KOGI STATE: HISTORY, GOVERNANCE AND THE CHALLENGE OF BUILDING A NEW NIGERIA After participating in the inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Council of our party, the NDC, yesterday, I travelled to Kogi State today, 27th October 2026, as part of my ongoing series of town hall meetings across the country. In Lokoja, I paid a courtesy visit to the Maigari of Lokoja, His Royal Highness Dr. Alhaji Ibrahim Gambo Kabir Maikarfi IV. I sincerely thank His Royal Highness for receiving us at such short notice. I informed him of our town hall meeting in Lokoja, after which he graciously took time to share with us some of the history of the city. He told us about the historic Holy Trinity Primary School, which was established in 1865 by the Most Reverend Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther and missionaries of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion. It is regarded as the oldest primary school in Northern Nigeria. He also told us about the historic 'Iron of Liberty' monument. Visiting these historic sites was both enlightening and sobering. The Holy Trinity Primary School reminded me that, 161 years after its establishment, Nigeria still has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. It is concerning that we have not done enough to preserve these legacies or build on the foundations laid by those who came before us. At the 'Iron of Liberty,' I was reminded of the historic collaboration between missionaries and the authorities in the struggle to end the slave trade in Nigeria. My visits to these sites reinforce my comments yesterday about spending all my holidays as President in Nigeria. They also highlight the abundant tourism potential of Kogi State and Nigeria as a whole. From these historic sites, I proceeded to our town hall meeting, organised by our party and candidates, where we had a lengthy and engaging conversation about the contemporary challenges facing our country. During the interaction, we discussed several issues affecting our nation, including corruption, agriculture, tourism in Kogi State, the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company and other important matters. My response was to reiterate our position that endemic, entrenched and institutional corruption remains at the core of many of the challenges confronting Nigeria today and must be decisively addressed. I reiterated my commitment to uniting and securing our country around a common purpose: investing in health and education, strengthening our productive capacity and pulling our people out of pervasive poverty. I concluded my visit by consoling a business owner whose complex was recently gutted by fire. I also visited traders at Kpata Market, where I interacted with them and received first-hand information about the prevailing economic situation, including the rising cost of goods. The traders complained of low patronage due to reduced disposable income among consumers. I thank the large crowd that attended the event for their warm reception and the fruitful interaction we had. My sincere gratitude goes to the organisers of our town hall meeting in Lokoja, our candidates, and all our party members and participants. A New Nigeria is Possible, and Nigeria will be OK. -PO

A NEW AND PRODUCTIVE NIGERIA IS POSSIBLE, AND NIGERIA WILL BE OK Yesterday, 26th of October, our Party, the NDC Campaign council was inaugurated in Abuja. As part of my remarks, I told Nigerians how our richly endowed nation, the giant of Africa, is now the world’s poverty capital. Regrettably, over 140 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor, representing more than 60% of the population. Corruption remains widespread, while insecurity affects every part of our country. Unemployment and inequality are at record levels, and Nigerians face severe and avoidable hardship. Even with the removal of the fuel subsidy and reckless borrowing, with a debt of over ₦165 trillion, there has been little or no corresponding increase in productivity. In the last three years, President Tinubu has foisted on Nigeria a reign of corruption and duplicity, resulting in extreme poverty. Today, President Tinubu has made history as the leader who has created the largest number of poor people in the world. This year, he has made about 16 million Nigerians extremely poor. Just last Saturday, President Tinubu, while launching his re-election campaign in Kaduna, blamed past and opposition leaders for the hunger and poverty that have ravaged Nigerians. What is clear is that President Tinubu does not have the competence, the capacity, the character, compassion or the commitment to solve the problems he created. He lacks the energy and the resolve to get Nigeria out of the current worsening crisis. Under President Tinubu, despite his promise to fix electricity, Nigeria now has the lowest consumption of electricity. Without reliable power, businesses cannot expand efficiently, hospitals cannot provide dependable services, schools struggle to operate effectively, and households face additional financial burdens. We will pursue an electricity reform programme focused on reliability, affordability, investment, and accountability. We will work with relevant federal and state institutions, regulators, operators, and investors to address the weaknesses affecting generation, transmission, and distribution. Under President Tinubu, Nigeria is more divided than ever, more terrorised than ever and more insecure than ever. Under President Tinubu, Nigeria has fallen into a crisis of values, such that our budgets are no longer credible and our laws are forged. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is spared from degradation, not budgets, not laws, not institutions. From our engagements with Nigerians across the country and all segments of society, the message is clear: Nigerians want and deserve a better, more productive nation, one in which good governance is visible, firmly established, effectively practised and embraced as part of our national culture. I, Peter Obi, with my very dear elder brother, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, implore and beckon all of you, committed members of our great party, the NDC, and all Nigerians, to join us in this crusade of rebuilding our dear and most endowed nation, Nigeria. Today, we begin a renewed journey towards a New Nigeria, united by shared purpose, founded on fairness, justice and equity, and committed to productivity, inclusion and development. We envision a nation where government prioritises the security and welfare of its people, good governance prevails, and public officials remain accountable. It will be a law-abiding society of healthy, skilled and educated citizens, where every child attends school and learns to read and write. No Nigerian should live in a displaced-persons camp, and corruption must no longer weaken our institutions or the fabric of our nation. A New Nigeria is our vision. A New Nigeria is our mission. Corruption today has become more pervasive under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s APC-led government. No state institution has been spared, and since 2023, its effects have spread throughout national life.

FROM PARIS TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: NIGERIA’S FUTURE IN FOCUS Following our dialogue at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) office in Paris yesterday, we made a one-hour stop at a Nigerian restaurant, where we met and interacted with fellow Nigerians before departing for Strasbourg. We arrived at 12:15 a.m. today, Tuesday, 20 October. By 9:30 a.m., we were at the European Parliament, where we held a series of constructive meetings with Members of the European Parliament representing various committees. Our engagements continued until 6:00 p.m. Throughout these discussions, I reiterated that Africa is a continent of immense potential, the world’s second-largest continent by both land area and population, richly endowed with natural resources and blessed with a vast, youthful population capable of driving production, innovation and economic transformation. I called for stronger European support for Africa’s development, particularly Nigeria’s, through partnerships that promote good governance, strengthen democratic institutions and protect the integrity of our electoral processes. Africa needs leaders with the vision, competence and integrity to unite our people, confront corruption decisively, tackle insecurity and reduce inequality. These are essential foundations for building prosperous, stable and inclusive societies. Africa must not be seen merely as a continent of needs, but as a continent of opportunities, solutions and possibilities. Nigeria, in particular, has the human and natural resources to play a significant role in global development. Our future must be built on responsible leadership, productive partnerships and a shared commitment to human dignity and prosperity. A better Nigeria is POssible. A New Nigeria is POssible! -PO

Data and Statistics Are Tools for Effective and Good Governance Data and statistics are indispensable tools for effective and good governance. They enable us to assess performance, measure progress, identify challenges, and learn from the experiences of others. Although the next World Statistics Day will be celebrated on 20 October 2030, I have chosen to commemorate it today because it is usually celebrated on 20 October, and to encourage our people to appreciate the importance of statistics in national development. It is globally known that nations grow and develop by learning from others. In Nigeria, we learnt or adopted almost everything about our governance from other nations. While we got our presidential system from the US, other aspects of our socio-economic and governance systems were adopted from the United Kingdom, flowing from our colonial heritage. These include our legal, educational, banking, health, communication and agricultural systems, etc. As individuals, we also recognise that life is a process of learning to improve, develop and grow. That is the natural process through which we all became medical doctors, economists, engineers, bankers, lawyers, mechanics, painters and professionals in other disciplines. Moreover, we always want to learn from comparable experiences and similar people. This is how we interrogate nations with visible progress and achievements that are verifiable through data and statistics, generally referred to as evidence. Good governance principles are anchored on global best practices, which entail acknowledging, borrowing and adopting what works best in other climes. Global best practices are also parameters and benchmarks for comparative politics and performance. The problem with our incompetent and corrupt APC-led government is the confusion of hubris with leadership. This stems from a lack of patriotism and a total absence of commitment to a better Nigeria. This is why the government lacks the required humility, patriotism and disposition to learning and is fixated on governing our richly endowed nation with corrupt, ineffective and reactive policies, which inevitably produce poor and retrogressive outcomes. Verifiable data and facts confirm that Bangladesh is a developing country with a population of about 178 million people. Undisputed and verifiable statistics affirm that Bangladesh achieved significant poverty reduction between 2010 and 2022. This lifted about 34 million people out of poverty and reduced extreme poverty rates from 12.2% to 5.6%. It is not by accident that indexes such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index are sources of evidence on human progress. It is also widely known and confirmed that the significant poverty reduction was achieved through five key pillars: agricultural growth, export-oriented manufacturing, microfinance and NGOs, social safety nets, and human capital and infrastructure. As the above pillars through which Bangladesh significantly reduced poverty are not too difficult to understand, the appropriate thing a patriotic and effective government would have done is to learn humbly and diligently how Nigeria can also significantly reduce its embarrassing and shameful poverty level. Moreover, just as it is in Bangladesh, so it is with the remarkable leadership in Vietnam, Rwanda, Morocco, India and many other developing nations. Unfortunately, the disingenuous, incompetent and corrupt APC government cannot give what it does not have. It is limited in its global worldview, unwilling to learn and deeply consumed by its inclination towards state capture through the corrupt control of our national resources and bad governance. That is why Nigeria, a richly endowed and blessed country, is now classified as the poverty capital of the world, with a poverty rate of about 63% and over 140 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty.