blessed memory “the long deep search of the human spirit was never for a religion. According to him, no human is searching for religion, rather all humans are searching for the ideal utopian world and the perfect civil society. A just world of equality and fairness, and world community of love and security, and in synopsis, all humans are searching for another world distinct from what we have.” It is the search for the ideal world that has led to the development we are witnessing in the world today. Think about the Asian Giant China, and how fast it is developing even though they have an irreligious government at the Centre.
Shed no presentiment and do not be skeptical about this, every Nigerian, regardless of their ethnic and religious inclinations dreams of this same ideal world where everything works to a near perfection. Having said this, the task ahead for the next president of the most populous black nation in the world is daunting, ranging from replacing oil as mainstay of Nigerian economy, removal of the fraudulent oil subsidy, overhauling of private power sector, managing existential risk climate resilience, keying into the vision of sustainable development goals and many more.
For example, of all the water on Earth, more than 99 percent of Earth’s water is unusable by humans and many other living things. Only about three percent of Earth’s water is freshwater, and out of that only about 1.2 percent can be used as drinking water; the rest is locked up in glaciers, ice caps and permafrost, or buried deep in the ground. This has been the situation from Adam. The problem is that while the accessible freshwater has not increased the number of mouths depending on this available supply of water have increased astronomically. The next president of Nigeria would be aware of his environment and how to make a water conservation plan for sustainable development goal.
Importantly, the next president will be greeted a population of people who have been emasculated by rising poverty, inflation, unemployment and insecurity. It is projected that the current world population of 8 billion is expected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050. Among the ten largest countries in the world, Nigeria is growing the most rapidly. Consequently, the population of Nigeria, currently the world’s 7th largest, is projected to surpass that of the United States and become the third largest country in the world shortly before 2050. From 2017 to 2050, it is expected that half of world’s population growth will be concentrated in just nine countries; India, Nigeria, DRC, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tazania, the USA, Uganda and Indonesia.
Mr. Liu Zhenmin, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said the report offers a roadmap indicating where to target action and interventions. “Many of the fastest growing populations are in the poorest countries, where population growth brings additional challenges in the effort to eradicate poverty, achieve greater equality, combat hunger and malnutrition and strengthen the coverage and quality of health and education systems to ensure that no one is left behind.”
In addition to this, the greatest threat the world has ever faced is climate change. China is currently the largest emitter of carbon dioxide gas in the world, followed by the United States, India, Russia and Japan. While we take cognizance of the fact that the primary source of carbon dioxide is fossil fuels and it is trite that when fossil fuels are burned, they release large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the air. The greenhouse gases trap heat in our atmosphere, causing global warming. The next president of Nigeria would have to stand up to China, the US, India, Russia and Japan by ensuring technology transfer as a way of paying back for recklessly poisoning the rest of the world, with Peter Obi’s frugality and his youthful zeal and energy, those who are poisoning the world would have to pay dearly to stabilize our domestic environment.
We may concede to the fact that the Tinubus and the Atikus of this world have contributed their own quota in nation building and we appreciate them, but this election is not about ‘emi lo kan’ (my turn), it is not about tribe and the desire to make one’s friends rich when one is voted into power, but rather, it is about the survival of the next generation and our children yet unborn. It is crystal clear that the Igbos have been treated as political outcasts since the war ended with the capitulation of the Biafra nation. But times have changed, this is an era of postmodernity, and the current age requires men who are endowed with creative and manipulative skills and techniques that is capable of deconstructing stereotypes as to deliver dividends of democracy to the people of Nigeria as a whole.
Seemingly, it appears that the most viable ticket in this presidential election is Obi/Datti ticket. In the words of Attorney Johnson Ugochukwu Anyiam, who is the President of the [ILASA], “Peter Obi is the only presidential candidate who has been consistent with a message of hope, changing the narrative of sharing the oil money that is constantly and consistently in a state of decline and turning Nigeria from consuming to producing country, this gospel is a fresh gospel of hope to every well-meaning and patriotic Nigerian, which is why his candidacy is simmering and dominating the race to Aso Villa in 2023. Mr Peter Obi’s impeccable character and/or track record is capable of developing the Nigerian nation in the fashion of the Singaporean success story. He would for sure combat crimes and corruption and he would be a President that every Nigerian would be proud of and he would lead the country to the long awaited utopian heights. Obi/Datti Presidency would not be a presidency that would enrich their friends and cronies at the expense of the common man, and that is why, we, the [ILASA] have endorsed them to become the next president and vice president of Nigeria in their respective capacity.”