December 19, 2014 -Engineer Martin Onovo has emerged the Presidential candidate of National Conscience Party (NCP).
While presenting him to the party, Chairman, NCP, Dr. Yunusa Tanko said experience of the ordinary people since May 1999 when the conventional politicians took over the reign of power from the military has shown that nothing fundamental has changed.
According to him, governance has continued to be for the interest of politicians as opposed to the wellbeing of the people.
“Our people fought against military dictatorship not because they hated the military uniform but because they strove to enjoy political freedom and economic comfort, unfortunately, they have not enjoyed either”, he said.
Yinusa explained that the NCP believes that governance means being with the people, knowing their pains, abolishing their poverty and solving their problems.
“The NCP will practically demonstrate how governance should be for the people hence our slogan include NCP for the people, NCP .. the caring party, NCP.. Abolition of poverty”, he said.
According to Yinusa, the crisis of the Nigerian economy is rooted in the development strategy adopted by successive Nigerian government under the influence of powerful foreign countries and their international companies.
“We are in a country where poverty is meant to be an alien, but has been bedeviled with humanly imposed poverty. A country where averagely 70% of its citizenry are living below the standard poverty line is facing an emergency situation.
“The NCP if given the opportunity by the voters will go on an aggressive employment drive through training and retraining of our citizens making sure that our youths are employable.
He said it is a well-known fact that agriculture has not been given its rightful place considering the vast arable land we are graciously blessed by God.
“We shall ensure that 10% of our people can feed the entire nation through agriculture and creating a chain of other related jobs. Our government will ensure that our economy is genuinely diversified and export based through our farm produce and the available mineral resources. The NCP shall create a National Research and Development (R&D) Center for employment generation
“We shall ensure that the health sector is properly managed to reduce mortality rate. Pharmaceutical research institutes will be empowered to develop drugs. More health centers will be built and more health workers trained to ensure that we have a healthy nation. It’s a known fact that, a large chunk of our doctors are lost to other nations where favourable conditions of service are available and the rules of engagement are respected. This is an ugly trend and shall be reversed.
“Comfortable housing means a comfortable workforce and by extension a high productivity. We shall wipe out the squatter syndrome that has existed for years. Our citizens must be treated with dignity in terms of comfortable and affordable housing. In this light, we hereby state that we are resolute on the provision of housing for every strata of the Nigerian society if we are given the opportunity to serve the nation. We shall make it a policy that, before houses are publicly built, there shall be provision for power, pipe borne water, health facilities and telecommunication facilities.
“Our best brains are in other climes seeking greener pastures due to poor conditions of service, non-payment of salaries, legitimate strikes, and the insensitivity of government to the plight of the sector.
“It’s natural that men leave the home front for women to manage and if the girl (would-be mother) is neglected educationally, then we should expect that, we will have poorly trained youths and by extension the social vices that we are experiencing may double.
“The research units of all our tertiary institutions shall be properly and adequately funded. We shall encourage the automatic employment of the best brains in both our secondary and tertiary institutions.
“It has become a norm in the present day Nigerian society that people have resigned to providing their water requirements for their families. This is unacceptable. We shall aggressively utilize our water resources to promote hygienic life style. This is to avert the many water-borne diseases ravaging our communities. We shall go into the construction of dams for both hydro power generation and irrigation facilities
“For every goal of industrialization to be achieved, stable power generation is a sine qua non. The high cost of doing business in Nigeria is as a result of poor electricity supply and as a consequence, the attendant constant closing down of companies as witnessed in the textile industry.
“We shall explore all the sources of power like hydro, geo thermal, solar, wind, nuclear, waste conversion, tidal waves, gas and many more to generate power having in mind the locational abundance regionally.
“The daily insecurity of our people calls for concern. We shall ensure that going forward, Nigerians will sleep with their two eyes closed. There shall be massive retraining and recruitment of security personnel to protect life and property of our people. The territorial integrity of our borders will be secured by a well motivated military.
“Fellow comrades, its easy to achieve the above mentioned programs of the NCP if voted into power. We are highly privileged in the choice of our candidate who has a great wealth of experience. He has over 23yrs years of experience in the engineering sector both in the USA, Europe and Nigeria and also he was trained both home and abroad”, he said.
In his acceptance speech, Onovo said the NCP will improve Intelligence, Surveillance, Response Time and Capacity.
“We will restore the pride and the effectiveness of our armed forces. We will robustly confront and expel Boko Haram from our territory if they do not surrender after a stern warning. We will correct the social weaknesses that result from bad governance that led to the Boko Haram insurgency and increased crime rate all over Nigeria.
“The Police will be made more professional and the NSCDC will be motivated, trained and equipped for improved performance. We know and hear of unimaginable corruption and ineffectiveness. We hear of $20B missing oil revenue, we hear of one of the highest ‘Road fatalities per year’ in the world, we hear of crude oil theft, we know of the kidnapped Chibok girls, we know of subsidy fraud, we hear of six legislators suspending over 20 of their colleagues, we know of our Governors and Ministers going abroad for medical care, we know of our ~70% poverty rate (despite our national wealth), we know of our national debt and looming debt crisis, etc.
“We know we can do better with good governance. That is what we in the National Conscience Party (NCP) promise our Nigerian people. I accept to lead Nigeria with your support to a new dawn if elected President in 2015’, he said.
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