Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) one of the major party that form the All Progressive Congress (APC) while delivering a speech in the British African Diaspora Conference, said that APC is the party that will deliver Nigeria from economic depression. Read full speech as you continue……
He said, “The Central focus of our efforts in the coming years must be the implementation of the most extensive and aggressive plan to lift as many Nigerians out of poverty as possible. Our desire is to be able to move at least 20% of our people out of poverty (defined as earning less than a dollar a day) in the first four years of our administration.”
He said that besides fast-tracking the construction of Independent Power Plants, IPPs, in designated industrial zones, the APC government would also initiate “the construction of Trans- State highways, such as the speed train that will connect the nation’s zones and move people, fuel, farm produce and goods, cost-efficiently across the country.”
“First, we intend to establish a partly contributory National Social Security Scheme. Some categories of the poor and vulnerable will benefit with or without contribution. We believe that every Nigerian above the age of 60 who is not under a pension scheme and also qualifies as poor by a “Means Test” must be given a monthly stipend. Widows and the disabled proved by a “Means Test” to be poor must also be provided a monthly stipend whenever they are unemployed. They become disentitled when they are employed.
“An important component of state intervention to redress poverty is the one meal a day programme for primary and secondary school pupils.
The Federal government through supplemental funding will support States in providing Primary and Secondary school pupils with at least one meal a day.
The immediate twin derivatives of this programme is the design to confront the extremely high incidence of malnutrition and other hunger-induced medical conditions amongst poor children as well as eliminating the recruiting grounds for illegal activities.
Also, the programme will stimulate demand thereby boosting local businesses in poultry, bakery and juice and packing industries. This will employ millions of graduates and non-graduates. Then, we can start to talk truly about the dividends of not just democracy but of impactful leadership.
Lamenting alleged lack of democratic norms in the present leadership, he said: “In Nigeria, the tenets of basic arithmetic have little application concerning elections. Votes do not count, they are concocted. Elections are not necessarily won by the candidate with the highest votes. Elections are won by the candidate of the powerful and mighty. Consequently, a group comprising all the nations’ governors could not even conduct a simple 35-person election without a disputed outcome.
“This little episode would be laughable if it were an isolated incident. However, it is emblematic of a larger, more troubling pattern that portends calamity if not arrested. With this recent experience, I fear the length of those in power would go and the means they would employ to manipulate results when the battleground is the entire nation and the stakes are the general elections in 2015. The NGF debacle symbolizes a disdain for democracy and the popular will. If we are to save Nigeria, we must rescue the electoral process from its abusers.”
He also pledged the APC’s commitment to the introduction of electronic voting which he said has been well accepted and practised in many African countries.
Alleging that the present leadership is retrogressive and serving the country the salad of corruption, he said: “This current Nigerian government is a retrogressive one. Much of what they claim as growth is but the harsh redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top. The bottom gets squeezed while the top expands. They are serving us the salad of corruption. They consume our today and squander the nation’s tomorrow. For 14 years, the PDP-led government cannot turn anything around. A new leadership is required to put a stop to this.
“Our people live in dire straits. But this government would rather waste the money than spend it on the public benefit. They do not believe the people are worth it.
The money is more important. They claim to be hoarding it for that mythical rainy day, when most Nigerians are drowning in poverty. If that is not troubled waters, I don’t know what new calamity will make this government ever recognize the need to build the new bridges needed for the people to cross over into prosperity.
“I have said this before and I shall say it again. These leaders would rather save the money and spend the people. We progressives would rather spend the money to save the people.”
Tinubu said that based on the situation on ground, he and other leaders of the APC would make sacrifice to save the nation.
“It is for this reason- to save the nation from the stranglehold of permanent poverty and poor governance – that the members of the progressive opposition political parties have decided to put aside personal ambition (including my own ambition) to form a new party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. We do this because Nigeria has entered a critical state of economic depression.”
However. the merging parties have failed to announce interim officers as speculated. According to the Spokesperson for the merger committee of the three political parties, Chief Tom Ikimi, told journalists in Abuja that the national chairmen, secretaries and treasurers of the three parties had submitted their letters of intent to merge to INEC and that they were satisfied with the submission of letters of intent to merge and that the request was already pending before the electoral body.
He also said the names of prospective interim leaders were being discussed and that representatives of each merging party and some sections of All Progressive Grand Alliance and the DPP had been mandated to report back to the leaders of their group on the matter. And that “There are no disagreements and we as merging parties are working and we had a fruitful meeting this afternoon and we have made fundamental decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment