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28 January 2011 By Alhaji Khaleel Bolaji
NEWS RELEASE: PDP, WHAT MANNER OF
DEVELOPMENT? The Shekarau for Nigeria Campaign
Organisation wishes to wholeheartedly identify with
the contents of the press conference addressed by the
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) National Chairman,
His Excellency Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, in Abuja on Tuesday
where he decried the dubious development strategies
being pursued by the Federal Government. Speaking on the PDP-led
government's decision to establish nine new federal
universities across the country, Dr. Onu declared that
"The ANPP is worried and indeed highly so, that the
right mix of policies was not adopted and the sad
experience of the past is being repeated. We cannot
have a situation where the establishment of these nine
new universities would only end up in the diversion of
resources away from adequately maintaining the
existing ones." Coming at a time that the Federal
Government has not made any serious efforts to rebuild
its existing universities to meet even the basic
standards obtainable in Africa, the new endeavor could
only be likened to a white elephant project.
Currently, no Nigerian university falls in the rank of
the 3,000 best universities in the world. In addition
to their overstretched and severely dilapidated
infrastructure, these institutions have been groaning
under gross under-funding, leading to long spells of
strikes that have truncated teaching and research over
the past ten years. Indeed, students in many federal
universities today are no longer sure of how many
years they would spend in the institutions before
graduating. To compound the crisis, the quality of an
overwhelming number of the graduates is, to say the
least, simply abysmal. The primary and secondary levels
of the educational system have fared even worse
throughout the reign of the ruling party. The majority
of these schools all over the country look more like
war-zones with classroom roofs blown off and doors and
windows torn away. Furniture and teaching facilities
remain barely adequate where there are any at all. Even worse is the perennial poor
performance of students especially at the school
leaving certificate level. For the past few years,
barely a quarter of the students nationwide make the
minimum five credits required for university
admission. Therefore, ensuring that the current
universities function efficiently is more important
than the political gimmick of establishing new ones. In fact, Nigerians could be
forgiven for assuming that the establishment of the
new universities coming at the tail-end of the
administration's tenure is not only a populist measure
but a venture designed to reward PDP cronies with all
manner of contracts that could invariably end up as
abandoned projects. After all, even by its own
admission, the government has failed to execute more
than 50 per cent of its capital budget for the past
twelve years it had been in office. This poor budget
implementation record is undoubtedly the cause of the
galloping poverty rate, extremely poor educational
standards and runaway unemployment ravaging our
well-endowed but impoverished nation. In view of all these, we urge the
Federal Government to have a re-think of the plan to
establish any number of new universities and instead
concentrate on consolidating existing institutions for
the remaining few months of its controversial tenure. We also call on all Nigerians to
rally round the ANPP which remains the most formidable
pro-people political party in Nigeria today. We must
all ensure that we partake in the on-going voters'
registration exercise and also troop out for the
forthcoming general elections in order to vote out the
clearly clueless and anti-people PDP regime with its
garrison-style politics of under-development. A vote
for Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, the presidential
candidate of our party, is a vote for planned,
purposeful and progressive policies that would surely
see our country walk out of the wilderness of
self-inflicted woes. It is a duty we owe ourselves and
the future generation of Nigerians. The time for
action is now. Signed By Alhaji Khaleel
Bolaji, mni - Director General, Shekarau for Nigeria
Campaign Organisation (SfN) 0803 618 9067/0802 721
9449/kbolaji1@yahoo.com NEWS RELEASE: PEOPLE ARE LOSING
CONFIDENCE IN THE FORTHCOMING POLLS The Shekarau For
Nigeria
(SFN) Organisation wishes to state that as the April
general elections approach,
Nigerians are fast losing confidence in the entire
process. From programmed primaries to a wobbling
voters' registration exercise,
the steps leading to the actual balloting are less
than inspiring. Even worse, the ruling
People's Democratic Party (PDP)
seems incapable or unwilling to take corrective
measures. The SFN is worried that, to date,
the widespread media reports of payment of inducement
in foreign currency to delegates at the PDP
presidential primaries have not even generated the
slightest interest of the nation's anti-corruption
agencies such as the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) and the Independent
Corrupt Practices
and other Offenses Commission (ICPC), even though no
tangible denial has ever emanated from the accused
camps. Similarly, the widespread hitches
experienced from the faulty Direct Data Capture (DDC)
machines and accessories have been traced to the
supply of alleged substandard equipment by contractors
at heavily inflated costs. In fact, some centres are
yet to receive any DDC machines as at today, with just
four days to close shop. Some of the affected areas
include many wards in Anambra and Nasarawa States, as
reported by the media. Elsewhere, there are reports of
corps members absconding from their units in protest
against non-payment of their allowances by INEC, an
agency of the PDP Federal Government. According to an
estimate, INEC may not be able to register more than
30 per cent of voters unless the period is extended
beyond the 29th of January. With the election time-table
already overstretched, the likelihood is that millions
of voters would be disenfranchised from the onset and
the resultant voters' register would be as contentious
as the previous document discarded by the new
leadership of the
Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC). Already, millions of potential voters speaking
through
opinion polls in the media have
become pessimistic and even apathetic. Many claim that
they would not go through such rigors to be registered
because there are no signs to show that things have
changed and that their votes would truly count for a
change. Now, the latest media report from
one PDP-controlled state states that the government is
paying out N50,000 to each of the 1,872
voters' registration
centers across the state. Even
though the Speaker of the
State House of Assembly
who made the pronouncement did not state the reason
for the move, it is clear that the party is trying to
influence the conduct of the registration exercise by
bribing the INEC staff. We sincerely hope that the
next thing is not for the compromised electoral
officials to be invited to write
election results from inside
Government House. The Shekarau For Nigeria (SFN)
Organisation feels that the best interest of the
nation would be served by replacing the
ruling party at all levels of
government in the April elections. The PDP, going by
the previous elections conducted under its watch, and
by its recent presidential primaries which was more a
coronation rather than a contest, may not give Nigeria
genuine democracy because it lacks internal
democracy. Nigerians' hope for change, as
championed by the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP)
and its presidential candidate Mallam
Ibrahim Shekarau, must not be
dashed even before the journey starts. We appeal to
all stakeholders in the country's democratisation
process to put everything in place to ensure that the
coming elections are not marred by booby-traps of any
sort. Let us persevere by registering as voters and
trooping out to cast the votes for a change in the
sorry state of our nation. Nigeria will be great! Signed By Alhaji Khaleel Bolaji, mni - Director
General, Shekarau for Nigeria Campaign Organisation (SfN)
0803 618 9067/0802 721 9449/kbolaji1@yahoo.com
Alhaji Khaleel Bolaji, mni is the Director
General for Shekarau for Nigeria Campaign Organisation.
Upon his written correspondence to
EsinIslam as
supported by both Bala Muhammad and Emu Brown of the
campaign organization, this news/press release has
been made available.
More stories about the Nigerian 2011 General Elections
and the Shekarau for Nigeria Campaign Organisation
have been posted on
EsinIslam by Nigeria's prominent international
writers including
Saka Raji Audu. To Read more about Mallam
Shekarau - the Nigerian Presidential Hopeful, his
achievements and visions visit
Writer Homepage Of Saka Raji Audu at: |
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