Nigeria’s poor governance has made us prisoners—Peter Obi tells inmates

• Obi emphasized the impact of these challenges on the people, characterizing their predicament as akin to that of prisoners due to the country’s poor governance
  

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During his visit to the Nigerian Correctional Centre in Onitsha, Anambra State, Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in the 2023 presidential election, expressed his views on Nigeria’s governance.

He highlighted the array of challenges such as insecurity, pervasive poverty, high unemployment rates, corruption, and misuse of power, suggesting that these issues have effectively imprisoned the citizens.

Obi emphasized the impact of these challenges on the people, characterizing their predicament as akin to that of prisoners due to the country’s poor governance.

In a post on X on Sunday, the former Anambra governor said, “In a poorly governed nation like ours, we must understand that we are all prisoners to the different challenges weighing us down, ranging from insecurity, high levels of poverty and unemployment, corruption and abuse of office, etc.”

He said, “I was happy to join our brothers and sisters at the Nigerian Correctional Center, Onitsha, today, for their Thanksgiving Church Service to mark the end of the year 2023. I appreciated God with them, for the gift of life, irrespective of the many challenges faced through the year.

“I thanked the Controller of Nigerian Correctional Service, Anambra State Command, for his efforts in ensuring that the correctional facility functions well. To the inmates, I reminded them that irrespective of their mistakes or reasons for their confinement, there is still a great future ahead of them, if they trust in God, work hard, and become law-abiding.

“I was, however, deeply concerned that such a large number of youths in their productive years are confined in the correctional center where they are largely unproductive.

“Many of the inmates are there as a result of the accumulated leadership failure in our country today. If we had a working society, we would not have such a huge number of our youths in different correctional facilities across the nation.”

“We, the political leaders, must therefore, begin to imbibe the spirit of sacrificial leadership to ensure that we build a progressive and secure nation, where our youths will be productively engaged for the benefit of society. By so doing, we will build the New Nigeria of our dreams,” he added.