By Daniel Kanu
Alhaji Abdulganiyu Galadima has emerged as the running mate to the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili.
Ezekwesili announced this on Wednesday in Ilorin, Kwara State, where she also unveiled her manifesto.
Galadima is the chairman and former presidential candidate of the ACPN.
A statement from Ezekwesili’s campaign organisation – HOPE 2019 – on Galadima read:
“He is businessman, an effective administrator, a political leader, a seasoned community builder and political leader born on the 11th of June 1964.
“Galadima has dedicated a significant portion of his life serving Nigeria through people-centered politics at the grassroots level – from the ward to the state and at the national levels.”
The statement added, “He studied Law and Public Administration at
governing council.
“As a businessman who is chairman of major business boards, he has private sector and corporate governance experience with a market-focused, enterprise, friendly government vision.”
On her part, Ezekwesili said, “Galadima brings to the Hope 2019 ticket an invaluable experience at grassroots politics at the state, local government and national levels. This experience complements my incomparable competence and capacity when it comes to socio-economic and governance issues.
“Like me, Alhaji Galadima has shown a long-standing commitment to the fight to rescue our nation by standing with people of integrity, including refusing to join questionable alliances and coalitions led and bankrolled by ruling parties in this election and in that of 2015, where he ultimately emerged as the fourth most popular candidate across the nation.
“Together, by the grace of God, we will work closely, selflessly and as a team to fight for every Nigerian person, family, community, ward or state, and rescue our country from the clutches of an irresponsible political class; lifting 80+ million Nigerians out of poverty and unlocking prosperity for every citizen.”
Meanwhile, the ACPN vice presidential candidate assured Ezekwesili of his loyalty and promised to work towards getting people’s mandate in the 2019 general elections.
Galadima, who described himself as a grassroots politician, said that he would join the presidential candidate to traverse length and width of the country.
Meanwhile, the ACPN presidential candidate has dismissed the promises by rival political parties, the PDP and APC as being economically insensible.
Ezekwesili, who said this on Wednesday while unveiling her manifesto, also advised Nigerians to shun promises that are not “economically sensible.”
She specifically faulted the proposed economic policies of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, describing it as “deceit.”
Ezekwesili listed areas that would be given priority if she emerged as the President of Nigeria.
“PDP is making promises that are not economically sensible. I looked at what the PDP candidate is promising, and I realise that most of what he is promising don’t make any economic sense. So please do not be deceived,” she added.
Among the areas she listed were security, economy, health, education, and poverty reduction.
The ACPN presidential candidate assured that frantic efforts would be made to increase the current 52-year life expectancy in the country to equal Singapore’s 85 years life expectancy.
She said, “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 will be able to afford basic things of life. We will 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 are emphasising on improving maternal and child related issues to ensure that we are not above Africa average in infant, child and maternal mortality. That will go towards improving life expectancy.”
In a bid to reduce illiteracy, she said her party would revolutionise the knowledge industry as the next source of prosperity for Nigeria instead of oil and gas.
On education and security, she said, “We want to make sure that human capital is the new economy and that education is the new oil. If we are 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.”
To tackle the power challenge in the country, she noted that similar intelligence used in the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in tackling challenges in the telecommunication sector would be examined.
She added, “Nigeria was ranked 14th most fragile nation in 2017. That means that any little thing can bring the nation down. But we will not allow that; we will work hard to make Nigeria a strong nation again.
“The Nigerian security architecture and systems will be made to work well during our time so that Nigerians will no longer die cheaply.”
On poverty reduction, the world-rated administrator said, “The ACPN will use workable policies to take at least 80 million Nigerians out of poverty. For instance, China took some 700 million of her population out of poverty at a point in time.”