Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi has lambasted former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari for wasting $500 million.

“Nigeria has borrowed $500 million in the last 20 years. If Nigeria had spent five per cent of the money borrowed so far on entrepreneurs and power generation, the country would compete with advanced countries,” reasoned Mr Obi.

According to him, Nigeria’s greatest setbacks are bad leadership, corruption and poor policy implications.

Mr Obi explained that the Nigerian economy could be boosted with improved electricity supply and good leadership. The former Anambra governor stated this in Owerri on Saturday at the Jamie Pajoel International (JPI) annual leadership conference.

Mr Obi asserted that the nation’s economy could not advance with the current state of poor power supply.

“If Nigeria can generate 20,000 megawatts of power, the country’s economy will transform within a short period of time,” he stressed.

The Labour Party presidential candidate expressed worry that 100 million Nigerians live in poverty despite the nation’s huge resources.

“Our leaders have continued to talk about poor revenue today. We have 100 million Nigerians living in poverty, and yet our leaders have not found a solution to our problems,” Mr Obi lamented. He advised Nigerians to remain steadfast and always be ready to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s growth.

An economist, Pat Utomi, said at the conference that vision and ideas were the key factors to drive the economy.

Mr Utomi noted that any leadership without a clear vision was bound to fail and that Nigerian leaders failed the country due to their poor vision and ideas.

(NAN)