Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has attributed Nigeria’s economic situation, insecurity and rising poverty to poor leadership, insisting that the country possesses abundant human and natural resources to prosper.
Obi spoke at the 50th/15th Biennial Conference of the Methodist Church Nigeria in Ibadan, where he called on church leaders to continue speaking truth to power and praying for responsible leadership.
Addressing delegates, Obi said Nigeria’s greatest challenge was not a shortage of resources but a deficit in competent and accountable leadership.
“There’s nothing wrong with Nigeria. We have enough land to cultivate the food we need. We have enough human capital. The only thing lacking in this country is leadership,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to support leaders who are competent, compassionate and committed to transforming the country from what he described as a consumption-driven economy to one anchored on production.
“We need leaders who are competent, who have capacity, who are compassionate and who are committed to changing Nigeria from consumption and waste to production,” he said.
The former Anambra State governor cited the latest poverty figures released by the World Bank, saying over 105 million Nigerians were living in extreme poverty despite the country’s enormous agricultural potential.
According to him, Nigeria has sufficient arable land to achieve food security but has failed to maximise its resources.
“A country like Bangladesh, produced ten times more rice than Nigeria, ten times! They produced 50 to 60 million tonnes of rice. Yet, the size of Bangladesh, as a whole, is under 150,000 square kilometres.
“That is the size of our two biggest states: Niger State at 76,000, and Borno State at 70.8. Two of them together is the size of Bangladesh.
“And Bangladesh has 170 million people, which means the total population of Bangladesh is over 170 million. And that’s what Bangladesh produced,” Obi said.
He also referenced the vast expanse of the Sambisa Forest, arguing that Nigeria’s security and agricultural challenges reflected governance failures rather than resource limitations.
Obi criticised political leaders for prioritising the misuse of public resources over national development.
“Politicians don’t want to listen. We spend public money, steal public money every day and squander what we have,” he said.
He lamented the decline in Nigeria’s education system, saying public schools had deteriorated despite the country’s history of producing globally respected graduates.
Obi appealed to religious leaders to remain vocal on issues of governance, describing the church as one of the few institutions capable of holding political leaders accountable.
“You are the main voice that can tell us the truth,” he told the clerics, thanking the Methodist Church leadership for consistently speaking out on national issues.
He urged Nigerians to pray for leaders who would govern with honesty, integrity and compassion, while asking political office holders to use public resources solely for the benefit of the people.
“Let our prayer point be that God should touch the hearts of our leaders to use public resources for the public good,” Obi said.
