Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Peter Obi says the government must not shut down the economy while fighting against corruption.
Mr Obi said this at the vice presidential debate organised by the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG).
Arguing that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war is killing jobs, the former Anambra State governor said fighting graft cannot be a government policy but a means to an end.
He said before the All Progressives Congress (APC) came to power in 2015, Nigeria had more jobs and opportunities but the economy took a nosedive when the anti-corruption war started
“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 $520bn in 2015 while per capita was $2, 500 today it is under $1,900.
“If you look at our stock market, it has 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,” Obi said.
Defending the government’s anti-graft policy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said: “if you allow criminals to steal all the inventory in the shop, there will be no shop.”
