The All Progressives Congress (APC) has written the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Bashir Machina as the candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
APC, in a letter signed by its National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and the National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, dated 12 October, asked the electoral commission to recognise Mr Machina as directed by Federal High Court, Damaturu.
“We write to notify the Commission of the attached judgment dated 28th September 2022 and Order dated 5th October 2022 from the Federal High Court, Damaturu Judicial Division, directing the Commission to accept and recognize BASHIR SHERIFF as the Party’s candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District, Yobe State and to publish same accordingly.
“Above is for your information and necessary action, please,” the statement reads.
The Federal High Court had rejected the nomination of Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the candidate of the APC, and ruled that Mr Machina is the authentic candidate of the party having won the legally recognised primary supervised by the electoral body.
Background
Mr Lawan lost the 8 June APC presidential primaries. However, the ruling party had submitted his name as the candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District.
The development prompted Mr Machina to file a suit praying the court should rule that he was the bona fide candidate of the party.
He also asked the court to order the INEC to include his name in its final register of candidates for the National Assembly election.
The court ruled that Mr Lawan did not participate in the legally recognised primary election of the APC to select its candidate in the election held on 28 May.
he interaction, according to spokesman of NEF, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, was for the candidates to share their ideas and vision for the country if they become President
“It will influence our decisions in terms of who possesses the best ideas, the best thinking
“This is a genuine attempt to get to understand what the candidates have for the North”.
Speaking at the occasion, Atiku said his agenda was focused on
economic and political transformation of a united Nigeria.
He said his development agenda had five elements- restore Nigeria’s unity, national security, build a dynamic economy for prosperity, improve education delivery and devolve more powers to the states and Local Governments.
“My five point Development agenda is a national agenda, it identifies where we are today and where we want to be as a nation and outlines how we will get there”, he said.
He promised to grow the economy bigger and faster to achieve a GDP of approximately 900 billion by 2030.
This, according to him, will raise Nigeria’s GDP per capita from the current level of approximately 200 to 500, with additional impact on jobs and property.
He noted that although the current growth and projections are significantly lower, Nigeria has the potential to become one of the 15 global economies.
Speaking further, the former Vice President said for the north to catch up with other parts of the country, it must grow its economy.”
“This is what I proposed in my covenant with Nigerians
“Because I ask, where are we going to get the money? The government doesn’t have the money.
“We must invite the private sector to come, give them tax relief, give them whatever relief they are looking for, ask them to invest and make sure our rail, roads, electricity work in the north. Let them recoup their investments…”
Atiku also noted that in the first republic, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy in the first republic.
“Those of you of my generation know that we were educated from revenue from agriculture and taxation not oil.
“We abandoned agriculture because of revenue from oil.
“Agriculture is one top priority I intend to make sure the north receive support so that we can reinvent our agriculture.
“Medium small enterprises are what provide prosperity and employment to the lower and middle income earners in our country.
“I give you an a example. I have a micro standard finance bank which is today one of the best in the country and it empowers virtually only women.
“As a result of that we have moved 45,000 families out of poverty in my state (Adamawa).
“That is why I proposed that we will set aside $10 billion to promote small businesses for young people who graduate from school to start their businesses.
He also said the education system will be revolutionized
“We will make sure that entrepreneurship is part of our curriculum in schools.
“If you have attended my university in Yola, whether you are studying law, engineering or political science, you must study entrepreneurship, it is a compulsory subject.
“This is beacuse we want people to create jobs when they graduate from school.”
Atiku also reiterated his desire for restructuring if elected president.
He said more powers will be given to States and Local Governments
He said, “we will devolve more powers to the states and Local Governments. When in 2004, when I started advocating for restructuring, I had a very, very strong opposition from the north.
“Today the northern governors and the people have bought into restructuring.
“Restructuring simply means giving our states and Local Governments more powers and responsibilities and also more fundings to execute their individual programmed in their respective states.
“It does not mean you will get less from what you are getting but it simply means you have more responsibilities.
On their parts, the PRP and the SDP candidates vowed to eradicate poverty.
Adebayo the SDP, candidate, lamented that poverty is an insult on the face of Nigeria. “We have poverty because we have no government, what we have now as a government is official embarrassment.
“Since 2016, the revenue keeps getting narrow and the borrowing increasing. After my research on this APC government, I found out that they don’t know where Nigeria money is, President Muhammadu Buhari doesn’t know where Nigeria money is”, he said.
According to him, “80 per cent of the crude oil we produce is stolen and every month we loose about 4 billion Dollars monthly, we loose more from gas.
“The poverty we see in Nigeria today is a deliberate poverty caused by wickedness and carelessness of those in the government”.
He further lamented high rate of unemployment and poor financial management in the country.
He said “Management of finance and management of money is where the government makes us poor, because government is not controlling his budget we are having wasted of government money.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is run by politicians which is also corrupt, money that is suppose to flow into business are flowing into politics. The mismanagement is leading to inflation”.
According to him, “Politicians are playing bad politics thereby using religion and ethnicity to cause disunity and tension among Nigerians.”
On his part, Abiola of the PRP spoke about his three point agenda aimed at addressing poverty, insecurity unemployment and corruption. Abiola promised to strengthen the economy and make the country an export oriented hub of Africa.
He added that it was time the young people were allowed to taste leadership in Nigeria, stressing that he will build on his late father’s democractic values.
He promised to unite Nigerians to live peacefully with one another to promote economic prosperity.
“I will use geographical and regional diversities of Nigeria for strength, unity and purposeful leadership and development”, he said.
He argued that the country could not get it right in her strive for develpment after six decades of independence because, people at the grassroots whom he noted should be the first priority of policy makers had been abandoned to fend for themselves without any form of concrete support from governments.
Three more presidential candidates are expected to appear for the interactive session on Monday.
Credit: This Day