The Zenith Labour Party’s (ZLP ) presidential candidate Dan Nwanyanwu has said he will engender far reaching policies which include reintroduction of coin currency as well as a return to old national anthem which he says is a lot more meaningful than the current anthem.
Nwanyanwu who spoke while unveiling his updated manifesto to Nigerians for the 2023 general elections, a 75-paged document in Abuja at the weekend, also proposes a new socio-political and economic order that represents a radical departure from a state system that serves the interest of a predatory governing elite.
The ZLP standard bearer who is also the party’s National Chairman, in his manifesto vowed to return petrol price in Nigeria to less than 100 naira per litre by rehabilitating the country’s refineries and building modular refineries in all states if elected Nigeria’s next president.
He also promised to rebrand the Police Force by reviewing personnel salaries, giving them free accommodation and providing free for their children He said: “This will reduce bribery and corruption in the Police Force.”
He said his administration will ensure that Nigeria reverts to the old National Anthem, because “both in content and essence, it is much more fitting and encompassing of our diversity and burning desire to achieve unity, integration and progress.” He said.
The presidential candidate further vowed to re-direct and re-invigorate the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme by totally removing corps members from cities and other urban centres to the hinterland in order to make the service community-based.
He further said that “Corps Members, both male and female, shall also be subjected to a 6-month compulsory military training, and subsequently most of them will be posted to policing and other law-enforcement/security-related duties.
He said his government will reintroduce the coin to replace the 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Naira Notes.
This according to him, “is aimed at curbing corruption as the sheer weight of the coin will help to check primitive accumulation. This policy will be underpinned by a cashless economy for seamless transactions at the formal and informal sectors. A coin transaction will also protect the legal tender from fragility usually occasioned by abuse.”
On the issue of security bedevilling the nation, Nwanyanwu said his government will place a high premium on the urgent need to safeguard and protect the lives and property of citizens with the requisite political will and policies.
“To this end, we will deploy both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to urgently address the security concerns of the country in the immediate and long terms,” he stated.
“Our approach in this direction will lie in identifying the drivers of the various forms of insecurity in the country and taking necessary steps through legislations, policy decisions, programs, projects, dialogue, etc. to address them.
“We will immediately commence a total overhaul of the entire security architecture in the country to enable us to implement defence and strategic policies capable of addressing emergent security threats and challenges. This overhaul will lead to urgently needed reforms which previous governments have shied away from.”
Speaking on education, he noted that “We shall set up the Community School Enrolment Committee (CSEC) across the country with a mandate to help keep track of children not in school and ensure the implementation of 100% school enrollment for children.
“We shall aggressively promote girl-child education and children with special needs by initiating an Executive Bill to make girl-child education and children with special needs compulsory, and to criminalise the practice of street hawking and early child marriage. States in the Federation shall also be encouraged to domesticate the policy.”
He pledged to deliver primary and secondary education free of tuition to all Nigerian children and provide the required municipal facilities for impactful teaching and learning.
“The ultimate goal of our government is to give education its place of pride, fund education at all levels, and make the services available to all Nigerians,” the ZLP presidential candidate said.
He also, among others, promised to improve healthcare by aggressively developing the rural healthcare system and expanding the health safety net to include free medical services to all vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with special needs.
