Arise Television’s Morning Show anchor, Rufai Oseni, has criticised the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Peter Obi, describing some of his proposals as “elitist mumbo jumbo” that would not adequately address Nigeria’s challenges.
Oseni said Obi failed to provide sufficient details on how he intended to implement some of the solutions he proposed, particularly his plans to tackle insecurity.
The broadcaster spoke on Friday while reacting to Obi’s recent interview on Arise Television.
According to Oseni, promising to deploy technology and build a proactive military was insufficient without explaining the specific reforms required and the type of military Nigeria needs.
“When you say insecurity, you solve it with technology. What technology are we deploying? What are we doing as regards strategic military mindset? What kind of army do we even want to build?
“I have never heard any presidential candidate come out to tell the kind of army we want in Nigeria.
“Is it a responsive army? Is it a cyber-ready army? Is it a technologically built army?
“Proactive is nebulous. Proactive means you want something that is responsive. How is it going to be proactive? Is it going to be proactive on intelligence? Is it going to be proactive on research? How is it even going to be proactive as regards ammunition being bought?”
Oseni also questioned Obi’s position on fuel subsidy, arguing that reducing petrol prices would require addressing the factors responsible for determining the cost of petroleum products.
He noted that another presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had proposed a production subsidy but said Nigerians were still waiting for details on how the policy would be implemented.
“Secondly, as regards the subsidy, I don’t think Mr. Peter Obi took any position because when you ask how, Atiku has said he will give a production subsidy. We are still waiting for the detail of that.
“But you say, okay, we keep subsidy, we reduce the price. How are we going to reduce the price when the price is being determined largely by the activities of a cartel, and prices are fixed as regards international benchmark?”
The broadcaster further faulted the suggestion that savings from fuel subsidy could be redirected to agriculture, describing the proposal as “elitist mumbo jumbo” because, in his view, it lacked sufficient detail.
“You see, that’s an elitist mumbo jumbo. It doesn’t work.
“Those were the arguments we all made prior to 2023. ‘Oh, subsidised education, subsidise agriculture’. What are you even subsidising, the agricultural value chain?”
Oseni argued that post-harvest losses, rather than a lack of cultivation, remain among the major challenges facing Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
According to him, inadequate storage infrastructure forces farmers to sell their produce quickly to middlemen, who then control supply and influence prices.
“The question is, what is even the problem case for agriculture? The number one problem case for agriculture in this country is post-harvest losses. It’s not that people are not cultivating; they are cultivating.
“But what’s the food chain? Are you able to store what they cultivate?
“The reason why you have an offshoot in price is because there is no storage infrastructure for what they cultivate. Then the middlemen buy it off them because they quickly want to make a quick buck off it, and when the middlemen buy, they hold up the price, and they manipulate the numbers.”
