Production Formula Will Replace The Current Sharing Formula – Peter Obi.
By Ebor Cletus Ralph Jr.
The former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi and the Presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), says if voted president of Nigeria, he would replace sharing formula of the monthly allocation with the production formula.
He disclosed this in Calabar when he visited delegates of the PDP preparatory to the forthcoming party’s presidential primary on May 28 and 29.
The soft spoken former governor, said it is important for everybody to be productive if the nation must survive, saying that, other nations in the world are busy producing while Nigeria is busy sharing and consuming
Peter Obi said this is not the time to dance and celebrate as a nation but a time to work and fix the nation that has been badly battered because of “our celebration of the wrong things”.
According to him, “Nigeria is a nation of over 200 million people with about 100 million living in poverty, over 18 million out-of-school children out of which about 10 million are girls.
“We have 35 per cent unemployment rate and if we add underemployment it will rise to over 50 per cent, many of which are youths in their productive age, so we cannot be celebrating,” he said.
The astute economist said there is nothing wrong in borrowing as a nation as the largest economies in the world are also in debt but the problem of Nigeria is that it is borrowing for consumption.
“The consequences of borrowing for consumption today is that Nigeria is spending over 90 per cent of its revenue to service debts without much production to show for it.
“Exporting crude oil has not saved Venezuela or any country. We need to invest in our massive landmass and grow our economy like other nations such as Singapore, Vietnam, and even Morocco have done with tourism,” he maintained.
Concluding, he appealed to the party delegates to place less emphasis on sharing money as many politicians would come to them with money, warning that when it is time to vote they should consider the future of their children
