PRESS BRIEFING BY ATIKU ABUBAKAR, GCON ON ATIKU POLICY POSITION, 13/10/2014 I am aware that you gentlemen of the Press constitute a critical partner of our efforts to establish the APC as an enduring alternative political platform where a sustainable legitimacy will be realised. The Party, APC is envisaged by its founding fathers to develop Internal Capacity to provide this nation with a leadership that will be committed to the public purpose and whose choice will be informed by the common good and the popular will of all Nigerians. My Declaration on the 24th of October, 2014 to present myself to Nigerians and seek nomination of the APC as its Flag bearer in the 2015 Presidential Election was our first major outing. We are grateful to those of you who in one way or the other participated in that Declaration Event. It was our deliberate strategy to make the event an Interactive Session with the youths. We had made it clear to the Leadership of the Party that the event was not going to be a rally or a campaign. We chose the Shehu Musa Yarádua Centre, a compact but historical venue for the event. We limited the crowd as much as we could because of the intended nature of the event. We were however glad that the Party’s National Working Committee sent a Delegation led by the National Secretary of the Party to witness the occasion. We wish to apologise to those who through letters and phone calls indicated their willingness to come but were excused. We express our sincere gratitude to over 30 Youth Groups that participated in the event. Because of their contributions, they were truly the “Instrument of Change” and it was clear that it was their future that was at stake. Their submissions in respect of their pains, needs and wants constitute a major input in our Draft Policy Document. The purpose of this Press Conference is to announce that we will be hosting a Policy Review Summit on the 27th of October, 2014 at the Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta. The Summit will host a panellist of experts who will fine-tune the Elemental Details of the Atiku 2015 Policy Document. The Draft Policy to be reviewed was drawn up within the context of the Manifesto of our Party, the APC. This document provides an overview of our Policy Position. The main thrust is the explicit bid to modify the way the machinery of Federal Government works by: Clarifying and streamlining MDAs remits and responsibilities, removing overlaps and operational redundancies Systematically devolving and delegating operational responsibilities to states and local governments, and private sector organisations (commercial and charitable) Addressing habits and practices that currently compromise policy implementation Enshrining good governance as the hallmark of his administration and Eventually ensuring that solutions can be implemented, monitored and evaluated. The Key Policy Areas are: 1. Employment Generation & Wealth Creation 2. Infrastructure & Power 3. Education & Skills Acquisition 4. Security 5. Citizenship and Governance 6. Agriculture & Food Security 7. Niger Delta & North East Re-integration 1. EMPLOYMENT GENERATION AND WEALTH CREATION POLICY PROPOSITION : 1. Embark on a direct intervention through Public Works Programmes 2. Support Productive Job creation initiatives by public and private sector 3. Narrow Skills Gap in the labour market 4. Foster Women Empowerment and address the Gender- Gap job opportunities 5. Encourage and Promote Entrepreneurship amongst the youth 6. Promote local ownership of job creation initiatives 7. Discouraging Nepotism in jobs placement 8. Propose amendments to all legislations hampering effective job creation and review employment laws including labour- market deregulations. 9. Encouraging Venture Capital and Private Equity investors to invest in local startups. 10. Drawing up a new deal with Micro Household Enterprises 11. Enhancing the security of (commercial) contracts 12. Establishing an independent Competition and Anti- Trust Authority 13. Helping Accelerate Start up Incubation times 14. Introducing Business Impact Assessments 15. Encouraging and rewarding formalization of Micro Household Enterprises 16. Ensuring that Public Procurement Rules benefit capable SMEs 17. Promote and Facilitate non-oil exports and 18. Facilitate the creation of business clusters 19. Increased support for the informal sector 20. Encourage and reward banks that lend to small and mid-sized businesses. 2. INFRASTRUCTURE AND POWER POLICY PROPOSITION : 1. Creating a Sustainable Delivery System to address the dearth of Infrastructure 2. Aggressively increasing the power generation, distribution and transmission capacities of the sector by strengthening the Gencos, Discos and Transco. 3. Creating Sustainable Funding Structures to drive Infrastructure and Power development 4. Leveraging Private Investment in Power co-generation capacity 5. Co-fund PWPs that help federal, state, and local authorities build and maintain infrastructure 6. Invest in local government capacity to develop and expand infrastructural provision 7. Review the federation account and restructure government finances to boost infrastructure development 8. Encourage infrastructure maintenance initiatives 9. Reward private efforts to maintain and upgrade basic infrastructure. 3. EDUCATION & SKILLS ACQUISITION POLICY PROPOSITION : 1. Raising Educational Standards across our schools 2. Boosting Educational Achievements in our Primary and Secondary Schools 3. Encouraging and rewarding private sector to narrow skills gaps and widen participation in educational provision 4. Encouraging businesses to lead vocational training efforts 5. Encouraging business to re-train unskilled workers 6. Rewarding households that keep children in the school system 7. Encouraging the re- training of public service workers 8. Improving the structure and curriculum of our educational system to make it more relevant to labour market needs. 9. Publishing league table of performances at all levels of education 4. SECURITY POLICY PROPOSITION : 1. Increasing the visibility of security agents 2. Improving access to security services 3. Improve Police- Community relations 4. Aggressively combating the scourge of Terrorism and Insurgency by increased resources and better co- ordination between the security agencies 5. Replace the Security Adviser with a National Security Council 6. Improve Civil-military relations 7. Pave the way for the establishment of State Police 8. Improve and Guaranty Rapid Emergency Response 9. Clarify LGA/State boundaries to pre-empt and defuse inter- communal conflicts 10. Improve border security 11. Total overhaul of national security structure. 5. CITIZENSHIP AND GOVERNANCE POLICY PROPOSITION : 1. Offer public service users information, voice, and choice 2. Leverage federal transfers/devolution to expand basic service provision 3. Benchmark (federal) government performance transparency and accountability 4. Invest in local government capacity and accountability 5. Strengthen corporate governance 6. Promoting increased devolution of Powers to State and Local governments. 7. Establishing a link between Representation, Governance and Taxation 8. Ensuring a deeper appreciation of citizenship to all Nigerians 9. Ensure Participation and Equal Opportunity for all 10. Cultivating appropriate environment forunity and sense of belonging 11. Improving Public Sector Service Delivery 12. Improving Policy Formulation and Implementation 13. Promoting a zero tolerance attitude towards corruption. 6. AGRICULTURE & FOOD SECURITY POLICY PROPOSITION: 1. Address the Land Use Act to improve small scale-farmers’ access to land 2. Offer broad based support structures to farmers and small Agribusinesses 3. Helping farmers and Agribusinesses Agglomerate and Manage Risk 4. Helping farmers and Agribusinesses market their Output 5. Helping farmers and Agribusinesses cut their Operational Costs: 6. Helping farmers increase Farming Productivity 7. Establishing an Agricultural Fund and reinvigorate the Agric Bank of Nigeria to be able to support agricultural production and Bank of Industry for high level value addition. 8. Reintroducingprevious viable and sustainable agricultural programmes with emphasis of rural infrastructural development, such as National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), FEAP and elements of the DFRRI. 7. NIGER DELTA & NORTH EAST RE-INTEGRATION POLICY PROPOSITION:The following initiatives will be launched to address the security and economic decline and foster socio-economic reintegration of the regions: 1. A Niger-Delta Continuous Development Agenda 2. A Niger-Delta Social Awareness program 3. A Niger-Delta Reform Agenda 4. North-East Comprehensive Economic and Infrastructure reintegration program 5. North-East Security Master Plan and; 6. North-East Social Reintegration initiative These Policy details are to be finalized in the Summit with the emphasis that Policy Implementation will be based on a system that: Judiciously allocates responsibilities and resources to the States and Local Governments Promote collaborative understanding and commitment of all tiers of Government regardless of Party affiliations in a truly federal spirit with the active participation by Private Investors and Development Partners. A date for the Unveiling of the Policy will be announced later. We invite the Press to work with us and let the CHANGE begin! Thank you. ATIKU 2015 Atiku stands
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 21:44:11 +0000
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