The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi says he plans to invest in the entertainment industry as a way to help combat poverty in Nigeria.
According to a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.
During a live chat with comedian Ayo Makun on Thursday, Obi discussed the rising poverty rates in Nigeria and how his administration, if elected, intends to mitigate the situation.
Obi stated that he plans to use showbiz, as well as sports, to attract investments and create new jobs in the country.
He cited examples of other countries that have used the entertainment industry to improve their economy and reduce poverty rates.
“Nigerians especially young ones – youths, are very entrepreneurial in areas of business, sports, science and technology, entertainment, and sports. And these are the areas we tend to invest. We tend to invest in it because it will help pull people out of poverty,” Obi said.
Obi went on to say that the entertainment industry and sports can also serve as a unifying force for the country. He stated that “It will help in uniting and changing the country. So it’s not just something anybody can do. It is something we have already put, knowing what they have been able to do in the country after country.
He highlighted the example of Brazil, which has used sports to help pull its people out of poverty.
“Ask them today, Brazil has used sports to pull their people out of poverty. Countries have used entertainment to pull people out of poverty and these are some of the things that are uniting the country.
“You can agree with me that the country (Nigeria) doesn’t have too much division in the area of entertainment and area of sports.
“So if we are saying we are going to secure and unite the country, these are areas we’re gonna encourage.
“We have a lot of ways we can use it to create the new Nigeria we are envisaging when we say a new Nigeria is possible. These are areas to tackle. These are areas to create new jobs – areas so many things can happen.”
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