Ahead of 2019 general elections, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has in an interactive session lobbied the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on his plans on power, health, economy and governance in its entirety if he wins.
In a statement issued by Atiku media on Tuesday in Abuja, CAN Director of Mobilization and National Issues who doubles as Methodist Bishop of Ikeja Diocese, Bishop Stephen Adegbite acknowledged that, Atiku history by being the first presidential candidate to honor its invitation.
In two hours interactive session which took place at the, Ecumenical Centre in Abuja on Monday night, the statement also noted that, “Adegbite also observed that Atiku, who up for the two hours duration the program lasted and convincingly addressed all the fears, issues and concerns raised by members of CAN, is an indication of his physical fitness.
It further revealed that, “Issues discussed during the session included how an Atiku government will improve power supply, increase the number of women and youth in governance, whether he was under any influence by foreign concerns to do their bidding, how the challenge of high maternal mortality rate will be addressed, how to grow the economy, put a check on insecurity and how he would stop nepotism in governance.
Continuing, the statement reads: ” On power supply, Atiku said, he would adopt the “captive power strategy” where specific power stations would provide power supply for specific areas adding that the strategy would ensure availability of power supply across the country within his first two years in office. He said that a study has revealed that the adoption of captive power stations will yield greater results than reliance on gas to generate power. He also said that there were companies willing to provide power at affordable rate using the captive power strategy.
On growing insecurity in the country, according to the statement, Atiku said that “the incident would be stemmed by providing jobs for the teeming youths who were idle and willing to be used as instruments of destruction.
“According to him, instead of the present administration providing three million jobs yearly as it promised, a total of 11 million jobs have been lost since the President Muhammadu Buhari came into office in 2015.
“He listed the retooling of the nation’s armed forces for better performance among other strategies that have been penciled down as means of improving the effective security network of the nation. On how to revive the economy, he said that he would create the right environment that would attract foreign and local investors who ran away from the country due to harsh economic and investment climate.
The former Vice President also explained that, “Nigeria slipped into recession because of capital flight and attendant closure of companies in the country following government’s pronouncements which sent the wrong signals to investors.
According to him, “the clampdown on domiciliary accounts forced investors to massively withdraw, close accounts and move their funds elsewhere, adding that the impact of the capital flight was the closure of companies and loss of jobs.
On the inclusion of women and youths in governance, Atiku promised that “40 per cent of his cabinet would be made of youths, 35 per cent for women while the remaining 25 percent would be filled by older Nigerians, adding that he plans to hand over to a younger generation.
Speaking on how to reduce Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate, Atiku said that his administration would promote healthcare delivery system that is comprehensive, efficient and can deliver effective and qualitative services to women. He added that his policy document which was launched in November 2018 details in full what was in store for women.
