The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, in Bauchi, on Thursday, showed gesture of respect to the people of the state for their son, the late first Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Belewa who was a unique and great Nigerian patriot.
Obi told the people of Bauchi that each time he visited the state, he could not but remember that this was the home state of a true leader who believed and worked for a united and peaceful Nigeria.
The former Governor of Anambra state recalled how as Prime Minister, Tafawa Belewa, working with another true believer in a great Nigeria from his state, particularly from Onitsha where he lives, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first President of Nigeria, nurtured a United and harmonious country.
Obi said that Nigeria today was not only disunited but was breeding poverty because of the bad leadership over time.
He recalled that, June 17, 1964, Belewa as Prime Minister applied for and got loan of $82m dollars for the construction of the Kainji Dam, money he deployed judiciously and was expected to generate 760 megawatts of power and the project was still there today 59 years after.
“Today, we have borrowed over N77 trillion naira and can hardly account for it and this is responsible for the level of poverty all over the place, North and South,” he said.
He pledged that if voted in he and Datti would build a new and great country of Belewa’s dream.
He proclaimed: “We will always remember Bauchi as the great City where a man who wanted to build a great Nigeria came from.
“It’s in fulfilment of his aspirations that I and Datti are seeking to build a great Nigeria, a secure and United Nigeria where the people will be educated and empowered.”
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