APC’s Manifesto National Security

APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari

Urgently address capacity building of law enforcement agents in terms of quantity and quality as this is critical in safeguarding the sanctity of lives and property;

Establish a well-trained, adequately equipped and goals driven Serious Crime Squad to combat terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, militants, ethno-religious and communal clashes nationwide; Begin widespread consultations to amend the Constitution to enable States and Local Governments to employ State and Community Police to address the peculiar needs of each community.

This would mean setting boundaries for Federal, State and Community Police through new Criminal Justice legislation to replace the Criminal Code, the Penal Code and the Police Act.

Push for more support in the security and economic stability of the sub-region (ECOWAS) and AU as a whole and maintain a strong, close and frank relationship with West Africa, South Africa, UK, USA, Canada, and other African countries.

Conflict Resolution, National Unity, Social Harmony
Establish a Conflict Resolution Commission to help prevent, mitigate and resolve civil conflicts within the polity;

Bring permanent peace and solution to the Niger Delta and other conflict prone areas such as Plateau, Taraba, Bauchi, Borno and Abia in order to engender national unity and social harmony; 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 and replace those with state of residence.

Job Creation And The Economy
Maintain sound macro-economic policy environment, run an efficient government and preserve the independence of the Central Bank;

Restore and strengthen financial confidence by putting in place a more robust monitoring, supervising and regulating of all financial institutions;

Make our economy one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world with a real GDP growth averaging 10% annually;

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 1 million new jobs every year, for the foreseeable future;

Integrate the informal economy into the mainstream and prioritize the full implementation of the National Identification Scheme to generate the relevant data;

Expand domestic demand and consider undertaking associated public works programmes; Embark on export and production diversification including investment in infrastructure;

promote manufacturing through agro based industries and expand sub-regional trade through ECOWAS and AU;

Make Information Technology, Manufacturing, Agriculture and Entertainment key drivers of our economy; Balance the economy across regions by the creation of 6 new Regional Economic Development Agencies (REDAs) to act as champions of sub-regional competitiveness;

Put in place a N300bn regional growth fund (average of N50bn in each geo-political region) to be managed by the REDAs, encourage private sector enterprise and support to help places currently reliant on the public sector;

Amend the Constitution and the 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;

Create additional middle-class of at least 2 million new homeowners in our first year in government and 1 million annually thereafter; by enacting a national mortgage system that will lend at single digit interest rates for purchase of owner-occupier houses.

Agriculture And Food Security
Modernise the sector and change Nigeria from being a country of self-subsistence farmers to that of a medium/commercial scale farming nation/producer; Create a nationwide food inspectorate division with a view to improving nutrition and eliminating food-borne hazards;

Inject extra N30bn 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;

Guarantee a minimum price for selected crops and facilitate storage of agricultural products as and when necessary.

Industrialisation
Formulate a robust industrialisation policy and provide a conducive environment for a private sector led industrial base for the economy, promote entrepreneurship that would help usher in new industries, new jobs, new knowledge and utilization of information and communication technologies;

Create growth centers through the promotion of industrialisation in all regions by encouraging the use of local resources.

Promote innovation by investing heavily in research, development, science and technology. Support diversification of our economy from export of primary materials to value added goods through supporting the establishment of a solid industrial base. Ensure that key agricultural products such as cocoa and rubber go through value addition as opposed to exporting raw materials for industries in other countries.

Infrastructure
Undertake an urgent review of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) enabling environment with a view to addressing the legal, regulatory and operational challenges including introducing enabling legislation where necessary.

In addition, we shall create a National Infrastructural Development Bank to provide loans at nominal interest rates exclusively for this sector to help rebuild our infrastructure and provide gainful employment;

Generate, transmit and distribute from current 5,000 – 6,000 MW to at least 20,000 MW of electricity within four years and increasing to 50,000 MW with a view to achieving 24/7 uninterrupted power supply within ten years, whilst simultaneously ensuring development of sustainable/renewable energy; Embark on a National Infrastructural Development Programme as a PPP that will ensure the (a) construction of 3,000km of Superhighway including service trunks and (b) building of up to 4,800km of modern railway lines – one third to be completed by 2019;

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;

Embark on PPP schemes with a view to ensuring that at least one functioning airport is available in each of the 36 states.

Oil And Gas
Industry Make the industry and Nigeria one of the world leading/cutting edge centers for clean oil and gas technologists, scientists, mega structure installation, drilling, processing, production engineers supported with best services and research facilities; Fully develop the sector’s capacity to absorb more of the nation’s new graduates in the labour market.

The sector will produce more home-grown world class engineers and scientists; Modernise the NNPC and make it the national energy champion. Consider breaking it up into more efficient, commercially driven units and strip it of its regulatory powers and enable it tap into international capital market;

Enforce the government master plan for oil companies to end flaring that pollutes the air and damages people’s health and ensure that they sell at least half of their gas production within Nigeria;

Speedily pass the much-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and ensure that local content issues are fully addressed; Make Nigeria the world’s leading exporter of LNG through the creation of strategic partnerships.

Education
Fully implement and enforce the provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act with emphasis on gender equity in primary and secondary school enrollment whilst improving the quality and substance of our schools;

Targeting up to 15% of our annual budget for this critical sector whilst making substantial investments in training quality teachers at all levels of the educational system; Implement performance based education as against the current certificate based qualification;

Enhance teacher training and improve the competence of teachers along with vigorous national inspection; Make learning experiences more meaningful for children and make education more cost-effective;

Develop and promote effective use of innovative teaching methods/materials in schools;

Ensure a greater proportion of expenditure on university education is devoted to Science and Technology with more spaces allocated to science and technology oriented courses; Establish at least six new universities of science and technology with satellite campuses in various states;

Establish technical colleges and vocational centers in each state of the federation; Provide more conducive environment for private sector participation in all levels of education; Establish six centers of excellence to address the needs of special education;

Healthcare
Prioritize the reduction of the infant mortality rate by 2019 to 3%; reduce maternal mortality by more than 70%; reduce HIV/AIDS infection rate by 50% and other infectious diseases by 75%; improve life expectancy by additional 10 years on average through our national healthy living program;

Increase the number of physicians from 19 per 1000 population to 50 per 1000; increase national health expenditure per person per annum to about N50, 000 (from less than N10, 000 currently);

Increase the quality of all federal government owned hospitals to world class standard within five years; Invest in cutting edge technology such as telemedicine in all major health centers in the country through active investment and partnership programs with the private sector;

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;

Boost the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals and make non adulterated drugs readily available.

Senior Citizens, Youth Sports And Culture
Ensure timely payment of retirement benefits for all pensioned senior citizens and create a poverty safety net for all aged citizens above the age of 65;

Provide the opportunities for youths to realize, harness, and develop their full potentials and to facilitate the emergence of a new generation of citizens committed to the sustenance of good governance and service to the people and the country;

Establish world class sports academy and training institutes and ensure that Nigeria occupies a place of pride in global sports and athletics;

Revive the Nigerian football league and put incentives in place to make it as competitive as other national leagues; Put in place measures to identify talents early and ensure their participation in local and international games to enable them become professionals;

Mandate schools and communities to create playgrounds/sports centers with needed equipment to develop skills;

Assist Nollywood to fully develop into world-class movie industry that can compete effectively with Hollywood and Bollywood in due course.

Women Empowerment
Ensure the rights of women are protected as enshrined in our Constitution; Guarantee that women are adequately represented in government appointments and provide greater opportunities in education, job creation and economic empowerment; Recognise and protect women empowerment and gender equality with special emphasis on economic activities in development and in rural areas;

Promote the concept of reserving a minimum number of seats in the National Assembly for women.

Environment
Ensure compliance with policies and measures to halt the pollution of rivers and waterways in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country; Create shelter belts in states bordering the Sahara Desert to mitigate and reverse the effects of the expanding desert;

Support and accelerate the implementation of regional water transfer initiatives across the country; Adopt a holistic approach to erosion and shoreline protection across the country; Create teams of volunteers to plant and nurture economically viable trees in arid regions;

Restructure the Ecological Fund Office to enable it meet today’s environmental challenges; Regulate the timber industry to ensure that double the number of trees felled are planted by the loggers;

Ensure full compliance with town-planning and environmental laws and edicts. Foreign Policy Make regional integration a priority within ECOWAS including free trade with a view to ensuring that a common tariff and currency are achieved by 2020 under Nigeria’s guidance and leadership;

Maintain strong, close and frank relationships within the Gulf of Guinea, the Commonwealth, South Africa and the rest of the world; Establish a new special relationship with the leading emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and other strategic partners around the world.