When asked how to make Nigeria more productive, Peter Obi responded: (Video).
FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE SECTION OF ARISE INTERVIEW WITH PETER OBI @TONYEBARCANISTA POSTED
Rufai: OK, but Mr Peter Obi, it is not as easy as you just said it is. Should I tell you why? Because you have to buy more guns to fight the bandits that don’t make people farm on the farmlands, to fight the bandits that killed 100 farmers in Zababare, to fight the legacy issues of infrastructure that would inhibit production, and a lot of people keep asking, you keep talking about production but as a businessman you used to import a lot into this country, those are some of the things they hold against you. You talk about production but you’re a big net importer into this country. And, how will you solve those legacy issues? That’s why we talked about security.
Peter Obi cuts in…
Peter Obi: Let me tell you, I talked about security, let me tell you, Rufai. I’ve been going around this country. I’ve visited 5 prisons and I can invite you to go to one with me. I sat down with some when I went into a prison, there were 1000 people and I interviewed 100.
Why were you involved in kidnapping?
I have no job!
Why were you involved in cultism?
I have no job!
Why were you involved in kidnapping?
I have no job!
And I said to them, how much were you paid in the last operation? Rufai, you won’t believe it, N30,000, N25,000, N100,000. What this shows is that if these people can have a steady income of N50,000, they won’t be involved in that. The more you pull people out of poverty, I’ve said repeatedly, the more you reduce criminality. We have these things in Brazil. I can show you countries where it has been practised. All these agitations and criminality were all over the place in Brazil until Brazil decided to do what I am telling you now, investing in these people. It means these things I’m going to do is going to reduce this criminality because they will be part of the farmers earning income. Today bandits are taking 8 local Governments in Niger state, I’m telling you if you put money in the farther land of Niger state, you’ll reduce them by 50%. Because they’ve found something they’re doing that’ll give them money. What else do they want?
Rufai cuts in….
Rufai: You talked about Brazil, are you going to do social investment because it is under …..(Inaudible – PO and Rufai were speaking at the same time)
Peter Obi: I might not, I will do a combination of everything. There’s a combination of everything. You’re not going to do one straight thing. It’s a combination of everything that will say, we are going to pull these people out of poverty, because the more we do it, so we deal with those legacy issues. On the issue of what my importation is, let me tell you what I did and I’ll like to refer to Reuben cos I’ve known Reuben for over 30 years. Go and ask anybody what my business is, that is what I even studied. If you go and read what I studied at Harvard, it’s market-to-market management. I’m marketing, I’m a distributor. Go and ask Coca-Cola, they’re in Nigeria, ask other people as at the time I was in business, I was one of their biggest distributors. It’s like seeing Walmart, Walmart today sells goods from Vietnam, India, etc but they don’t manufacture them. My job is not to manufacture, although I invested in manufacturing companies too, my job is distribution so I distribute. When I was doing business, less than a quarter, 25% of what I sell are imported goods, the rest are manufactured goods. It’s a mixture so that when you go into the supermarket, you’ll see local products and others. And, I was productive.
Below is the full interview and transcript from the cut-and-join section TonyeBarcanista posted earlier.
