By Rosemary Ikwuje

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has declared that Nigeria’s money is safer in the hands of a stingy man, who will save and invest it for the future; who will invest it in education, health and other needs of the people.

Addressing a crowd of supporters in Asaba on Tuesday, Obi said: “I know you heard when they said Peter is stingy. We want to use our money for our people.

“This election is about character and people we can trust. Everybody knows the schools I attended. When I was the governor in Anambra, everybody knows what I did, all the works I did. When I left government, everybody knows where I live, go and verify.”

He told the crowd time had come to retire the old order and take back Nigeria for the future.

He said: “If you put my age and Dati’s (my vice) age and divide it by two, we are in our 50s. But the other people, they are in their 70s. You know there is a retirement age. PDP chairman is 70 years, APC chairman is 70 years, while Labour Party chairman is 52 years old. So it is our turn. We will retire them, we will pay them compensation.”

He reiterated his earlier promise that his government would be one for youths and women if elected, saying: “It’s the reason I told you our average age, not this other people we don’t know their age, we don’t know where they were born, we don’t know the schools they attended.”

Obi promised to reactivate Warri Port, complete the East-West Road, which has been on for 24 years.

The vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmad, told the crowd: “Do you know how to know the losers? They have made promises for 24 years, for 16 years, for eight years, and they all failed.

“They cannot face Peter Obi and myself and talk about security, they will hide behind and talk about structure. The structure they used to destroy Nigeria and keep us where we are today.”

National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, said the country is in comatose state, in trouble and nothing is working.

He said: “This is the only opportunity we have to change the narrative of this country. It is not because Peter Obi is running in Labour Party; if I was in PDP and Obi is running in Labour Party, I would have supported him. I am saying so because he has what it takes to change the country.