The presidential flagbearer of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has promised to invest in the entertainment and creative industry to unite Nigeria and curb poverty if elected president.
Mr Obi is regarded as one of the three strong contenders for the presidential elections set to hold on the 25th of February. Others in the race are Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress.
Mr Obi, a guest at an Instagram live session hosted by a famous comedian, Ayo (AY) Makun Thursday, spoke on his vision for the entertainment industry.
The former governor of Anambra State said that young Nigerians are very entrepreneurial in business, science, technology, entertainment, and sports, which he intends to invest in.
Using examples of how sports can unite a country, Mr Obi said it is essential to invest in the country’s budding entrepreneurs and creatives, as it would help to pull people out of poverty.
‘‘Ask them today; Brazil has used sports to pull their people out of poverty. Countries have used entertainment to pull people out of poverty, and these are some things that unite the country. You can agree that Nigeria doesn’t have too much division in the entertainment and location of sports.
So if we say we will secure and unite the country, we will encourage these areas.
‘‘So if we are saying we will secure and unite the country. These are areas we are going to encourage. It has a lot of ways we can use it to create the new Nigeria we are envisaging when we say a new Nigeria is possible. These are areas to tackle, areas to create new jobs,” he said.
Stemming the ‘Japa’ phenomenon
The former governor noted that there is nothing you can do to reverse people leaving the country except with a well-governed country. This, he said, can be achieved by securing it.
According to him, people cannot continue to live in an insecure environment.
“You can ask people to sit down and die when you are not doing the right thing. They must go where they have to earn a living and everything because they have to live.
“To get them to come back is to reverse that trend to ensure that things are secured, things are working, they have a viable opportunity to earn a living,” Mr Obi stated.
