The Presidency has described the manifesto of the newly-registered All Progressives’ Congress (APC) as incapable of taking Nigeria to the next level as being claimed by the leaders of the party.
This was disclosed on Friday by the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, who said that the fact that the APC put security as number 27 on its manifesto is an indication that they were not serious about the welfare of Nigerians.
Gulak said Nigerians were not fools to entrust their lives to such a party.
The APC had on Wednesday in Abuja unfolded a seven-point cardinal programme, which included war against corruption, food security, integrated transport network and free education, devolution of power, accelerated economic growth and affordable health care
He said it was so sad that opposition party leaders, who were known for their dictatorship, could turn around to say that President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party were not doing well.
“You can see that they (APC chiefs) are quarrelling over manifesto. It is still inconclusive.
“That so-called manifesto can’t take Nigerians to the next level of development.
“Which serious party will put security on number 27 on its manifesto?
“They are saying the President and the PDP are not doing well and yet they are not talking about the railway that has started working again; they are not talking about the Almajiri schools that are enrolling many pupils; and they are not talking about the security challenge that the government is tackling headlong.
“It is so sad that opposition leaders don’t think? Who are their leaders? Is it (Bola) Tinubu, who replaced a cerebral person like Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora in the Senate with his wife and appointed his daughter, who is not a trader as Iyaloja of Lagos?
“Nigerians are not fools, they can’t entrust their lives in the hands of people like that. They (the APC leaders) have yet to start,” Gulak said.
In its response to the criticisms, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed said Nigerians had only harvested sorrow and blood from the Jonathan administration.
He stated, “The joke is actually on the Presidency as Nigerians have only harvested sorrow and blood from President Goodluck Jonathan’s visionless administration.”
The manifesto of the APC has also come under criticism from both the All Progressives’ Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Labour Party (LP).
While APGA suggested that APC should be judged by the performance of its governors, LP said Nigerians should no longer be deceived.
The factional National Chairman of APGA, Mr. Maxi Okwu, said that elected public officials should implement party manifestoes and not individual programmes.
He said, “My position is that we should assess the APC from the performance of their governors. When you assess their governors, you will be able to project how APC is going to look like. You and I have been in Nigeria and to me, there is no obvious difference between the APC, PDP and other political parties.
“You can see the performance of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, and that is personal to him. These days, performance of elected government officials is a matter of individuals and not the parties, as we had in the Unity Party of Nigeria and National Party of Nigeria in the Second Republic.
“We don’t have a clear vision of the APC; parties differ from the other in terms of programmes and policies and we are not yet there. The cardinal programme of the UPN was very clear and all the UPN governors went for it.
“But now in Nigeria, it is a matter of individual governors and their idiosyncrasies. The party must own the ideology and also the programmes, anybody on the platform of any party must have to conform.
“The National Assembly is made up of so many parties and the (other) holier-than-thou party like the APC. They always join the PDP majority to share money in executive session. I expected that being in the opposition, they should walk out and refuse to share in public funds. It happened in the UPN and they walked out when the NPN did something wrong.”
In his reaction, the National Chairman of LP, Mr. Dan Nwayanwu, said the APC lacked the magic power to increase power generation.
He said, “Anybody can claim anything, the implementation and practicality is another matter. The problem we have in power generation and distribution didn’t start today, didn’t start yesterday. It started even when those claiming they will produce 40,000 megawatts were in power and there is no doubt about that.
“So how will they now come back and bring the magic wand with 40,000 megawatts? Nigerians can no longer be deceived. All we should do is for all Nigerians to come together and improve electricity supply. It is their right to claim anything they like.”
Still hitting back at the PDP, Mohammed said, “The ASUU strike is entering its sixth week with no solution in sight. The entire landscape is dotted with deaths and dangers. Millions of youths are roaming the streets daily aimlessly. Sixty-nine per cent of our people are living below the poverty line. Poverty in the rural areas is 73 per cent.
“Under Jonathan’s watch, 40 per cent of Nigerian children are stunted, nine per cent wasted or thin and 23 per cent underweight. Clearly, Nigerians know who is fooling them.”
And in a reaction to the Labour Party, Mohammed alleged that the party was suffering from “very short and selective memory.’
He said, “The defunct Alliance for Democracy under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu pioneered the independent power project in 1999 before the Labour Party was even registered as a political party.
“Fashola, another APC governor, is again blazing the trail in captive energy with the opening of two completed IPP of 10 megawatts each in Marina and Ikeja. We have the experience; we have the capacity; we have done it successfully before, so we shall deliver the 40,000MW as promised.”