Atiku in Ogun, assures on power devolution, youth participation, restructuring if elected
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, at an interactive session with his supporters at the Political Academy in Sagamu, Ogun State weekend averred that if elected President in 2019, his government will pursue political restructuring, with emphasis on the devolution of powers, in a government that would be driven by Nigerian youths.
Barring any last minute switch, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is looking forward to getting the presidential ticket of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for the 2019 elections.
Apart from the mentioned manifestoes, Atiku assured that he would open up the economy to private sector participation; boost commercial agriculture; pursue justice and equity, among other things in his government.
Speaking more during the workshop on ‘Deepening Understanding of the Nigerian Political Environment’ organised by the Political Academy in Sagamu, Ogun State, former VP said his policies would ensure the attainment of the collective aspiration of Nigerians for a more productive, self-sufficient, better-secured and happier society.
Continuing, he recalled that even before the trending massive demand for restructuring, he had been preaching about the need for restructuring since 2004 as a matter of “vision and belief that it will take Nigeria to greater heights for the achievement of the aspiration of our country.”
In his paper, Atiku explained that “The issue can be viewed from two perspectives: like I said during my Chatham House speech, our constitution provides for exclusive, legislative, and concurrent lists.
“The items in the exclusive list controlled by the Federal Government are too many. The concurrent list has such issues as health, education, agriculture, and others which any of the tiers of government can handle.
“As the head of government, I am prepared to surrender some of the items on the concurrent list to the states and local governments.
“I don’t believe the Federal Government should have more than ten to twelve areas on its exclusive list.
“We must be prepared to let go on items like mineral resources – let states run them, while the Federal Government can collect taxes from the states.
“The US has more oil than Nigeria but they don’t have a Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Whatever resources you have you exploit. Every state has resources, let them develop at their own pace.”
The former Vice President noted that “When I decided to contest for the presidency, one of the first things I did was to study the needs and difficulties of our youth population, and it was clear that the major need of the youth is jobs.”
“Many of them are engaged in different not-too-productive things because they don’t have jobs. When they have jobs, they will have less time for play.
“The best way to create jobs is to open up the economy to the private sector. It is the private sector that provides jobs not government.
“Government opens up the economy and there are 1001 ways to open up the economy.
“This also includes the development of infrastructure. The private sector can, for instance, invest in building rails, manage and recoup their investment, and profit through long leases with government guarantees while the facilities are available to serve the people.”
On job creation, Atiku revealed that “My boss (Obasanjo) and I were responsible for setting up the SME agency which they are using today. We established it because we know the value on the economy and job creation.
“If it is not working well today it is because they have mismanaged it.
“In my private business, I set up a micro-finance company and instructed the management to reserve eighty percent of the loans for women.
“Through that, we succeeded in pulling out over 45,000 households from poverty group.”
Over 10,000 supporters in Ogun State attended the workshop in Sagamu.
