Bad Leaders Have Left PDP -Makarfi…
Presidential aspirant under the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi has disclosed that having chaired the technical committee that set the agenda for the National Conference under President Obasanjo, restructuring Nigeria now would be incorporating whatever Nigerians resolve and bringing in people that will dust his committee’s report, removing what is obsolete and bringing in what is new.
Speaking to journalists at the sidelines of a visit to the Ebonyi State secretariat of the party in Abakaliki on Friday, Makarfi noted that his committee proposed how the country could be restructured but it was not followe through.
“First of all restructuring is not what a leader wants but what the people want. I chaired the technical committee that set the agenda for the National Conference under Obasanjo, even though some of the items were removed from the report. We need to bring Nigerians together to dust that report, remove what is obsolete and and add what is new, whatever Nigerians resolve,” he said.
On the allegations of being too gentle to lead Nigeria Makarfi said,” People said I was too gentle to defeat Sheriff, what happened? Don’t be mistaken by looks. It is the action. In Kaduna State people saw my actions. People said I was too gentle to handle the Kaduna Mafia but what happened? Those who will mistake me to be weak will be shocked but Nigerians will be happy.”
Senator Makarfi also disclosed that he was the first governor in the country to appoint non indigenes in his cabinet and as governor an Igbo man was elected as member of the state House of Assembly. “My history will tell Nigerians who I am. It is not even in promising but in what I have done,” he said.
On the accusation that PDP misruled the country for sixteen years, Makarfi said, ” Ninety percent of those who accuse PDP of misruling Nigeria were PDP people who were on positions of authority. They were the ones who misruled and ran to APC. That is why APC is not ruling well. The people that remained in the PDP are the good people so Nigerians should take note.”
Mukhtar Sirajo
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I Don’t Have Inordinate Presidential Ambition- Turaki
Frontline PDP presidential Aspirant and former Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN, has said that he had no inordinate ambition to be the president of the country.
Rather, he said, he was propelled by the desire to give qualitative leadership to salvage the country from its current socio-economic, political and leadership quagmire that the clueless and inept APC government had put the country.
Turaki made this known on Friday, in his campaign office in Abuja, when he granted audience to the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Political Science Association (a group of intellectuals) who came on a fact-finding visit to know what agenda the aspirant had for improving the life of the average Nigerian.
The association was led by its president, Professor Aloysius Michael Okolie of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Turaki who urged Nigerians to take a more active interest in the governance of the country, pointed out that the variables for determining political leadership had changed as people now look beyond the character of the political parties to the quality of the candidates being presented for elective offices.
He stressed that a presidential material at this juncture of the nation’s history “must be somebody who has integrity, credibility, well educated, knowledgeable, experienced and be able to build strong bridges of unity across the country. Somebody who will treat Nigerians fairly, equitably and decently, and above all, have the fear of God.”
The aspirant assured the association that he has the vision and the necessary political will to lead the country, noting that he would bring trust, sense of responsibility and rule of law into governance.
He listed his priority ares as the tackling of the challenges of insecurity, addressing the critical question of unity including restructuring from different facets to promote equity and fairness, revitalizing the economy, pursuing scientifically-driven and value-added agriculture, infrastructural development and educational development driven by technology and geared toward employment generation.
“We would bring deliberate policy of reforms; genuine change as different from the propaganda stuff which the APC has been dishing out to Nigerians,” he said.
Turaki decried the failure of the APC government to implement the report of the 2014 National Political Reform Conference which would have largely addressed the problems of restructuring, equity and fairness that had triggered the current increased agitations for ethnic self-determination.
He similarly expressed disappointment at the non-implementation of the report of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of the Security Challenges in the North East of which he was the chairman.
The committee’s report, he maintained, would have greatly addressed the issue of Boko Haram insurgency and other security challenges such as the armed banditry and the farmers-herdsmen perennial clashes.
The president of the association, Professor Okolie who decried the level of deficit in governance in the country, however commended Turaki for his capacity and valuable ideas as well as for being sufficiently educated.
Sola Atere
