MAMORA: APC Administration Would Live Up To Expectations

Leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC) are already telling Nigerians to exercise patience and shouldn’t expect miracles when the party takes over power. Why the excuses, when the party promised heaven on earth during campaigns?
WELL, the fact that people voted for the party is a testimony that people really desire changes.

And if that change has come by way of something that has never happened before in the country happening, which is an opposition party taking over power from an incumbent party, then I can assure you that the party will meet the expectations of the people.

Like you said, it is only proper for people to be patient and watch the government perform. I have said it over and over that the only miracle worker in the world is God; so, the people should not expect miracles.

But I have said it many times that the APC-led administration would live up to the expectations of Nigerians.

Even when the party knew about the Augean stables before making bogus promises?
We are committed to the promises made, but fulfilling these promises would not be in one fell swoop. It would not be overnight. Of course, we have the political will, the zeal and commitment to make these things happen, but it has to be gradual. The APC-led administration would not fail to take decisions, no matter how difficult such decisions are, for as long as they are well-thought out and in the best interest of the people.

What is Buhari bringing to the table, which sectors need his immediate attention and how is he going to achieve these goals with all the politicking going on over power sharing?
As we said in the course of our electioneering campaigns and as we had it in our manifesto; we promised three pronged issues. Firstly, corruption has to be tackled because it is a weapon of mass destruction; it affects everybody and the society at large. So, we need to tackle it to save money that would be ploughed back into the system to make the projects that have been promised the people implementable.

The second thing is insecurity. No investor wants to invest in an insecure environment, whether the investors are local or foreigners. They want to be sure that the environment where they want to invest is secure. So there is need for us to tackle insecurity and that would be done. Then number three thing is the economy. We need to really revamp the economy. Insecurity, corruption and economy are intertwined because one affects the other, if the environment is not secure, the economy would not improve. If you don’t tackle corruption again, the economy cannot improve. In fact, corruption is even a factor in insecurity as well, because you won’t have known that so much monies was budgeted for security and you begin to wonder where all those monies had gone to.

So the three are intertwined. Of course, when you talk of revamping the economy, there are key issues. Power is one of them. You heard the issue of subsidy being mentioned. What has happened to all the trillions of Naira that we claim to be spending on subsidy and, yet we still have queues on perennial basis? About $40 billion has been spent on power, yet we are not out of the woods. So, we have to tackle that. And you know, stable power has multiplier effects; the economy would improve, the industries would be revamped. It would make the informal sector –– the vulcanizers, the hairdressers, the mechanics and others –– to go back to their businesses.

The informal sector is a huge sector and helps the economy of any nation to grow. So, once power issues are tackled, it would then resuscitate the textile, and mining industries. Power is so critical and once the industries are working and the manufacturing sector is boosted, then you have employment, or at least, you would have reduced unemployment.

What quality of persons do you expect to come on board with Buhari, to deliver these promises?
Even before talking of the quality of people, you also want to factor in three elements. You want to factor in equity, justice, and fair play. Government has to run on the basis of inclusion, it is not a question of these people voted for me, these people didn’t vote for me. Having said that, you would also have to go ahead to enthrone merit, competence, ability, capacity and hard work.

So, you need all these elements in every appointee that would be on Gen. Buhari ‘s team. Once you have these, I think you can be sure that we would have a true new beginning. Mr. President-elect himself has promised that it is not going to be business as usual.

A situation where you just put people on the job, not minding or caring whether they have the capacity, competence and ability to do the job. The team would comprise people that have the ability and capacity needed to achieve the party agenda.