Knocks, kudos for Buhari, Atiku manifestos

As Nigerians warm up for next year’s presidential election, the manifestos of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, are in the public domain. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN spoke to some Nigerians who bared their minds on the contents of the two campaign documents.

The 2019 presidential election will be a straight fight between President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The manifestos of the two gladiators have become subject of public discourse.

The President unveiled a campaign document titled: ‘Next Level’. Also the PDP presidential candidate released a document dubbed: ‘Let’s get Nigeria working again’. The two documents have elicited different reactions.

The Next Level document gave insights in Buhari’s new economic drive with employment as a major thrust. The highlights include: the Engagement of one million N-Power graduates; Skill up  10 million Nigerians under a voucher system in partnership with the private sector; Anchor Borrowers Scheme to support input and jobs to one million farmers; Livestock transformation plan to create 1.5 million jobs and Agriculture Mechanisation Policy  to create five million jobs.

They also include the provision of $500 million innovation fund to tech and creative sector to create 500,000 jobs; to train 200,000 youths for outsourcing market in technology, services and entertainment. The document stated that “soft loans of up to one million naira to small traders, artisans (carpenters, tailors, mechanics, hairdressers, barbers, plumbers, vulcanisers etc) and commercial drivers (taxis, keke and motorcycles.” Next Level will also take current number of 2.3 million traders, farmers, artisans under Trader Moni, Market Moni and Farmer Moni  schemes to 10 million Nigerians under the People Moni Scheme.

The President also promised to increase power generation to 11,000 megawatts. The document pledged a minimum of 1,000 MW new generation increment per year; power distribution to get to get to 7,000 MW under distribution expansion programme.

On security, President Buhari indicated plans to decentralise funding of police operations and foster true community policing by implementing direct transfer of funding to police divisions.  He also promised to execute the second phase of the farmer-herder and national livestock to end the decades-long conflict between farmers and herders.

Atiku, in his campaign document promised to build a broad based, dynamic and competitive economy with a GDP of US900 Billion by 2025. “By 2025, we shall increase the flow of direct foreign investment to a minimum of 2.5 per cent of our GDP working towards achieving the lowest corporate income tax rate in Africa.

Atiku also plans to accelerate investment to double our infrastructure stock to approximately 50 per cent of GDP by 2025 and 70 per cent by 2030; achieve a sustained increase in manufacturing output from nine per cent to 30 per cent of GDP by 2025; reduce the sector’s dependence on imported raw materials; achieve a diversified production structure with more processing of domestic raw materials.

On electricity, Atiku said power sector reform will be a critical policy priority. By 2025, Nigeria shall make giant strides in diversifying its sources of power and delivering up to 20,000 MW. He has plan “to privatise all government refineries to competent off-takers with mandates to produce agreed levels of refined output; issue new licenses for Greenfield investment in crude oil refining and allied activities”.

Atiku promised to develop 5,000 km of roads by 2025 through PPPs and community interventions; construct up to 5,000 km of modern railways through privatisation and public investments.

The former vice president promised to restructure the country within six months in office if elected.

Explaining why the APC chose ‘Next Level’ slogan for its 2019 campaign, Buhari said “we have worked hard to fulfil our promises and why the road may have been difficult, over the last three and a half years, we have laid the foundations for a strong, stable and prosperous country for the majority of our people”.

He said: “Foundational work is not often visible, neither is it glamorous –but it is vital to achieving the kind of country we desire. Judging by the prior depth of decay, deterioration and disrepair that Nigeria had sunk into, we are certain that the past few years have put us in good steadto trudge on the Next Level of building an even stronger nation for our people.”

But, the presidential candidate of Peoples Trust Party (PTP), Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, dismissed the Buhari and Atiku documents. He said the documents are not grassroots-based.

According to him, the Buhari administration has failed to provide the expected leadership to drive growth, security of lives and property as well as economic prosperity and business growth for the people.

Hashim claimed that over 80 million Nigerians live under acute poverty. “There are people who have been living on government pay since they are barely 23 years old. They drive cars they did not buy with their money. They take free money. They do not know how to create money. They do not know what the grassroots are feeling, that is why when they were unveiling their policy document, they sat down in the Presidential Villa, they did not go to the grassroots.

“We know the policy of the APC. The policy of APC is poverty forever. So you cannot believe any policy document from them because after four years, what have they got to show?

As for for the PDP, he said “we already know what their policy document is. It is corruption, corruption, corruption; selling of government property at cheap prices to themselves. That is their policy document.

But, the PDP has argued that the policy document articulated by its candidate embodies the collective mindset, yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians in their quest for new leadership and better life.

The party’s spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan said “the Atiku Abubakar  policy document is a product of very wide, painstaking and productive consultations with Nigerians from all walks of life, critical stakeholders and development partners in key sectors, in the overall determination to chart a new course for our nation.

“The policy document foretells a new dawn as it articulates practical solutions and answers to themyriad of economic, social and political challenges facing our nation and sets out all-inclusive templates for national rejuvenation , cohesion, protection of human rights and democratic tenets , wealth creation, transparency and elimination of corruption in governance.”

Ologbodiyan said: “In line with the PDP’s people-based manifesto, the Atiku Abubakar policy document places utmost priority on the people by focusing chiefly on their yearnings for job creation, infrastructural development, poverty eradication, human capital development, inclusiveness and national unity”.

Public Affairs analyst, Dr Ken Mbadiwe said from the remarks of the president at the unveiling of his campaign document-Next Level, Nigerians are in the best position to appraise the administration.

He said: “Though I have not read the documents but from the statements made by the president during its launching, I get the impression that the regime used the first tenure to record some successes in addressing the challenges bedevilling the nation for some level of socio-economic development which the president considered as laying of foundation needed for sustainable socio-economic performances.

“Since Nigerians have witnessed the performance of the regime in so far as laying of the foundation is concerned amid limited resources, Nigerians are in the best position to make fair and realistic assessment of the progress against plans, and as to whether the regime has laid foundation strong enough for its next level for which it canvasses electoral mandate needed to continue after first tenure.

“Though the regime has some shortcomings, I believe it has tried in delivering on its campaign promises and should be allowed to address the next level of challenges.”

According to Mbadiwe, the Buhari administration has restored transparency in governance. It has implemented a responsible and transparent fiscal plan for the challenging economic times that saw the country doing more with lesser oil revenues.

He said the grand scale corruption perpetrated by the highest office in the land has been nipped in the bud by the Buhari administration through the introduction of Treasury Single Account which has made it more difficult for ministries and departments and agencies to indulge in corrupt practices.

The National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, faulted Atiku’s promise to create 10 million jobs when he could not do anything as Vice to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Oshiomhole said: “If you are going to create 10 million jobs , how come that when you were in government and you produced a SEED document where you promised to create seven million jobs, by the time when that government was out , we had lost Michelin, Dunlop closed down, textile industries closed down, we witnessed unprecedented industrial obituary and factories were closing one after the other.”

The APC leader urged the electorate to take Atiku to task over his plan to sell off government refiniries. He said a presidential candidate seeking power to serve the interest of the populace would never contemplate selling refineries, which are major source of revenue for the country. This is another plan by the PDP to sell oil refineries to their members at cheap prices as they did with public enterprises in their 16 years misrule. Nigerians should reject PDP at the polls. The party doesn’t mean well for the people.

A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), described the campaign manual of President Buhari as a “complete disaster”.

Agbakoba said the president’s campaign document has no “conceptual overhang”. He noted that the Atiku’s document addresses national needs.

He said: “Buhari’s document is a handout; it is not a political document. It has no conceptual overhang. The one for Atiku is 80 per cent. It’s got the right stuff in it. It needs more work but it’s a working document. It’s something I can live with. I see nice things there. It’s a conceptual framework that creates microeconomic stability. It’s got all the nice indicesin it. On evaluation, it is clear that the economic blue print unveiled by Atiku addresses national needs than Buhari’s economic plans.”