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2nd Term: 30 Promises Buhari Made To Nigerians

Published

5 years ago

June 23, 2019

Editor

A non-governmental organisation, the International Press Centre (IPC), has released a document which it said contains the campaign promises of President Muhammadu Buhari, as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 General Elections.

The IPC said, the compilation of the campaign promises by President Muhammadu Buhari was extracted from statements made in the media reports in the course of electioneering campaign activities ahead the 2019 elections between November 2018 and February 2019.

The thirty of such promises, which the IPC said covered pledges on specific and general issues of Road/Rail infrastructure, Education, Agriculture, Poverty Eradication and Inclusion of Youths/Women in government as well as the fight against Corruption and Insecurity were documented in its latest release.

In the document signed by Sanmi Falobi, Programme Manager, IPC, the organidation said the specific sources it got its information from were from page 6, The Nation newspaper of Monday November 19, 2018; page 2, The Punch Newspaper of Monday November 19, 2018; page 6, Daily Sun newspaper of Monday, November 19, 2018; front page, Daily Trust newspaper of Monday, November 19,2018; page 5 and 41, Vanguard newspaper of November 19, 2018; page 1 and 10, This Day of November 19, 2018; page 2, Nigerian Tribune of November 19, 2018; page 25, Leadership newspaper of December 5, 2018; front page, Thisday, January 17, 2019; page 12, Daily SunNewspaper, Thursday, January 31, 2019; page 9, Nigerian Tribune of January 17, 2019; and front page, Vanguard Newspaper, February 09, 2019.

The Promises highlighted are:

1. To engage one million N-power graduates and skill up 10 million Nigerians in partnership with the private sector.

2. To expand the school feeding programme from 9.3m to 15 million children, creating 300,000 extra jobs for food vendors and farmers.

3. To complete the Ibadan/Kano phase of the Lagos/Kano rail link.

4. To complete the Port Harcourt/Maiduguri line.

5. To complete the Itakpa/Warri link to Abuja, through Lokoja.

6. To complete the Second Niger Bridge and the East West Road connecting Warri, Delta State, to Oron, Akwa Ibom State, through Kaiama and Port Harcourt in Bayelsa and Rivers State.

7. To establish a peoples Moni bank.

8. To institutionalize the giving of soft loans of up to 1million naira to small traders, artisans and commercial drivers.

9. To increase the beneficiaries of trader Moni, market Moni and farmer Moni from 2.3 million to 10million.

10. To create more room for inclusion in government by achieving 35% in female appointments.

11. To give more access to youths as aides of cabinet members and through opportunities for appointments in board and agencies.

12. To introduce special mentoring programme in governance with young graduates working with ministers and other appointees.

13. To reinterpret the education curriculum through coding, robotics, animations and design thinking.

14. Retraining of all teachers in public primary and secondary schools to deliver digital literacy.

15. Remodeling and equipping of 10,000 schools per year.

16. To complete the 365 road projects under construction in all parts of the federation.

17. Provision of infrastructure and rebuilding the economy.

18. To sustaining the anti-insurgency war and curb insecurity.

19. To fight corruption and revamp the economy.

20. To develop 6 industrial Parks in each of the geopolitical zones.

21. To establish 109 Special Production and Processing Centres (SPPCs) across each senatorial district of Nigeria.

22. To develop the Special Economic zone to quickly concretize our made in Nigeria for export (MINE) plan.

23. To expand the social investment program so as to eradicate poverty.

24. To ensure completion of Manbilla Dam and Bridge.

25. To ensure the construction of the Makurdi Taraba Borno rail project.

26. To complete the bridges across the stretch of River Benue in Ibi local government area.

27. To continue to pursue agricultural policy by ensuring that fertilisers are made available at all the local government areas across the country, for easy access by farmers.

28. To resuscitate the Ajaokuta Steel Company.

29. To ensure the completion of the on-going Zungeru Hydro Power project.

30. To include persons of integrity in the cabinet.

On the reason his organisation came up with the compilation, the Director of IPC, Mr Lanre Arogundade, said “the exercise was in line with the tradition of IPC, which in 2011 documented 91 campaign promises of President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

According to him, “it was also embarked upon pursuant to the implementation of Component 4b: Support to Media of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria(EU-SDGN) Project by IPC over a 52-month period.”

On the methodology adopted, the IPC Director said, “the campaign promises of all the presidential candidates that contested the 2019 elections were documented but only that of President Muhammadu Buhari was being released being the declared winner of the elections.”

He, however, said both President Buhari’s campaign promises and those of the other candidates would later be uploaded on the IPC websites.

On the rationale for the documentation of the campaign promises, Mr Arogundade said, “the activity was in consonance and conformity with IPC’s mandate to advance democratic accountability.

“The essence is to ensure that it serves as a tool for journalists to monitor, track and ask questions about the diverse aspects of the implementation including using the Freedom of Information Act to such relevant questions.

“Having trained journalists across Nigeria on issue-focused reporting of elections, we believe they need information like this to follow-up after the elections.”

He said, “the documented campaign promises will also be useful for civil society groups working on development and democratic governance issues as well as various electoral stakeholders.

The documentation of the president’s electoral promises from the media reports, which is by no means exhaustive, is to serve as a major instrument to proactively engage the Buhari administration on its performance over the next four years and provide bench marks in seeking democratic accountability, service delivery and the fulfilment of key campaign promises made by the president.”

Related Topics:All Progressives Congress (APC)President Muhammadu Buahri

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Ex-Polaris Bank Chief Remanded in Prison Custody for Alleged Fraud

Published

2 days ago

November 19, 2024

Eric

The Special Offences Court sitting in the Ikeja area of Lagos State, on Monday, remanded a former branch manager of Polaris Bank, Abiodun Sanni, at the Ikoyi Custodial Centre for alleged multi-million naira fraud.

Sanni was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 16-count charge bordering on obtaining credit by false pretences, forgery, use of false documents, and stealing.

The EFCC counsel, Orhieoghene Adewunmi, told the court that Sanni committed the offences at the Iju branch of the bank in Lagos on February 24, 2020.

The lawyer stated that the defendant, as the branch manager of Polaris Bank, obtained from the bank a credit sum of N17 million in form of a loan.

He said Sanni collected the loan on the pretext that the loan had collateral in the form of a fixed deposit worth N111.1 million, which belonged to one Yinkus Multi-biz Ventures.

The EFCC lawyer also alleged that the former bank manager dishonestly converted a Polaris Bank fixed deposit account worth N15.1 million, belonging to one Joshua Atolagbe, to his personal use.

According to Adewunmi, the alleged offences contravene Sections 36(1), 278(1), 313(1)(a), 361 (1) and 364 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

Sanni, however, pleaded not guilty to all the counts preferred against him.

Adewunmi urged the court to remand the defendant.

“My lord the prosecution intends to call 10 witnesses in this case. We urge the court to remand the defendant in custody in view of his not-guilty plea,” the EFCC lawyer said.

The defence counsel, Osho Oludoshu, told the court that he had filed a bail application.

The presiding judge, Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, thereafter, remanded Sanni at the custodial centre.

Justice Abike-Fadipe adjourned the case to March 6, 2025, for the commencement of trial.

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INEC Declares APC’s Aiyedatiwa Winner of Ondo Guber Election

Published

4 days ago

November 17, 2024

Eric

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, as the winner of the just concluded Ondo State governorship election, held on Saturday, November 16, 2024.

The Returning Officer for the election Olayemi Akinwumi, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State declared Aiyedatiwa winner of the election on Sunday, extending the governor’s stay at the Government House in Alagbaka, Akure.

Governor Aiyedatiwa polled 366,781 votes to defeat his closest rival and a former deputy governor of the state Ajayi Agboola who flew the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag. He scored 117,845 votes, more than twice lower than the APC candidate.

“That Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa of the APC having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” the returning officer said at exactly 2:30 pm at the INEC collation centre in Akure.

The declaration came hours after the collation of results for the election began in the early hours of Sunday. Although the collation centre went on breaks, the APC took a commanding lead with over 200,000 votes ahead of the PDP.

The final results showed that the APC won the election in a landslide, clearing all 18 local government areas.

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PDP Chieftain Sues IGP Egbetokun over Police Invasion of Home

Published

5 days ago

November 16, 2024

Eric

A former National Deputy Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Diran Odeyemi has filed a fundamental rights suit against the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.

Also joined in the suit is the Osun State Commissioner of Police.

The suit dated November 7, 2024, was filed before a Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

In an affidavit in support of originating summons, Odeyemi accused armed agents of the defendants of invading his residence at Ibadan on October 26, without prior notice.

The plaintiff said the invasion of his residence and attempt to unlawfully arrest him was part of plans by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to silence leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State.

Odeyemi alleged that the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje on 20th of October, 2024, declared in Akure, Ondo State capital that the party had a secret strategy to recapture Osun State for APC, adding that what played out at his residence was part of the broader plans of the APC.

The plaintiff asked the court to determine where the attempt and threat by the defendants and their agents to arrest him on wilful investigation of some stalwarts of the APC do not constitute an infringement of his fundamental rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement, expression and association.

The ground of the originating summons includes, “The plaintiff by virtue of sections 35, 39, 40, 41 and 46 under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights is entitled to enjoy his rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement, freedom of expression and freedom of association.

‘The Plaintiff, being a citizen of Nigeria, has the right to move freely without any inhibition, express his thoughts, associate freely, and enjoy his dignity without being harassed, intimidated,d, or hindered in any way or manner.

“The Defendants and their officers are rigorously attempting to violate the plaintiff’s fundamental rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement freedom of expression, and freedom of association by threatening and planning to intimidate, harass, molest, and unlawfully arrest and detain him on wilful instigation of some politicians within the All Progressives Congress who are hellbent on framing the Plaintiff in order to silence him, as part of the All Progressives Congress secret strategy to recapture Osun State and wrestle power from the Peoples Democratic Party in the State., come 2026.

“The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress boastfully stated in Akure on the 20th October 2024 that the APC had a secret strategy to recapture Osun State from the Peoples Democratic Party but that he would not reveal the secret and his threatening statement was widely reported in the media.

“In what appears like the commencement of the secret political machinations, the agents of the Defendants, at the instance of some APC politicians and without having ever invited the Plaintiff, invaded the Plaintiff’s home on the 26th day of October 2024 in an attempt to unlawfully arrest, detain, harass and intimidate the Plaintiff but they failed because the Plaintiff was not in the country”