Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has unveiled her manifesto and advised Nigerians to shun promises that are not “economically sensible.”
She specifically faulted the proposed economic policies of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, describing it as “deceit.”
Ezekwesili, who also unveiled her running mate, Abdulganiyu Galadima, on Wednesday in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital, listed areas that would be given priority if she emerged as the President of Nigeria.
“PDP is making promises that are not economically sensible. I looked at what the PDP candidate is promising, and I realise that most of what he is promising don’t make any economic sense. So please do not be deceived,” she added.
Among the areas she listed were security, economy, health, education, and poverty reduction.
The ACPN presidential candidate assured that frantic efforts would be made to increase the current 52-year life expectancy in the country to equal Singapore’s 85 years life expectancy.
She said, “To achieve this, we have to improve people’s health condition and human security. In a way, everything that we will do to improve business opportunities for everyone, where we were targeting higher productivity and competitiveness of Nigerian economy, will lead to improved income level for Nigerians.
“When you have better income level, you will be able to afford basic things of life. We will focus on improving our health system. Our health system today discriminates between wealthy and poor.
“The poor do not have access to quality healthcare. Our ACPN manifesto focuses on universalising access to national health insurance scheme for Nigerians, and we are emphasising on improving maternal and child related issues to ensure that we are not above Africa average in infant, child and maternal mortality. That will go towards improving life expectancy.”
In a bid to reduce illiteracy, she said her party would revolutionise the knowledge industry as the next source of prosperity for Nigeria instead of oil and gas.
Ezekwesili said that present life expectancy in the country was unacceptable, adding that the nation had what it takes to equal Singapore’s 85-year life expectancy.
On education and security, she said, “We want to make sure that human capital is the new economy and that education is the new oil. If we aregoing to achieve that, we must keep our people alive. This means that everything that has to do with their security will matter to us.
“We will not be the government that slacks in her responsibility and watches on helplessly while invaders take over our territory and kill our people with no consequences. It will not happen under my time as commander in chief of Armed Forces.”
To tackle the power challenge in the country, she noted that similar intelligence used in the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in tackling challenges in the telecommunication sector would be examined.
She added, “Nigeria was ranked 14th most fragile nation in 2017. That means that any little thing can bring the nation down. But we will not allow that; we will work hard to make Nigeria a strong nation again. The Nigerian security architecture and systems will be made to work well during our time so that Nigerians will no longer die cheaply.”
On poverty reduction, the world-rated administrator said, “The ACPN will use workable policies to take at least 80 million Nigerians out of poverty. For instance, China took some 700 million of her population out of poverty at a point in time.”