…as Buhari, Atiku shun debate
Presidential candidates of the three parties participating in the ongoing debate are reeling out solutions to some of the challenges bedeviling the country.
Candidates of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Oby Ezekwesili; Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Fela Durotoye; and the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu all showed up for the debate.
However, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar who breezed in from the United States of America (USA) on Saturday evening both shunned the debate.
Asked what they will do to reduce cost of governance, candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Fela Durotoye, said he would ride in bus, rather than expensive cars if elected as president.
Durotoye, who said he was running for Presidency because leadership and governance had failed to meet Nigerians’ expectations, said the cost of governance has been unwieldy and that he would cut cost drastically if elected as president.
The ANN candidate also submitted that in order to create 30 million jobs, Nigeria must fix roads, make agric sector functional, and fix the housing sector.
Durotoye lamented that, for the last 50 years, the nation had been ruled and not led, promising virile leadership if elected as president.
For the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu for the nation’s economy to pick up, it must decide what type of economy it wants — whether capitalist, socialist, or any other system as necessary.
In tackling agitations particularly in the South East, Moghalu said that the reason there has been agitation for Biafra is because people from certain sections of the country don’t feel belonged.
He promised to practice inclusive governance if elected, noting that a huge percentage of the armed forces come from a particular section of the country, depriving other parts of the country the opportunity to serve in the Forces.
He said that if every Nigerian is given a sense of belonging, federating nationalities won’t be agitating for separation and new statehood.
The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Oby Ezekwesili, said that the nation needs the disruption of the status quo if it must move forward.
She is of the opinion that the problem of the nation has to do with leadership.
Drawing from her experience in governance and corporate world, Ezekwesili, in her opening speech, said her background provides the knowledge she needs to propel Nigeria to greater heights if elected as president.