Former Governor of Kano State,
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, on Wednesday officially declared his presidential
ambition.
The Senator is among aspirants
seeking the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket.
His declaration which was held at
Chida Hotel in Abuja attracted thousands of Kwankwasiya supporters and party
members.
The ex-Minister of Defence
expressed readiness to give Nigerians the change the current government has
failed to provide despite repeated assurances.
In his speech, Kwankwaso promised
“positive change”, insisting that the President Muhamadu Buhari-led All
Progressives Congress (APC) has failed.
His full speech below…
“Let me begin by thanking all of
you for travelling from far and wide to witness this important occasion
heralding my decision to run for the office of the President, Federal Republic
of Nigeria.
Your resolve to come, I am
convinced, was informed by our collective disillusionment, disappointment and
the pervasive air of hopelessness in our country today. Your desire to see
things change for better is well-informed and inner conviction that together we
can midwife positive change is applauded.
Today I declare that I am going
to vie for the office of President Federal Republic of Nigeria under the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. I stand on my honour to offer a
paradigm shift in leadership. There is no gainsaying that all is not well with
the polity. It is also clear that the same mindset that created and escalated
the problems cannot be used in resolving the on-going crises in our nationhood
and national development.
I intend to offer positive
change. Change has again become inevitable. To live is to witness changes
because change is an inseparable part of living. Come May 2019, the narrative
of helplessness, buck-passing, division, poverty, insecurity, and hopelessness
must change to turn to a new dawn of confidence in building a one well
restructured Nigeria.
I assure you that while I do not
have the prophetic power to predict the future, we certainly have in us the
ability to create the future that we want.
On this day, as I stand before
you I offer you a value-based leadership anchored on our National Ethics as
outlined in Chapter 2 of Section 23 of our Constitution:
And I quote; “The National Ethics
shall be Discipline, Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Social Justice, Religious
Tolerance, Self-reliance and Patriotism.”
We will provide a leadership
where everybody is free and equal; where Nigerians see themselves as Nigerians
first and as Ibo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ijaw, Ibibio, Fulani, etc second; where
citizens are self-assured and self-assertive; where they are confident and
competent; where they want to do what is right no matter whose ox is gored. I
want to lead a Nigeria where people are educated and exposed beyond the
confines of their tribe, religion, linguistic group or place of birth.
I want to lead a Nigeria where
Citizens respect their leaders, and leaders lead and forge a team to promote
and protect the interest of all Nigerians. I want to lead a Nigeria where all
are comfortable anywhere and on any positive issue can compete fairly with
their peers without favour or discrimination. That is the kind of Nigeria we
envision. We will abandon the failed relics of the past. We have all it takes
to make Nigeria good and relevant for all.
What are some of these changes
that we are promising?
1. National Security: The primary
responsibility of the Government is security of life. My understanding of
National security transcends the stereotype limiting it to the Armed Forces and
other security agencies. As former Minister of Defence, I understand security
from that point; it covers more and includes the entire scope of food, health
care delivery, education, economic prosperity, and enjoyment of human rights on
the physical defence and security side. There is the need for a well-trained,
motivated, well-equipped and intelligence-propelled security architecture.
That requires decisive options of
strengthening and equipping the military while restructuring the Police to make
it more effective. We will vigorously pursue other institutional reforms in the
other security and paramilitary agencies and justice system that will serve as
a huge disincentive for crimes and criminality. This will include training and
retraining of personnel, improvement of personnel welfare as well as the
provision of other security infrastructure considered necessary and relevant to
combating crime and other deviant behaviors.
The constant misuse of security
apparatus will stop immediately. Ours is a recommitment to strengthening all
democratic institutions in Nigeria. We shall also strive to create an
all-inclusive mechanism for effective intelligence gathering that involves all
stakeholders especially – Traditional rulers, Religious Leaders, businessmen
and women, civil servants, Community leaders, the communities themselves,
youth, trade organizations, politicians and all well-meaning Nigerians.
We must as a policy strive to
support and protect the identities of those patriotic Nigerians that volunteer
credible information to make Nigeria and Nigerians safe.
Above all we shall put mechanisms
in place for the continuous monitoring of the operations of these security
institutions to ensure efficiency and conformity with the rule of law. I also
understand the difficult conditions under which our military and other
paramilitary organisations operate. An ill-equipped, unmotivated, deprived and
over- tasked soldier cannot perform maximally.
We shall motivate all affected
communities, the military and the police to put an end to all killings. There
is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for killings by Boko Haram insurgents,
herdsmen, crop farmers, kidnappers, human traffickers and abductors. We will
provide an atmosphere where there will be security, safety, serenity and
sanity.
2. The Economy: Nigeria in recent
years has witnessed a weak economic performance due to tight economic policies
and failed institutional supervision especially as it relates to growing small
enterprises that should, in the long run, result in larger ventures to anchor
our economic prosperity. Tight monetary rates, exchange rates fluctuations,
inflation and unemployment are the dominant factors hindering the growth and
survival of our businesses in the country today. Therefore, our focus shall be
on sound economic policies that will ensure a new regime of exchange rate
stability, low-interest rates and reduction in the country’s rising burden of
domestic and foreign loans.
In the past three years, poverty
and unemployment have become more visible, challenging Nigeria’s economic
prosperity. Existing policies and economic programmes for alleviating the
poverty incidence in the country have obviously failed. Our non-negotiable goal
will, therefore, be the eradication of poverty through sustainable wealth
creation and a coordinated and effective micro small and medium enterprises
development. We shall promote policies that boost our foreign reserves and
lower interest rate to ensure that the unsustainable debt treadmill profile is
tamed. Locally, we shall diversify the economy through industrialisation and
manufacturing, aggressive promotion of agribusiness, the mining sector and
entrepreneurship to make us self-sufficient and export-oriented. The oil and
gas sector must cease to be a verifiable source of corruption and inefficiency.
3. Social Challenges: Our
response to the various social challenges shall be hinged on our economic model
of poverty eradication. We must consciously seek to tame the widening of
inequality. We will strive to end ethnic and religious bigotry, corruption, poor
economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of
misdeed. As we all know a serious lack of progress and hope for the future,
lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics
and widening inequality – are very much with us today.
We need to believe in ourselves;
we need to be critically analytical when and where necessary; we need to have
indomitable courage and unwavering commitment to Nigeria and all that is
Nigerian; we need to stand firm for what is noble, edifying and wholesome; we
need to fight those ills that have shackled us and held us back in the past; we
need to establish shared values and enthrone norms, virtues and morality that
are enduring, uplifting and distinguishing.
We owe the successor generation a
country that is united, stable, secure, cohesive and prosperous, playing its
role among the comity of nations easily. That is our goal. We must not only do
things right, we must do right things and always do them right. There should be
no excuse for poor performance, shoddy job and incompetence on any grounds. We
must avoid failure at all cost and engender the right ambience that will allow
the creative potentials of Nigerians to be expressed uninhibited. We will have
truly inclusive growth and development for shared prosperity.
4. Infrastructure: With a rapidly
growing population, Nigeria’s infrastructure is challenged. If not tackled it
would deny citizens the joy of national prosperity. Energy need keeps shooting
up the stress of doing business in Nigeria. Domestic production suffers and a
lot of foreign companies also find it hard to invest in Nigeria due to constant
power failures. For decades, Nigeria failed to develop its infrastructure. To
bridge the gap in infrastructure, we will prioritise capital expenditure and
ensure that adequate funds are not only allocated to capital expenditure but
also disbursed in a timely manner and utilised as budgeted for road and rail
networks, waterways, housing, aviation communication and others.
5. Human Capital Development
& Global Competitiveness, Education, Research and Innovation: The greatest
asset of any nation is its human capital. In the people lies the solution to
most of our challenges. My job as the leader is to facilitate the release of the
creative energy embedded in our growing youth population brimming with
ingenuity and famed resilience. Ours will be a deliberate policy to make our
workforce globally competitive. Human Capital development in all its
ramifications shall be a cardinal point of our administration. We shall provide
ICT- compliant high-quality personal development education.
And research for development will
be made accessible to all. We are committed to providing good quality universal
education from pre-primary to tertiary and vocational skills development. We
shall provide accessible, quality education to all Nigerians. Education in
Nigeria will be rejuvenated and restructured to make future generations not
only problem-solvers but proud custodians of their culture, heritage and
history and also for creating confidence in all Nigerians across all the
States, sectors and talents.
We believe that education is the
cornerstone of any development and nation-building and a very strong weapon to
fight inequality, injustice and poverty. It is also an instrument or tool for
building national unity and cohesion. As a policy, we will drive a plan to
provide the necessary infrastructure, rejuvenate existing ones and modernize
them to be in line with the best international practice. We shall equally
review the fees being charged for WAEC, NECO and JAMB examinations and make
education affordable. Every child in Nigeria must be supported to attain his or
her maximum potential in education. In addition, we shall commence a review of
our method as it relates to agricultural technology in particular.
6. Agribusiness: Agri-business
holds one of the major keys to eradicating poverty from our midst. The key of
our agricultural development must be an aggressive pursuit of agri-business. We
intend to collaborate with our numerous Agricultural Research Institutes and
Universities by challenging them to pursue resolute research and development in
agribusiness, agricultural technology etc. Working with expert advice, we
intend to qualitatively improve the agricultural value chain, to create
employment opportunities.
7. Healthcare Delivery: Now that
medical tourism has become the first choice of our leaders, we will ensure that
the current situation in clinics and hospitals is given radical reforms. We
shall prioritise and institutionalise national healthcare programmes and
delivery, medical education and training and financing of healthcare in a
manner that is universally accessible and affordable. Our main goal in
healthcare would be to provide affordable ‘Healthcare services for all
Nigerians’.
8. International Relations: While
Africa must remain the centrepiece of our foreign policy, we shall endeavour to
keep our old friends while seeking deeper and better understanding of our other
development partners and allies. Our foreign policy must be directed at
contributing to the eradication of poverty and global competitiveness.
9. Youth & Women Empowerment:
Our government will treat the youth, sports, recreation and culture activities
as an Industry through which businesses can be created and job opportunities
established. Our women shall consciously be encouraged in governance and
business. We shall encourage and support young people and women in
collaboration with all financial institutions to create platforms where they
can get access to finance to establish and deploy their creative energies into
problem-solving apps and other forms of ICT for sports, recreation and core
businesses. We will endeavour to get 30% representation of women and youth in all
organs and structures of government in line with the PDP constitution.
10. National Unity, Cohesion and
Restructuring: The fulcrum of our leadership will be the enhancement of a
united Nigeria couched within the matrix of productivity and a shift from the
sense of entitlement by officeholders and their hangers-on.
Fellow compatriots, a key
propellant of our journey must be a committed desire to ensure that the labours
of our heroes shall truly not be in vain. We will strive to create an
atmosphere where every Nigerian has an equal opportunity to contribute. Our
restructuring will be to ensure an inclusive political, social and economic
space for all. All of this will ensure that first, we are Nigerians.
At this juncture, I will conclude
by once again thanking all those who contributed in their own way to make this
occasion a huge success. I must specifically mention those who mobilized their
resources, time and energy to travel from far and near to witness this
important occasion. I hope you have collected your PVC, and if you still
haven’t collected your own you have tomorrow to do so. Take the opportunity to
collect and encourage others to collect their own to be used to vote out the
APC Government and vote in the PDP umbrella Government.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com