A policy group in Nigeria has
picked some loopholes in Atiku Abubakar’s policy plan, noting that, it lacks
remorse and is not people friendly.
The Economy and Strategy Team of
the Buhari Campaign Organisation, BCO, was reacting to the Peoples Democratic Party’s
presidential candidate’s speech in Sokoto where he flagged off his 2019
campaign.
Abubakar had claimed that he
would run a people-friendly government but the group differed, stressing that
his policy plan said otherwise when viewed in detail.
The group said it thought that
Abubakar’s policy document would blow the ruling APC out of the water because
its ideas were already out there, and because the candidate had amassed enough
resources to enable him employ pawns and foot soldiers that could run an
effective media blitz.
“In the end, it was a non-event.
To use a colloquialism it was ‘a damp squib’. If one wants to be kind, the best
that can be said about the Atiku Policy Document is that it was rushed out to
create a policy platform to mask the real intentions which is to regain power
to continue business as usual,” the group said in a statement. Adding that,
“Let us be candid, it is a wishy-washy, unimaginative and internally
inconsistent document. In short it is ‘Disatikulated’.
“Given the relative although
unlikely chances of the PDP of becoming the official opposition in 2019, it is
important to quickly deconstruct its ideas and to do so by way of general
comments and some more specific comments.”
The group noted that the document
is not original and borrows liberally from other people’s policy documents from
within and outside Nigeria. “As such, it is bland and unimaginative and does
not specify how the things it hopes to achieve can be done in terms of
resources and bureaucratic capacity of the country.”
“It is alright to propose
implementing ‘pro-poor policies that will enhance their participation in
economic activities and improve household incomes’ Anyone can say that. The
issue is how? After all, we in the APC have shown what is possible with our
ground breaking Social Investment Programme.”
The group explained that one of
the most striking things about the Atiku’s Policy Document is that it is mostly
bereft of people-oriented policies. “In its haste to pander to big business,
our blinkered friends in the PDP completely relegate the issues around
investing in the Nigerian people to talking about poverty alleviation.”
“Apart from showing ignorance
about the latest thinking around the positive impact that tackling
multi-dimensional poverty has on growth, for the Atiku people to be talking
about mere poverty alleviation shows that they are completely insensitive to
the needs of ordinary Nigerians.
“In case what we are saying is
not clear, let us put it in other words. Nobody in serious international
development discourse these days talks about poverty alleviation. The reversion
to poverty eradication later on in the document does not help their case. It
only underscores the sloppy preparation of the document.
“Another great drawback of the Atiku
Policy Document is that it pretends as if the past never happened. It makes no
atonement for past looting and mis-governance and goes on as if there was
nothing untoward in its past.
“How can Atiku Abubakar talk
about privatisation with a straight face? How can any PDP person fail to
explain why huge funds were voted year after year for projects with no results
to show? It is only here in Nigeria that a party boasts about projects it
started but ‘Did Not Finish (DNF)’ which is the result given to failed
athletes.
The group said it carried out a
thorough analysis of the Atiku document and that it talks about increasing debt
with a straight face.
“How about the huge debts left
for the incoming APC government that were hidden away? These include the $6.8bn
on unsettled JV cash calls or indeed the up to N2.2 trillion owed to States,
contractors, pensioners, exporters etc. that created a huge debt overhang in
the economy but were excluded from official debt figures? Even religions that
offer forgiveness do so on the basis of repentance for past misdeeds,” the
group said.
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