By kehinde Emmanuel , ilorin
Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has lamented the current 52-year life expectancy in the country, saying that her administration will improve the status with calculated measures contained in the party’s manifesto.
This is just as the party unveiled its vice presidential candidate, a grassroots politician from Kwara state, Alhaji Abdulganiyu Galadima, in Ilorin on Wednesday.
The ACPN presidential candidate, who said that the party was determined to rescue Nigeria from myriads of its present challenges, added that the present security situation had made life so cheap in the country.
Dr. Ezekwesili, who said that present life expectancy in the country was unacceptable, added that the nation had what it takes to equal Singapore’s 85 year life expectancy.
“To achieve this, we have to improve people’s health condition and human security. In a way, everything that we will do to improve business opportunities for everyone, where we were targeting higher productivity and competitiveness of Nigerian economy will lead to improved income level for Nigerians. When you have better income level, you’ll be able to afford basic things of life. We’ll focus on improving our health system. Our health system today discriminates between wealthy and poor. The poor do not have access to quality healthcare. Our ACPN manifesto focuses on universalising access to national health insurance scheme for Nigerians, and we’re emphasizing on improving maternal and child related issues to ensure that we’re not above Africa average in infant, child and maternal mortality. That will go towards improving life expectancy”, she said.
The ACPN presidential candidate, who condemned present security situation in the country, said that primacy of Nigerian life is the epicentre of the ACPN programme.
“We want to make sure that human capital is the new economy and that education is the new oil. If we’re going to achieve that, we must keep our people alive.
This means that everything that has to do with their security will matter to us. We will not be the government that slacks in her responsibility and watches on helplessly while invaders take over our territory and kill our people with no consequences. It will not happen under my time as commander in chief of Armed Forces”, she said.
The presidential candidate also promised to deploy same intelligence used in the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in tackling challenges in the telecommunication sector then, to now tackle the nation’s power problems.
She told party members that the party’s manifesto was put together through data review and several analysis and promised to ensure that it is properly followed if Nigerians elect her party into office in 2019.
Lamenting that Nigeria has been rated as the 14th most fragile nation in the world due to insecurity and bad governance, Ezekwesile promised to overhaul the nation’s security apparatus and fight corruption in a clean manner.
“Nigeria was ranked 14the most fragile nation in 2017. That means that any little thing can bring the national down. But we will not allow that; we will work hard to make Nigeria a strong nation again”, she said.
She promised that if voted into office, the ACPN will use workable policies to take at least 80 million Nigerians out of poverty citing the example of China which she said had to take some 700 million of her population out of poverty at a point in time.
While lamenting the current 52 percent literacy rate in Nigeria, she said her party plans to embark on revolutionising the knowledge industry as the next source of prosperity for Nigeria instead of oil and gas
