We commend Professor Chukwuma Soludo’s for his insightful and incisive article published on
January 26th in the Vanguard Newspaper, The Nation Newspaper and major online news
platforms under the above title. We agree with Professor Soludo that if the political parties,
including ours, must justify the overwhelming enthusiasm of Nigerians about the 2015 elections
we must remain focused on the issues that matter most to them, which is the progress of our
country and the well being of our people. Indeed, this has been the driving conviction of our
party and our campaign all along.
While we accept his critical comments on our party, more for the intentions than for the letters,
we believe some clarifications would be quite necessary. We wish to emphasise that our party,
the All Progressives Congress (APC), presents a real option to Nigerians. Professor Soludo
expressed the sentiments of most Nigerians when he spoke about the incalculable damage that
the PDP under President Jonathan has done to the Nigerian economy and the unprecedented
hardship that his six years of the locust has brought upon Nigerians.
However, the APC does not intend to ride into power on a mere rhetoric of 'change'. The change
that we propose is fundamental in many ways as it is critical to the very survival of our country.
This in itself presents a major distinction between our party and the PDP. Perhaps, the most
compelling argument against the People's Democratic Party today is that its government and
leadership does not even see that Nigeria is in trouble. While majority of our people wallow in
abject poverty, and the gap in inequality gets ever wider by the day, yet PDP has basked in self-
celebration of imagined accomplishments. How can a party or a government even begin to solve
a problem that it does not believe exist? Like in all things, PDP is stuck in denial.
APC does not promise Eldorado. Neither our candidate nor our manifesto has made such
promise. Our programs are based on the critical awareness of the difficult task ahead, while
holding out a ray of hope to our people. The promises that we make reflect our innermost belief
that the people must be at the centre of development. Especially, we believe that any economic
growth that leaves the majority of the people behind, and does not protect the weakest and the
vulnerable among us, is merely delusionary.
Professor Soludo has drawn our attention to the striking but unfortunate similarity in the
nation's economy in 1982-1984 period and what we are experiencing today. Back then, a period
of sustained high crude oil prices had also ironically led to unsustainable debt levels and
introduction of the austerity measure. Just as it happened more than three decades ago, it is
difficult to explain how a sustained period of oil boom should ultimately lead to austerity
measure except to say that huge opportunities that the period of boom presented were frittered
away by mindless profligacy, wanton corruption and bad economic choices made by the PDP
government, which has rewarded a protracted period of boom with uncertainty and austerity and
is still asking for another mandate to do more damage.
If we sound upbeat in our manifesto, it is because we recognise that this crisis period also
presents us a great opportunity to restructure the economy in a way that improves the quality of
lives of our people by ensuring that our economic growth is job-led. Our party has identified job
creation as a critical priority of government. We have noted with concerns that Nigeria’s
unemployment rate of 23.9% should be seen as a national crisis. And if this government was
more sensitive to the enormity of the challenge that this presents, it would be reluctant to jump
all over the place in self celebration while so many of our youths are wasting away. In the
immediate future, our priority is to tackle unemployment and provide good jobs by embarking on
a massive programme of public works, building houses, roads, railways, ports and energy plants.
Over the long term, we believe we must wean Nigeria off its dangerous addiction to oil, which
currently provides 80% of our spending leaving us at the mercy of volatile international oil
prices. Even as a federalist party, we believe that an economy that is dependent on a commodity
that is so dangerously exposed to price volatility must always prepare for eventuality through
savings and investments once the agreed thresholds are met. What we disagree with is the
unilateral and arbitrary deductions in accruable revenues in a way that hampers the
development of the federating States.
Going by the government's own statistics, is it mere coincidence that the three States with the
lowest unemployment rate - Osun, Lagos and Kwara - are all APC States? This is evidence of
our Party's ability to tackle this problem head-on. APC’s policy thrust will create an enabling
environment and incentives for the formal and informal sectors to lead the quest for job creation.
This will be done in addition to skills acquisition and enterprise- training to ensure our youths
are equipped with the appropriate skills to take these jobs. Merely introducing a National
Qualification Standards would power a whole new world of opportunities for our artisans by
launching them into the international job markets. We note the issue that Professor Soludo
picked with our figure of 720,000 jobs. We need to clarify that this is limited to immediate direct
employment opportunities from public projects and maintenance works only. Our manifesto
actually promises a lot more jobs but we see that as the product of the enabling environment we
seek to create for private sector-led job creation, especially in high opportunity sectors like
agriculture, construction, entertainment, tourism, ICT and sports. APC economic policy is driven
by an overwhelming concern for the level of inequality in our country today. Specifically, to quote
from our manifesto, we intend to achieve our job-creation agenda through:
Massive public works programme especially the building of a national railway system (complete
with tramline systems for our major cities), interstate roads, and ports. These projects must
commence early in the life of the new administration.
Establishing a new Federal Coordinating Agency - Build Nigeria - to fast track and manage
these public works programmes with emphasis on Nigerian labour.
Embarking vigorously on industrialization, public works and agricultural expansion.
Diversifying the economy through a national industrial policy and innovative private-sector
incentives that will move us away from over reliance on oil into value-added production
especially manufacturing.
Reviving textile and other industries that have been rendered dormant because of
inappropriate economic policies.
Reinvigorating the solid mineral sector by revamping our aged mining legislation and
attracting new investment.
Developing a new generation of domestic oil refineries to lower import costs, enhance our
energy independence and create jobs.
Working with state governments to turn the country into Africa's food basket through a new
system of grants and interest free loans, and the mechanization of agriculture.
Encouraging and promoting the use of sports as a source of job creation, entertainment and
recreation.
Creating a knowledge economy by making Nigeria an IT /professional/Telecom services
outsourcing destination hub to create millions of jobs.
Filling the huge gap in middle level technical manpower with massive investment in technical
and tradesmen's skills education.
Ensuring that all foreign contractors to include a plan of developing local capacity (technology
transfer).
Creation of six Regional Development Agencies covering the country with representatives from
the Federal Government, States and the private sector to manage a new N300billion growth
fund.
Our obsession with job creation stems from the fact that we believe we must focus on actions
that would serve the twin purpose of closing the gap in inequality and creating opportunities for
our people, especially the youth. Our current situation is dangerous for the stability of the
country. The Human Development Index position ranks Nigeria 152 of 169 countries surveyed.
This is incompatible with the present administration’s insistence on celebrating GDP growth and
our absolute economic size hinged on a routine rebasing exercise. As many commentators have
pointed out, rebasing the GDP is not an achievement. Rather, it is a mere statistical adjustment
that does not impact on the real or imagined standards of living of the people. So, we also
wonder what this PDP government is celebrating. And maybe it is not that difficult to explain
when one discovers that a small elite has captured the state and converted our commonwealth
into private gain, becoming disproportionately rich from massive corruption while poverty has
deepened. The income gap and illicit capital flight are growing alarmingly. Instead of investing
in modernizing our economy, massive theft has starved the country of desperately needed
resources for infrastructure and public services and left us dangerously dependent on fluctuating
global oil prices for our economic survival. For the ordinary Nigerian, the much-touted economic
growth cited by the present administration has not translated into employment or development.
Over 100 million Nigerians are struggling to make ends meet on a regular basis.
Furthermore, we understand Professor Soludo’s concern on the cost of implementing our various
programmes, especially those relating to social welfare. The enormity of this challenge is not lost
on us. We also know that sometimes, going into government is like buying a "no testing"
electronic equipment. You may never know the true state of what you are buying until you get in.
We want to assure Professor Soludo and other likeminded Nigerians that our policy team is
looking at all the options – including the worst-case scenario of a completely empty treasury.
We are however confident that by blocking avenues of wastages and corruption alone, savings
could run into billions of Naira that could be deployed for productive use. Even so, we agree with
Professor Soludo that savings from corruption alone will not tackle the enormous challenges we
are likely to confront in government. We are however comforted by the fact that a four-year
period provides opportunity for phased implementation while growing the resource base as well
as changing the culture of graft while reducing the cost of governance.
Quite significantly, we know that periods of economic downturn also potentially provide
opportunity to lay the foundation for real economic restructuring and development; and we can
reflect on how Singapore under Premier Lee Kuan Yew and the United States of America under
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used historic moments of economic downturn in their
countries to launch a period of sustained development and a new deal for their people. General
Buhari has never claimed to have the magic wand nor the answers to all of the country’s
problems. His greatest assets would be his moral authority borne out of his self-sacrificing
integrity, his sincerity of purpose and his patriotic zeal to return Nigeria to the path of progress
and genuine development. He is committed to utilize competent and committed people of
integrity wherever he may find them. This is precisely why he promised when flagging off his
campaign in Port Harcourt on January 5, 2015 that if voted into power, it would be an
opportunity to, in his words, "finally assemble a competent team of Nigerians to efficiently
manage this country”. This is a clear sign that a meritocratic process will govern the
appointment of those that would be entrusted with managing our economy and country. His stint
as Head of State shows a track record of using self-sacrificing professionals in his governance
team. His previous cabinet included the likes of Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, Professor Tam David-West
and Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is determined to lead Nigeria in the direction of change
that is so urgently required. And even as we prepare for the immediate rescue mission in 2015,
our minds are also set on building the necessary democratic institutions that would entrench our
ideological conviction as a progressive and people-centred party. A National Progressives Policy
Institute is part of this plan in the near future but we are very clear about the enormity of the task
ahead. We would not seek to underplay it. We are supremely confident that we are equal to the
task and we appreciate the commitment of majority of Nigerians to this quest for change.

Dr. Kayode Fayemi heads the Policy, Research and Strategy Directorate of the APC Presidential
Campaign.
saharareporters.com/2015/01/27/re-buhari-v-jonathan-beyond-election-dr-kayode-fayemi

My main motherfhuckin man

thaoriginator:
My main motherfhuckin man

Intellectual arena where Soludo and Fayemi dance to the music understood only by the initiated.

This guy is brilliant! This is the real son of the soil, Ekiti!