On May 29, Muhammadu Buhari will take office as President of
Nigeria. Expectations are high as most Nigerians expect the
coming government to wave a magic wand and make all their
problems disappear. The Buhari campaign which ran on a
‘CHANGE’ mantra made numerous promises to Nigerians during
the campaign.
Buhari’s campaign promises as presented by Vanguard
On Politics and Governance:
I, Muhammadu Buhari, believe that our politics is broken. Our
nation urgently needs fundamental political reform and
improvement in governance more transparency and accountable.
If you nominate me in December, 2014 and elect me in February
2015, my administration will:
1. Initiate action to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view
to devolving powers, duties, and responsibilities to states in order
to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit;
2. Strengthen INEC to reduce, if possible, eliminate electoral
malpractices in Nigerian’s political life;
3. Attract the best and brightest of our sons and daughters into
our politics and public service by aggressive recruitment of
private sector people, academics, and professionals within
Nigeria and in the Diaspora through internships, fellowships,
executive appointments, and special nomination to contest
elective offices;
4. Prevent the abuse and misuse of Executive, Legislative and
Public offices, through greater accountability, transparency, strict,
and implementable anti-corruption laws, through strengthening
and sanitising the EFCC and ICPC as independent entities;
5. Amend
the Constitution to remove immunity from prosecution for elected
officers in criminal cases;
6. Restructure governance for a leaner, more efficient, and
adequately compensated public service sector, while promoting
effective participation of the private sector for more robust job
creation programmes to employ the teaming youth.;
7. Require full disclosure in media outlets, of all government
contracts over N100m prior to award and during implementation
at regular intervals;
8. Reform and Strengthen the Justice System for efficient
administration and dispensation of justice with the creation of
special courts for accelerated hearing of corruption, drug
trafficking, terrorism and similar cases of national importance;
9. Fully enforce the Freedom of Information Act l so that
government held data sets can be requested and used by the
public and then such data sets be publish on regular basis;
10. Amend the Constitution to require Local governments to
publish their meeting minutes, service performance data, and
items of spending over N10M.
Security and Conflict Resolution
On National Security and Defence:
I will urgently secure the territorial integrity of the nation. I will
never leave the defence of the nation in the hands of Hunters,
Children, and Civilian JTF through the following:
1. Urgently address capacity building mechanisms of law
enforcement agents in terms of quantity and quality as this is
critical in safeguarding the sanctity of lives and property;
2. Establish a well trained, adequately equipped and goals driven
Serious Crime Squad to combat insurgencies, kidnapping, armed
robbery, ethno-religious and communal clashes, nationwide;
3. Consult and amend the Constitution to enable States and Local
Governments to create city, Local government and State Policing
systems, base on the resources available at each levels, to
address the peculiar needs of each community. I will therefore
work with the National Assembly to set and revised, when needed,
boundaries of operations, for Federal, State, and Local government
policing units, through new Criminal Justice legislation to replace
the Criminal Code, the Penal Code and the Police Act.
4. I will push for more robust support in the Security and
Economic stability of the West-African sub-region and African
Continent as a whole. I will seek and maintain close and frank
relationship with ALL of West Africa; Special relationship with
South Africa and its Sub-region; UK, USA, Canada, EU, Asia, and
the Middle East .
On Conflict Resolution, National Unity, And Social Harmony:
I will;
1. Establish a Conflict Resolution Commission to help prevent,
mitigate, and resolve civil conflicts within the polity;
2. Bring
permanent peace and solution to the insurgency issues in the
North-East; the Niger Delta; and other conflict prone states and
areas such as Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Borno, Abia, Taraba, Yobe,
and Kaduna in order to engender national unity and social
harmony;
3. Initiate policies to ensure that Nigerians are free to live and
work in any part of the country by removing state of origin, tribe,
ethnic and religious affiliations from documentation requirements
in our identification of citizens and replace these with State of
Residence and fashion out the appropriate minimal qualification
for obtaining such a state of residency, nation-wide.
On Foreign Policy:
I will;
1. Make regional integration a priority within ECOWAS including
free trade with a view to ensuring that common tariff currency are
in use by the end of my term in office, under Nigeria’s guidance
and leadership, base on the size of its market force;
2. Maintain a strong, close and frank relationship within the Gulf
of Guinea, the Commonwealth, South Africa and the rest of the
world.
3. Establish a special relationship with the leading emerging
markets like Brazil; Russia, India and China (BRIC) and other
strategic partners around the world.
The Economy & Infrastructure Base On the Economy:
I will;
1. Maintain sound Micro and macro-economic policy
environment, and run an efficient government and preserve the
independence of the Central Bank;
2. Restore financial confidence in the citizens and the world, by
putting in place a more robust monitoring, supervising, and
regulating of the financial institutions;
3. Make our economy one of the fastest growing emerging
economies in the world with a real GDP growth averaging at least
10-12% annually
4. As at 1999, Nigerian rate of unemployment stood at about 8%,
today it is estimated from official statistics to be close to 30%. I
will embark on vocational training, entrepreneurial and skills
acquisition scheme for graduates along with the creation of Small
Business Loan Guarantee Scheme to create at least 5 million new
jobs by 2019. A Small and Medium Enterprises Development
Commission will be created for this purpose. I will also encourage
State Governments to focus on employment creation, by matching
everyone job created in the same state.
5. Integrate the informal economy into the mainstream and
prioritize the full implementation of the National Identification
Scheme to generate the relevant data;
6. Expand domestic demand and will undertake associated public
works programmes to achieve this goal;
7. Embark on export and production diversification including
investment in infrastructure; promote manufacturing, through
Agro Based industries; and expand and promote sub-regional
trade through ECOWAS and AU;
8. Make Information Technology, Manufacturing, Agriculture and
Entertainment key drivers of our economy, by reviewing the
present reward system, which is based on certification, to that
based on skills, competencies, and performances;
9. Balance the Nigerian economy across regions by the creation
of 6 Regional Economic Development Agencies (REDAs) to act as
sub-regional hubs in order to promote healthy regional
competitiveness;
Put in place a N300bn Regional Growth Fund with an average of
N50bn in each geo-political region; to be managed by the REDAs,
to encourage private sector enterprise and to support places
currently reliant on only on the public sector, to migrate to a
private sector reality;
Amend the Constitution and the:
10. Land
Use Act to create freehold/leasehold interests in land along with
matching grants for states to create a nationwide electronic land
title register on a state by state basis;
11. Create an additional middle-class of at least 4 million new
home owners by 2019 by enacting a national mortgage single
digit interest rates for purchase of owner occupier houses as well
as review the collateral qualification to make funding for home
ownership easier, with a 15 to 30 year mortgage terms. This will
equally help our banking system migrate from short to long term
perspective of their role in sustaining the economy.
12. Create a Social Welfare Program of at least Five Thousand
Naira (N5000) that will cater for the 25 million poorest and most
vulnerable citizens upon the demonstration of children’s
enrolment in school and evidence of immunisation to help
promote family stability.
13. Provide allowances to the discharged but unemployed Youth
Corps members for Twelve (12) months while in the skills and
entrepreneurial development programmes.
14. Equate N1.00 to $1.00
On Agriculture:
I will;
1. Modernize the sector and change Nigeria from being a country
of self-subsistence farmers to that of a medium/large scale
farming nation/producer;
2. Create a nationwide food inspectorate division with a view to
improving nutrition and eliminating food-borne hazards
3. Inject sufficient funds to the Agricultural sector to create more
agro-allied jobs by way of loans at nominal interest rates for
capital investment on medium and commercial scale cash crops;
4. Guarantee a minimum price for all cash crops and facilitate
storage of agricultural products to overcome seasonal shortages
of selected food crops.
5. Move the nation to an all year round small, medium, and
commercial farming through a coordinated integrative irrigation of
our existing dams as well as creation of more dam to collect the
over flooding waters, nationwide.
6. Revive our Agricultural Research Institutes that are in a state of
comatose;
7. Review and strengthened Veterinary practices nationwide.
On Infrastructure:
I will;
1. Review the Public Private Partnership (PPP) enabling
environment with a view to addressing the legal, regulatory and
operational bottlenecks, challenging the effective administration
of the system, by introducing enabling legislation. In addition, I
will create a National Infrastructural Development Bank to provide
loans at nominal interest rates, exclusively for this sector;
2. Generate, transmit and distribute electricity on a 24/7 basis
whilst simultaneously ensuring the development of sustainable/
renewable energy, by 2019.
3. Embark on a National Infrastructural Development Programme
as a Public Private Partnership that will
(a) ensure 5,000km of Superhighway including service trunks and
(b) building of up to 6,800km of modern railway completed by
2019;
4. Enact new legal and regulatory frameworks to establish
independent regulation and incentives to accelerate public and
private sector investment in seaports, railways, and inland
waterways;
5. Embark on PPP schemes that will ensure every one of the 36
states has one functional airport, with all 21st Century safety
tools for effective commercial air travel.
On the Oil and Gas Industry:
I will:
1. Revive and reactivate our minimally performing Refineries to
optimum capacity;
2. Make the industry and Nigeria one of the world leading/cutting
edge centres for clean oil and gas technology; also producing
leading world Oil and Gas technologist, scientists, and owing
mega structure installations, drilling, processing, and production
facilities and engineers. These facilities and scientists will be
supported with the best services and research facilities.
3. Fully
develop the sector’s capacity to absorb more of the nation’s new
graduate in the labour market. The sector will be funded to
produce more home-grown, but world class engineers, scientists,
technologist, etc.;
4. Modernise the NNPC and make it the national energy
champion. I will consider breaking it up into more efficient,
commercially driven units; and may strip it of its regulatory
powers, so as to enable it tap into international capital market;
5. Enforce the government master plan for oil companies to end
flaring that pollutes the air and damages the communities and
people’s health and ensure that they sell at least half of their gas
produced within Nigeria;
6. Speedily pass the much-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)
and ensure that local content issues are fully addressed
7. Make Nigeria the world’s leading exporter of LNG through the
creation of strategic partnerships.
8. Stabilise oil price
The Society & Human Capital Development On Education:
I will;
1. Fully review provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act
with emphasis on gender equity in primary, secondary school
enrolment whilst improving the quality and substance of our
schools, through outcome based education, that address the
individual, family, and societal roles in education; and the
associative skills and competencies that go with these
responsibilities;
2. Targeting up to 20% of our annual budget for this critical sector
whilst making substantial investments in training quality teachers
at all levels of the educational system;
3. Implement a performance based education, predicated on
outcomes, skills, and competences as against the current
certificate based qualification. I will adjust the reward system
accordingly too. This way, exams malpractice and certificate
forgery will be resolved once and for all. Young men and women
interested in real liberal arts education, based on a true
understanding of scientific, the humanistic, and the social
sciences will fill our classrooms to be prepared for future
leadership of the nation;
4. Enhance teacher training and improve the competence of
teachers in the light of the 21st Century and beyond
understanding of the learner types, intelligence types, as the
multiple assessment types, in order to open up learning for all our
children types. The era of one student type will give way to an all
learner type for our children and young people as well as adults
who want to return to the classroom to sharpen their skills,
competencies, and sensibilities. This re-engineering of our
education will be followed with a clearly thought out and vigorous
national inspection programmes;
5. Make learning experiences more meaningful for children as the
nation’s education will no longer be a preparation for life, but life
itself. Our children will be democratised for education, rather than
be educated for democracy. This view of education will make
educating our children more cost-effective in the long run;
6. Provide One Meal a day for all elementary/primary/Almajiri
schools That will create jobs in Agriculture, Catering, and Delivery
Services
7. Develop and promote effective use of innovative teaching
methods/materials in our schools;
8. Ensure a greater proportion of expenditure on university
education is devoted to helping our youth to understand the
juxtaposition of Science, Technology, the Humanities and the
Social Sciences.
9. Establish at least six new universities of Science and
Technology with satellite campuses in various states. These six
universities should be fully equipped with ICT technologies in
order to attract and encourage small and medium scale ICT
enterprises after their university education;
10.
Establish technical colleges and vocational centres in each state
of the federation;
11. Provide more conducive environment for private sector
participation in all levels of education. Re-authorised the NUC,
TETFUN, JAMB, etc, Acts to enable Private institutions of Higher
learning to benefit from research funds and programmes that will
serve the national good;
12. Establish six centres of excellence to address the needs of
special education;
On Healthcare:
I will;
1. Prioritise the reduction of the infant mortality rate substantially;
reduce maternal mortality rates to the levels acceptable by the
World Health Organisation; reduce HIV/AIDS and other infectious
diseases drastically and improve life expectancy by an additional
10 years on average through our National Healthy Living program;
2. Increase the number of physicians from 19 per 1000 population
to 50 per 1000 through deliberate medication education as
epitomize by nations such as Ghana. I will increase national
health expenditure per person per annum to about N50,000 (from
the less than N10,000 currently);
3. Increase the quality of all federal government owned hospitals
to world class standard by 2019;
4. Invest in cutting edge technology such as tele-medicine in all
major health centers in the country through partnership
programmes with communities and the private sector;
5. Provide free ante-natal care for pregnant women; free health
care for babies and children up to school going age and for the
aged; and free treatment for those afflicted with infectious
diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS;
6. Boost the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals and make non
adulterated drugs readily available.
Set an effective prosecution and punishment systems, for those
importing or adulterating drugs in the country.
7. The enhancement of the Epidemiological Units / Centres for
Diseas Control to meet up with Global standards in containment
of disease outbreaks, proper vaccine storage and research;
8. Create an Insurance Policy for our Journalists as the nation
faces hard times and our Journalists face more dangers in the
discharge of their investigative work, to educate Nigerians in their
rights and responsibilities.
9. Ban medical tourism by our politicians from May 29, 2015.
On Youth, Sports and Culture:
I will;
1. Provide the opportunities such as setting up functional
recreational facilities, Library with e-services, Community Centers,
in collaboration with States, Local Government Authorities, Local
Development Areas, etc for youth to realize, harness, and develop
their potentials to the fullest, in order to facilitate the emergence
of the new generation of citizens, who will be committed to the
sustenance of good governance and service to the people and the
country;
2. Establish Zonal world-class sports academies and training
institutes and ensure that Nigeria occupies a place of pride in
global sports and athletics;
3. Revive and restructure the Nigerian Football League and put
incentives in place to make it as competitive as other national
leagues
4. Put in place measures to identify talents early and ensure their
participation in local and international games to enable them to
be true professionals;
5. Help as well as mandate schools and communities to create
neighborhood playgrounds/sports centre. I will create matching
support funds for communities to acquire the needed equipment
to develop skills and competencies;
6. Assist Nollywood to fully develop into world class movie
industry that can compete effectively with Hollywood and
Bollywood in due course. I will support the creative and
performing arts with the necessary environment where by our
great entertainers do not end their lives in abject poverty as is
currently the case.
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