Former vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Peter Obi has said that no political leader in Nigeria deserves any award of excellence.

Speaking at the 44th biennial National Women Fellowship Conference of the Methodist Church of Nigeria in Umuahia, Mr Obi blamed the many ills that have befallen the nation on accumulated leadership failure, over the years, for which ‘we the politicians are responsible for.’

Obi explained that Nigeria has not only remained underdeveloped but continued to retrogress because the political leaders, overwhelmed by greed and corruption, are not committed to the development of the nation.

He maintained that even when a tiny faction deserves accolades, the overall failure of a country like Nigeria, currently on life support, with corruption and looting of public funds witnessed in every sector, outweighs the good ones.

Obi urged the people to rise up and condemn the ills of the politicians and hold them accountable for their actions.

“Many Nigerian children, about 15 million of them, do not have access to education, but check all the politicians in the country, we have our children schooling in the best schools in the world.

“We are always quick to run outside the country for our medical needs, while our hospitals in Nigeria are largely dilapidated. We have a country where about 120 million people are supposed to be working, sadly, however, only about half of that are employed. The majority of the unemployed people are youths in their productive age. How can we not have a crisis in such a situation?” Obi queried.

Present at the event was the Methodist Archbishop of Umuahia, Most Rev’d Dr Chibuzor Opoko.