APC to unveil manifesto Thursday

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it would unveil its manifesto on Thursday, designed as a “Roadmap to a New Nigeria,” a result of its latest survey.

The part’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday that the road-map would detail the APC’s priorities in fixing the widespread failings of successive PDP governments since 1999, in order to bring hope to the long-suffering people of Nigeria.

The opposition party added that the manifesto was a product of an empirical and painstaking process embarked upon by the APC, in a deviation from the old practice of packaging a party’s manifesto on a whim.
It said about 59 per cent of Nigerians believe that President Goodluck Jonathan was doing a bad job fighting corruption, based on a survey conducted by the party.

It said: “’With conditions deteriorating throughout Nigeria, with security an ever increasing concern, with the lack of jobs pushing families and young people further and further into poverty and with new stories of corruption within the PDP government appearing day after day, the APC decided to commission the largest ever public opinion survey in Nigerian history to determine the current status of things in the nation directly from those who knew best – the actual people of Nigeria.

“The results were even more revealing than the APC had anticipated: When asked, ‘If the election were held today, would you vote for Goodluck Jonathan or the candidate of the All Progressives Congress’, the APC candidate held a ten-point lead over the President. By a margin of 44% to 34% (with 22% undecided), the APC candidate was the clear national choice.

“When asked, ‘In general, do you think things in Nigeria are going in a good direction or bad direction’, by a staggering more than two-to-one margin (50%-24%), Nigerians responded that the country was going in a bad direction.
“When asked, ‘What issue would you like the President and National Assembly to focus on most’, an overwhelming majority (60%) said jobs was the dominant issue that the government should address.”