Atiku At Editors Forum, Reiterates Commitment To Restructuring, National Unity
By The Evangelist
November 17, 2022
The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhajj Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to restructuring, to facilitate national unity and development.
Abubakar, who made this known during an interactive session with members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), in Lagos on Wednesday, said that before setting out for the presidential race, he sat down to analyse challenges facing the country.
He said that he came out with a five-point development agenda with policy options for the country.
The former vice president said that his broad policy options covered the unity of the country, security, restructuring, economy and education.
On restructuring, Abubakar said that he started advocating restructuring since he was in office.
“I am still going ahead on this because it is something that I believe will bring more unity to this country and give every part of this country the opportunity to develop at its pace and with its own resources.”
Abubakar added that he had assembled a team of constitutional lawyers on issues bordering on restructuring.
“When we have the proposal on legislation, we will put this before the National Assembly,” he said.
He, however, reiterated that amending the constitution required the inputs of the Executive, National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly.
Abubakar explained further that the restructuring would bring about a measure of resource control.
“Of course, when we say devolution of powers, obviously, devolution of powers must go hand in hand with a certain measure of resources control.
“It is the same with revenue sharing,” he said.
The former vice president said that he would address the issue of state police in its restructuring agenda.
On plans and how to unify the country, the candidate said that he intended to form a government of national unity that would bring in members of opposition parties.
He promised to ensure that all geopolitical zones get fair representation in government.
“We need to restore the unity of our country and give each and every part of this country a sense of belonging in our federation,” he said.
On security, the former vice president pledged to double the strength of the police and armed forces and provide more equipment and training,
“By the time we finish this, we would have taken more than one million people out of unemployment,” he said.
Abubakar said there was a need to secure the country first in the face of security challenges .
On blueprint for economic recovery, he said that he intended to continue with the economic policies embarked upon between 1999 and 2007.
He said that the policies allowed liberalisation of the economy to empower the private sector to drive development and job creation.(Next Edition).
