APC Unfolds Eight-point Agenda

Muhammadu Buhari

• Wants organisers of first lady’s rally sanctioned 
• Asks presidency to explain why PDP has failed

The All Progressives Congress (APC) will soon unfold to Nigerians its manifesto, which is anchored on an eight-point agenda.

The party, in a statement Sunday, listed its eight-point agenda as the war against corruption, food security, accelerated power supply, integrated transport network, free education, devolution of power, accelerated economic growth, and affordable health care.

Ahead of the release of its manifesto, the party also promised that henceforth it would engage in enunciating development issues that will steer its politics away from meaningless attacks on personalities and attention-diverting tales that has become the pre-occupation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In the statement by its interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also asked the presidency to tell Nigerians why its has defied the electoral law by continuing to campaign for the 2015 elections, adding that last Thursday’s women peace rally hosted by the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, was nothing but a campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of 2015 elections.

It urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sanction the organisers of the rally in Abuja if its ban on early campaign for the 2015 polls is to be taken seriously.

The opposition coalition party, which has engaged the ruling PDP in a war of words over the state of the nation, said yesterday that it would soon be articulating   a summary of how it would rescue Nigeria from PDP’s misrule.

“Our eight cardinal programmes, which we shall be articulating in the days ahead, represent a summary of how we intend to rescue the long-suffering citizens and rescue our nation. These are the war against corruption, food security, accelerated power supply, integrated transport network, free education, devolution of power, accelerated economic growth, and affordable health care.

“Our guiding philosophy will derive its impetus from these seven principles: Belief in, and the fear of God; upholding the rule of law; preserving national unity; pursuit of a just and egalitarian society; building of strong institutions; commitment to social justice and economic progress; and promoting a representative and functional participatory democracy.

“These are the issues we will be enunciating in the days ahead as we steer the politics of our nation away from jejune matters that are at the core of PDP’s misrule to serious issues of relevance that will benefit our people under an APC federal government,” the party said.

The party explained that Nigerians are interested in issues and “not continuous muck-raking about opposition leaders like Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

“For example, Nigerians want to know why the country can still not feed itself after 14 years of endless promises by the PDP; Nigerians want to know why they cannot be protected by their government when the security of lives and property is the raison d'etre of any government,” it added.

It said the reason its leaders had decided to put the national interest above personal considerations was to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of the PDP and a mediocre presidency, both of which have failed the citizenry and dimmed their hopes.

APC challenged the PDP and the president’s image makers to tell Nigerians why the ruling party has failed to lift the country in the 14 years that it has been in the saddle, instead of peddling concocted tales about the opposition.

“Nigerians want to know why over 40 million youths cannot get jobs under a government that gleefully touts a 6 per cent GDP growth rate; Nigerians want to know how 400,000 barrels of oil are being stolen daily and who the thieves are; Nigerians want to know why the country is more divided than ever under the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan; and why corruption has become a bigger monster in the years under the PDP.

“The 2015 elections will be fought on the platform of issues, not meaningless attacks on personalities and attention-diverting tales like how Gen. Buhari wants to stage a comeback or how Asiwaju Tinubu wants to expand his imaginary empire,'' it said.

It faulted some of the achievements attributed to the PDP, saying a party that defies the rules and lies through its teeth could not be trusted with power in a nation where its people are eager for their country to join the comity of developed nations.

For instance, APC said while the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, was busy telling Nigerians that Jonathan had not informed anyone that he would contest in 2015, the first lady mobilised women to take part in what was tagged a “peace rally”, but which in essence was a campaign for   Jonathan ahead of the 2015 presidential poll.

“Defying INEC, this brazen campaign featured women clad in specially-made ‘ankara’ that bore the picture of President Jonathan and reminded one of the disgraceful days of the late despot Mobutu Sese Seko of former Zaire, and the late clownish leader of Uganda, Idi Amin. What a company to keep in the 21st century!

“In what must have ranked as the first of its kind in Nigeria, women drawn from various security agencies - the same that will be expected to provide security for the 2015 elections - were coerced into a march of shame, as organisers of the campaign masquerading as a peace rally, blocked traffic and prevented citizens from earning their daily bread.

“Yet Okupe said his boss has not told anyone he will run, and had the temerity to insult the media by saying they have been taken over by a few people. The good news is that Nigerians are far smarter than their present rulers and therefore cannot be fooled,” APC said.

The party called on INEC to mete out appropriate sanctions to anyone who has violated its ban on early campaigns for the 2015 elections, in view of the first lady’s peace rally.

It added that the sanction was necessary if the commission’s ban on such campaigns is to be taken seriously.