The vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Yemi Osinbajo; and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi, on Friday disagreed on the state of the economy, the subsidy regime and many others.
Also at the debate were candidates of the Alliance for New Nigeria, Mrs. Khadijah Abdullahi-Iya; Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Ganiyu Galadimawa and Young Progressives Party, Mrs Umma Getso.
Here are the top issues the ruling vice president and the opposition’s Vice President candidate biker on.
You cannot shut economy to fight corruption – Peter Obi
The Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has criticised the anti-corruption war of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government, insisting that it killed jobs in the process.
Obi said this at the Vice-Presidential debate organised by the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Elections Debate Group.
He argued that war against graft cannot be a government policy but a means to an end.
The former governor said before the current anti-graft campaign, Nigeria had more jobs and opportunities but the economy took a nosedive when the anti-corruption war started.
READ: Nigeria economy is in bad shape, Buhari tells governors
Obi said, “It is not that you cannot fight corruption but you can fight it more aggressively while addressing economic issues. For example, in 2015, unemployment was 24 percent. Today, it is 40 per cent. In 2015, we attracted $21bn in Foreign Direct Investment but we attracted only $12bn last year. Our GDP was $500bn in 2015 while per capita was $2, 500 today it is under $1, 900.
“If you look at our stock market, we have lost over N2tn in one year. So, that is not a policy. You’re just fighting corruption, you are not creating jobs. You cannot shut down your shop and be chasing criminals.”
You can’t trivialise corruption, Osinbajo tells Obi
The vice-presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, has said the gravity of corruption should not be trivialised.
Osinbajo, who spoke during the ongoing vice-presidential debate at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, was rebutting a comment by his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Peter Obi, who criticised the focus of the current administration on anti-corruption.
Obi had said, “You cannot shut down your shops and be chasing criminals.”
But the APC candidate said, “If you allow criminals to steal all the inventory in the shop, there will be no shop. That’s the problem. And what has happened in Nigeria in the past 16 years is what the World Bank told us; that the major cause of our poverty is corruption.
“That is what we’ve been told. So, let me say there is no way we can minimise. You can’t minimise corruption; if you minimise it, we run the risk of completely — in fact, the argument is lost.
“We cannot do what we want to do unless we are able to minimise corruption or eradicate it completely, which is what we’re trying to do.”
Peter Obi criticize subsidy, says FG spending N5 daily on healthcare per citizen
Mr Peter Obi, has criticised the current government’s dependence on oil subsidy.
Obi, who spoke in the ongoing vice presidential debate at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, said prices would come down if subsidy was done away with.
He said, “What we are subsiding today is inefficiency. If you get it right, the prices still come down. There is no way a country can have a budget of N340bn for health, which translates to N5 a day for (each of) its citizens, and then pay a trillion for subsidy.
“There is no way you can have an education budget, which is the most critical component of the development at over N400bn and you’re paying subsidy of a trillion. It is a waste. You need to reverse it because you’re not dealing with the engine that will drive your economy tomorrow.”
According to Obi, everybody knows that a petroleum-driven economy is a baggage economy.
The PDP candidate added that at a time people were developing a new economy, the current administration was not paying attention.
He said, “Why are you actually subsiding?
Nigeria has one of the lowest car ownerships in the world. It is 10 (cars) per 1,000 (citizens).
“So, we have only two million vehicles and you’re paying almost a trillion when you have 87 million people that are poor. You can’t do that. You need to reverse it and, I can tell you, if you do the right things, the price will come down.
“You are just paying for the delay in importation, the number of time cargos stay in the ports and so on. We can’t continue to pay for inefficiency in this country. I can tell that if you can remove it and do the right things, the price of petroleum will come down.”
Osinbajo blames PDP for poor economy
Osinbajo has blamed the Peoples Democratic Party for Nigeria’s weak economy.
The Vice-President said this at the Vice-Presidential debate organised by the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Elections Debate Group.
He was asked to respond to questions on why Nigeria’s aggregate investment had not risen beyond 16 per cent in the last 10 years unlike South Africa and China.
Osinbajo said, “I think the common denominator between the two countries you mentioned is the strong infrastructure. Our nation in the past 16 years has suffered a major infrastructure deficit. So, we don’t have rails, roads. When we came into power in 2015, power was 4,000MW in 16 years.
“So, you need strong infrastructure. No one can argue about it. The second thing is you cannot have a strong economy if you allow the type of grand corruption that has taken place in Nigeria in the last 16 years.”